MS150 Ride - Day 1: No Deer Left Behind

Prelude to a ride:
Friday was spent waiting for Philip's football practice to get done so that we could leave for McCall. We had everything ready to go. All that we needed to do was get the bike on the carrier (thanks Geoffrey) and head out to my mom and dad's house. It was going to be a late night and an early morning.

Day of the ride:
Got up the next morning after a mildly peaceful nights rest ready to go. I quickly got the Idaho Vandal jersey on with my tight biking shorts. Since the weather was warmer this year I did not put on the socks that I cup up last year to wear on my elbows and knees. Only thing left to do was fill up water bottles and head out. Steve (my brother-in-law) and I rode the short distance from my mom and dad's to the start of the ride at Camp Pinewood. I got signed in and we had a nice little breakfast. After breakfast we waited around for my sister Deb to come over with Philip and Victoria. We got our bikes as it started getting closer to 9:00. The team that Steve rode with was the second group to go so I was able to tag along with him and start out earlier. We headed out from the start past the high school and down to the main highway. We road towards and turned onto Warren Wagon Road. I have ridden on this road many times when riding around the lake in the past. I would not be able to do that this day since there was an ascent that needed to be done. As we progressed along the route I realized that I was traveling a lot faster than I had the year before. I felt great and and the bike felt great (thanks to Paradise Creek Bicycles for the wonderful fix up job). The pack started to thin out as some sprinted forward (Steve was one of these) and others fell back. I kind of stayed in the middle and followed two guys with Primal Wear skeleton jerseys on. We went past the 10 mile rest stop. They moved out ahead of me as we wondered along the road. I finally caught up to Steve when I got to the 20 mile rest stop. Got something to munch on here and then headed out with Steve towards the summit. Steve again decided that he wanted to race somebody so he took of up the hill. I remembered last year when I just accepted this and tried diligently to see if I could keep up. I failed at keeping up but that was quite alright with me, however I was reminded of something Rachel always says to me, "Dad you fail at failing". She is a funny duck sometimes. I finally made it to the summit and started the speedy trek (34mph) down the other side. Finally made it to the Burgdorf "Y" and got somemore somethings to eat. This year they did not have a packed lunch up here so it was get something and get back on the bike type of stop. Steve and I started out again to head back to McCall. 30 miles had tried to defeat me but it failed miserably.

Steve again wanted to catch somebody that passed us so he rode out ahead as we headed back towards the summit. I again did not mind as I wanted to see all the people that came towards me. There was one that really made me think about things. I thought, was that his IQ he was showing me as he passed by (yes, he did flip me off and yes, it was a 2C license plate). I thought, oh, well.

It felt great to get to the summit because I knew that it was a downhill trip from here. This is where I began thinking of deer. Deer that jump in the way of unknowing and unsuspecting bikers. I was lucky this time as no deer decided they wanted to have me smack into their side. The deer that I nearly hit last year must have warned all the others about the crazy person on a bike. I ended up making it to the 40 mile (20 mile) rest stop unscathed after reaching speeds over 38 MPH. I never really thought about what would happen if I had a blowout but I am glad I didn't because I probably wouldn't have dared trying it. I caught up with Steve again at the rest stop. I grabbed something quickly here and we were off again down towards McCall. Steve stuck around for awhile and then started cruising again. I marveled at how neat the area looked as I went by the Upper Payette Lake.

The ride from the lake to McCall was very relaxing. I kind of set into a grove and kept a pretty good pace. The after race lunch was being served at the McCall Brewery so I decided to ride to my mom and dad's house to grab some money for a beer. The meal was free but the beer wasn't. Oh, well. When I arrived at the brewery I wandered in to find Steve. We drank and ate and then headed to the house.

That evening we went to Camp Pinewood for dinner and presentations. We ended up getting dinner and a massage. The dinner was lasagna and the massage was wonderful. I really can't stress how wonderful the massage felt. We ended up heading back to the house after the massage and relaxed that evening.

While waiting for the massage I met a lady with MS that had volunteered to help out with the ride. We talked for a while as she shared about living with this disease. It is really hard to put into words how I felt after talking to her other then that I was renewed in my effort to help out.

After the massage that was so wonderful we went back to the house and rested for the next day.

Wednesday Evening Ride

Thank you so much Paradise Creek Bicycles for getting my bike running like a champ. It made the ride to Troy so much more enjoyable. I left the house at about 4:50 and headed to the trail. Saw a few other bikers along the way.

As I came upon the intersection with the transfer station road I noticed a young couple having some interesting difficulties on the trail. I decided to let them keep going with their difficulties as I don't think I could have helped very well.

There were quite a few grasshoppers on the trail. Some of them decided that they did not want my tires to hit them so they hopped out of the way. Others, however, decided that the tires looked really cool and wanted to get a closer look. Some of them even wanted to see what the spokes where all about and bounced off of them.

The chipmunks along the way kept their distance from the rotating grasshopper killers.

I arrived in Troy at about 5:30 and noticed that the reader board by the ball field said that the temperature was 96 degrees. I thought it was warm but did not realize that it was that warm. Thank goodness for two bottles of water.

The ride back to Moscow was filled with lots of little bugs flying right directly at me. Annoying is the word that I can think of only because it sums up the whole situation. I covered 26 miles an hour and a half. Not bad for eating 6 pieces of pizza earlier in the day. All in all it was a very good ride.

Tuesday and Thursday Mornings

On Tuesday and Thursday mornings I have been going out with a few of my neighbors to ride at 5:30 in the morning. They are training for the Palouse Sprint Triathlon. We usually try to do 9 or more miles. The rides have been pretty good and it is nice to have someone to ride with. This morning started out no different then the rest. However, my back tire started rubbing the frame and I realized that I had not tightened down the quick release skewer. I stopped and turned it over to straighten it out. This was not the last of the bike problems. At the turn around point I realized that I could not shift my rear derailleur out of high gear. Come to find out that the cable had broken in the shifter. Now to get it in to get it fixed before next Friday so that I will be ready for the MS150 ride on Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks to Lauren, Ben and Eric for riding with me over these past few weeks.

Harrison to Plummer and Back

Wow! What a great ride. The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is sweet.

Six of us left Moscow at about 6:00AM to head to Harrison, Idaho to get on this neat trail. Some slept on the way up. Must have been that early morning wake up call.

We started the ride at the boat docks at about 8:30. Very cool morning. Didn't know if the rain was going to come back or not. Wouldn't have mattered to us. We were so ready for this ride that it could have snowed and we would have done it.

It took us over 2 hours to complete the 32.2 mile round trip ride. We did a six hundred foot ascent on the way to Plummer. It was about 5 miles going up at a 3% grade. The ride down was fast and fun.

Fr. Vogel took some very good pictures of the ride.

Troy Day on the Bike

Got up early this morning and biked to Troy and back. Temperature was not to bad at 7 this morning. Did start getting warm at 9. I like this ride more then the ride to Pullman since there are more trees along the way and more things to see. About three miles outside of Troy there is a spot where it gets about 5-8 degrees cooler. It never gets cooler when you ride to Pullman.

On the way back home I felt that I could do another 4 or 5 miles so I rode over to campus and rode up past the Kibbie Dome back down to the trail I usually come to work on. Total mileage was 31.4 miles with a total time of about 2 hours.

Am really looking forward to the coming weekend since I will be riding with a bunch of others on part of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes (Harrison to Plummer back to Harrison).