The End, Almost.

End of the Latah Trail.

May is slowly coming to a close. Bike month has been a great biking month. Since the last post I have put almost 200 more miles on the bikes, with almost 100 of those miles occurring during this Memorial Day weekend. Two trips to the end of the Latah Trail in Troy have really made me feel good about riding. The wind has slowed down and the temperature has gone up a little.

I have seen some interesting things while biking the past few weeks. One day while commuting to work there was a mother duck slowly walking seven little ducklings across the trail. I came to a stop and let them go across while she quacked at them all the way. What a wonderful sight to see.

On Saturday at the 1 mile marker outside of Troy there was a wild turkey walking across the trail. It is so cool to get to all of the different things along the Chipman and Latah Trails.

A different pair of shoes has helped the ball of my right foot a lot. It has turned out that a harder sole is needed to take most of the force of the pedals.

With the end of Bike Month comes the pledge to keep riding and raising money for the MS Society. I am so excited about riding in McCall again this August in support of those with MS. You can donate online at the National MS Society site. Thanks for supporting me in this great cause. If want to help but do not want to do an online donation then please get in touch with me. We can work something out.

May and MS Ride

Been a great May so far. 200+ miles on the bikes and it doesn't look like it is slowing down. I figured out why the ball of my right foot was hurting. Seems that I need to move my foot forward when starting out on the Vandal bike before I try to get it in the toe clip. Took a ride out to Robinson Lake Park yesterday evening. I am glad that there was not that much traffic on that road.

I finally signed up for the MS Ride in McCall. It will be a great two days of riding in late August. Deb and Steve are going to be back at it again this year. Deb is probably going to kick my butt this year from all of the training and racing that she has done. If anyone would like to donate to this wonderful cause you can go to my MS Society donation page. Joe Vandal will be tagging along again this year. Thanks to all of those that have supported me in the past.

Happy Bike Month! Back to the Blog

It has been a little while since this was last updated.

So far for the year I have ridden 94 days out of 124 days. 77 of those days were commuting back and forth to work. The weather has been pretty interesting all of those days that I commuted. Rain, snow, hail, cold, warm, clear, overcast, windy, and any variation of those at one time.

The longest ride I have taken was a 27 mile ride to Pullman and back in March. It was a wonderful Sunday afternoon for a ride.

On April 21st and 22nd, Philip and I got the opportunity to watch the Northwest Collegiate Cycling Conference Championships here in Moscow and the surrounding area. The road race, a 23 mile loop, was held in the neat little town of Palouse, WA. I got to drive the lead car for two of the races that started in Palouse, went out on Highway 27 towards Pullman, turned onto Clear Creek Road, turned onto Highway 272, and went back into Palouse. Philip rode along and did a great job of being my co-pilot during the race. It made it easier to keep an eye on the road with him keeping an eye out for the cyclists. That evening was the Team Time Trial that started just outside of Genesee, ID on the old Highway 95 road. It was a blast watching all of the teams head out and then come back in full speed. On the 22nd, Philip and I went over to campus to watch the Criterium cycling race on the roads around the Law School. I have watched this a few times in the past but this time I got to stay to watch all of the races and from different areas of the course. These cyclists fly when they do these races. I get scared just watching how close they come to each other as they through the different turns.

I think the most interesting part of that weekend was the group of guys from Seattle University that we had staying at our house. It was a lot of testosterone and bike talk. Would have loved taking the Vandal bike out for a ride on the trail with them but they had to save all of their energy for the races.

Happy Bike Month!