MS Ride 2013

Friday, September 13th, 2013

On Friday before the MS Ride, Pam arrived at the house and I got all of my stuff loaded into her rig. The first destination of the day would be Plummer, where I would get on the bike and ride to Kellogg on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.

It felt great to get on the bike and head down the trail on a very nice end of summer day. Joe didn’t get on the bike for this trip since I wanted to make sure that he was all rested for Saturday and Sunday. About 5 miles out of Plummer a whitetail deer went bounding across the trail and headed up the hill. Seeing the deer made me think of all the other wildlife that I could see along the trail. I expected to see a moose or heron as I made my way towards Harrison, but I only saw a small turtle right in the middle of the trail. I stopped and got it to move off to the side of the trail so that it did not get run over by others riding on the trail. I stopped at the bike shop in Harrison to get my tires pumped up and then got back on the trail.

The rest of the way to Kellogg was free of any life form other than the occasional biker or walker. All I needed was some food and sleep to get ready for the first day of the MS Ride.

Saturday, September 14th, 2013

Pam and I got ready to go and Joe was placed on the handle bar of the bike. We got to Mullan with plenty of time to get signed in and find out where we needed to be. Pam checked in with the person that was in charge of the volunteers to let them know that she was ready to take pictures of the event. We hung out in the parking lot and got to know a lot of the other riders. The weather was going to be nice for the ride. At 9:45 we were set free to ride on the trail.

Pam was at the first rest stop. I stopped and chatted with the volunteers, got some water, stocked up on food, and headed down the trail. This routine would be repeated several times along the trail as the rest stops were spaced out at about 15 mile intervals. It was fun to be able to relax a bit and chat with everyone before getting back on the bike. I did not bring my Camelback backpack this year, so filling up water bottles at the rest areas was important.

Lunch was served in Cataldo. Pam and I sat down for a nice little meal and some good conversation. After lunch it was refill bottles and get on the bike time. Trip to Harrison and up to Plummer was very nice and I saw a Woolly Bear caterpillar and a blue heron along the way. Others reported seeing moose and coyote in several places. I must have been the only one to not see any, even though I was looking all over place for them.

I took a shower when I got to the school in Plummer and then cheered on the rest of the riders as they came in. After everyone arrived we headed to the casino for the banquet. The food was very good and the people that talked during the presentations did a very good job. The presentations really drove home why I ride for the MS Society. The talks of how MS affects people differently but how those people are committed to not letting the disease get them down reminded me of all of the people with MS that I ride for: Susie Kaus, Michelle Jacobi, Samantha Martin, Mike Moe, Chris Nettleton, and Brandt Elwell. Their drive and determination lead me on even though I want to stop riding my bike because my hind end is sore.

After the banquet was done, Pam and I went back to the school to get some sleep since Sunday was going to be arriving and we needed some rest.

Sunday, September 15th, 2013

Pam, one of the other cyclists, and I got up and made our way from the school to the casino for breakfast. I ate a light meal since I did not want to get too much grease in the system and get a stomach ache.
After breakfast it was back to the school to get ready for the ride back to Mullan. We needed to get Pam’s rig all packed up with all of our stuff. After getting done with the packing it was time to get the bike and head out on the trail. Quite a few riders had already started out earlier and by the time I got to Harrison I had passed most of them. I was setting a pretty good pace and Joe’s beard was pretty messed up from the wind. I did make sure to stop at the rest stops and fill my water bottles since it was a warm day out.

Still no signs of moose along the trail, but I did see a few more Woolly Bear caterpillars along the way out of Harrison. The trees were starting to show signs of fall coming on. The colors and the leaves on the trail made it so marvelous to ride. The sound of crunching under the tires was music to my ears as I rode along.
Made it to Mullan ahead of everyone and called Pam to let her know that I had made it. I then started out for the trip back to Cataldo. I waved at all the other MS riders as they came towards Mullan.

In Cataldo I sat down on one of the metal benches to wait for Pam to arrive. As I waited there another biker who I knew stopped to chat with me. After talking for a few minutes a moose finally decided to appear in the trees about 100 feet away. We wanted to get a picture so we moved along the trail and all of the sudden the moose got spooked and came right towards us. We made a bee-line to the bench to use it as protection. We did not have to worry too much since the moose decided to head away from us into the trees by the road. Pam arrived not long after the moose and I got the bike on the back of her rig and we headed down the road.

All in all this was a very good MS Ride.

Back to school

Monday was the start of school for all of the college students. Sure makes it a little crazier trying to get around town. It is a nice feeling to see all of the new and returning students. Tomorrow is the time for the two high school aged kids to go back to school. They seem so excited about it.

Went to the Mount Spokane Hill Climb on Sunday to volunteer at the top of the mountain. That is one steep climb to the top. I will have to do it next year.

It has basically been a commuting type of ride since the last entry. Sometimes there are extra rides thrown in but not very many long ones. Hope to get in another couple of long ones by the end of the month.

In a little over two weeks is the MS Ride on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. I am really getting excited about this ride. It will truly be a different experience for me to do this ride. Here is the link to my page for donating to this wonderful cause: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/WAIBikeEvents?px=4939697&pg=personal&fr_id=21147. Thanks to all who have donated.

Riding and more riding

The rest of June was spent mostly commuting to work. Did get a few longer rides in but nothing too crazy. Ended up with almost 500 miles at the end of the month. I did encounter one problem with the Vandal bike that needs attention. The rear wheel had the axle break on it sometime during the month.

July started with the usual heat that made riding not very fun. We did go down to McCall and Warren over the 4th and I was able to get in some good riding with the mountain bike in the dredge ponds and one of the old jeep trails. Steve and I had a pretty good ride on the Schissler Creek Trail. We were heading down the backside when we realized that we would need to climb back out to get back to the cabin. We turned around and headed back up the trail to get to the cabin.

I have ridden the MS Ride in McCall for the past 5 years and we have always turned around at the Burgdorf “Y”. There has been a yearning to keep going and make it to Warren every time I have done the ride. This year I rode from the cabin which is located near the dredge ponds just a mile away from Warren to the Burdorf “Y”. It was a nice 17 mile ride on a pretty good gravel road. There were a couple of good climbs that made me work pretty hard.

Rode with Hector Picard on the 13th of July from Pullman to Spokane. He was riding through to help raise funds for a young boy who needs prosthetics. Hector is a double arm amputee who has done 3 Ironmans and over 70 triathlons. He is a neat individual and it was real fun to be able to ride with him. He had already travelled almost 3100 miles by the time he got to Pullman since he started in Florida. After we got to Spokane I turned around and rode back to Colfax where I met Wendy so that she could take me home. My tush was very tired from the 135 mile ride.

Got the Vandal bike back up and working after replacing the axle. Philip's bike had the same thing happen so he needed it replaced too. I am really enjoying learning how to work on the bikes.

I will be doing the MS Ride on the Trail of the Couer d’Alene this year since the ride in McCall is no longer being held. I just signed up for the ride and if anyone wants to donate to you can do it at my participant page. The ride is the 14th and 15th of September.

Two Weekends, Two Different Climbs

Saturday the 8th of June was a rough day to ride a bike. I was still hacking up a lung from the cold that I had for during the week. I had made a commitment to ride up the old White Bird road in the "Just for the Hill of It" challenge. The weather in White Bird was very good for riding a bike and I hoped that I would be able to make it with out any major issues. It was quite a grind to get to the finish and I just had to keep hydrating and eating as I went. As I crossed the finish I realized that I had better start replenishing my food stores. I was starting to bonk and a cookie and orange slices were what I needed to get me back up. It took a few minutes of sitting on a concrete barrier to start feeling like I knew where I was at. I then decided to go ahead  and cruise on down to the start. I fired up the camera and put it on video mode in order to catch the descent down the hill. It sure is funny how it is quicker to go down the hill then ride up. The meal at the start was very satisfying and I was sore for a couple of days after the ride.

On Thursday, Palouse Bicycle Racing (PBR) put on a cycling clinic out at Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI). They have a pump track out there that the kids could try. We also gave some mechanical and safety instruction to the kids. A fun time was had by all of those involved.

Saturday the 15th ended up being a cycling kind of day. First thing on the agenda was the "I Made the Grade" hill climb. An 18 mile ride with 8 miles of continuous climbing. Over 200 people started the ride with finish times starting at just under 56 minutes all the way up to almost 3 hours. I finished up with a time of 1:07'41. I was 34th overall and 6th in my age group. I felt so much better than I did the previous week. We did not ride back down since we needed to get back to Moscow to get ready for another cycling clinic that was being held at the local cyclocross course.

The clinic was setup to have some of the same mechanical and safety instruction but most of the time was spent out on the course. All of the kids enjoyed their time out there and I even heard that there were a few that wanted to have more clinics. Philip attended this one and he really had a fun time. He now wants to get over to the pump track at PCEI to try that out.

Sunday was Father's day and I did a nice 30+ mile ride to Troy and back. I ended up going a little ways further on the trail past Troy to see what the trail was looking like. They still have a very loose gravel laid down and hopefully it will get compacted more as time goes on.

Pinch flats and sick

Out riding the road bike a couple of weeks ago and pinch flatted the rear tire on a pothole on a street in Pullman. Did not see that coming at all. Jenna had a spare tube and it had a small hole in it that required airing up every couple of miles. Finally made it to Moscow and ended up walking the bike the last 2 miles home. Monday of this week ended with a pinch flat on the Vandal Bike as I was going into a parking lot. Ended up calling home to get a ride home as I didn't have a spare tube with me. This has taught me a couple of lessons so far:

1. Take a tube and pump along.
2. Make sure there is enough air in the tires (I did have the air down on the road bike for the gravel I was riding on).

I knew that these needed to be followed but it was one of those "short" trips that I really didn't think I needed to do this. I have been riding the Giant mountain bike with the trailer this week since I do not have an extra tube for the Vandal Bike. I now have more miles on the VB then I do on the Giant for the year.

I have been sick this week. Slowly kicking the cold out just in time to go to White Bird to do the "Just for the Hill of it" climb this Saturday. All I have to do is beat my time from last year and I will be doing good. I will be riding the new bike this year so that will help in getting me to the top faster. Another thing that will help is the number of miles I have ridden so far this year.

Late as usual and dogs

It sure has been a little while since the last update. Need to get better at doing these.

Mostly the riding has been between home and work with the occasional longer ride thrown in. That last few long rides have been to places on the Palouse that I have never really been before. Both times there have been dogs that have wanted to get in on the act. I am sure glad that they have not been so aggressive that one of us ends up being gnawed on. Today, there were three dogs that came out to do that chase. The ride was very intense anyway with a lot of gravel sections and some monster climbs. Saddle Ridge Road was one of the roads that we took and it has a couple of epic climbs along the way. The first climb gets a max of 12 percent at one point while the second has a climb of 20 percent. Heart and breathing were really getting a good workout during both of those. The nice thing about climbing is the trip back down. That is what makes it all worth while.

I guess it is Spring and Ronde van Palouse

It has been mostly commuting mileage on the bikes. I have been riding either the Vandal Bike or the Giant with trailer to work and back. I did do one long ride at the end of March with a small group of people. It was a ride on the back roads to Troy, Moscow on the trail, Pullman on airport road, and back on the trail to Moscow. I put in a good 50 miles that day.

Road Race Ronde van Palouse Style

The Ronde van Palouse Road Race happened on the 13th of April and it is a very hard race to have as your first race. This race was so brutal that it could be used to get prisoners to spill the beans. I don’t know how many times I was willing to take the blame for things when the wind would come up and toss me around. This was 16 miles of hoping that you could make it to the finish line so that you could do another lap of torture. I have ridden in wind before but it seemed like the wind was taking this ride very personally. It seemed like something had made it mad and it wanted to show us who was boss. There was going to be no prisoners and a lot of anguish. The wind knob was turned to 11 and we were going to suffer for it. Not only did the wind have some fun but there were also bouts of snow and hail when you really did not need them to show up.

There was some interesting scenery along the route. The cemetery at the half way point was a grim reminder of the suffering going on. I kept wondering when the workers were going to show up to start digging new graves. Mt. Hope was the name of the cemetery and the little church located right nearby. The snow that I could see gathering in the mountains really made me feel glad that the snow that was falling was not sticking where we were riding.

I did have fun during the race and was glad to finish 46th out of over 50 people in the CAT 4/5 group.


Ronde van Palouse,
Nothing to lose,
Windy, Snowy, Windy, Pain,
At least there was no rain


The Northwest Collegiate Cycling Championships are coming up this weekend and I will be helping out by driving one of the lead cars for the “C” class of racers. After I get done doing that then that afternoon there will be a citizen’s road race that will do the same route that the college racers just did that morning. The road race is located in Palouse, WA and it is a 23 mile loop. I will be doing the loop twice for a fun filled 46 miles of racing.

Spring?

I guess Spring is here. Didn't really notice it with all the wind, snow, and sleet the past week or so.

I have been commuting on the Vandal bike for the past couple of weeks. The usual commuter bike is in the garage getting some much needed repairs. I replaced one of the bearing sets in the bottom bracket and need to clean out all the road grime from the rear derailleur. I was expecting it to be a hard job to get the crank arms off but it goes much easier with the right tool.

Racing season starts in a couple of weeks with the Ronde van Palouse near Spangle, WA. 10 miles of pavement and 6 miles of gravel. I will get to do 3 laps of the course since I am starting out as a CAT 5 racer.

Not many long rides have happened so far this year. Been mostly getting in the usual commuting miles. Farthest ride has been over 15 miles a couple of times. Really need to get out and get more in during the next few weeks. Did skip a weekend of riding in February and March due to other important things happening in life. The cold winds really make it not very condusive to riding but that is where I need to just bundle up and get going.

2012, what a year + goals for 2013

2012 was quite the biking year for me. I rode over 5100 miles on the three different bikes that I own. Bike number one is a Giant Rincon that I have had since it was new. I put 2215 miles on it this year mostly commuting to work. Bike number two is the Vandal road bike (Panasonic frame) and I ended up riding that a total of 1783 miles this year. In July my sisters bought me bike number 3, a new GT Series 3 road bike, which I put a total of 1177 miles on.

Some statistics for the year:

• Longest ride - 103 miles on the first day of the MS Ride in August
• Most miles in a month - August with 820 miles
• Total days ridden - 327
• Total hours ridden - 378
• Total rides - 658 for an average of 1.8 rides per day
• Total calories burned - 239,900
• Total commuting miles - 2118
• Total road miles - 3046

As 2013 starts I am reminded of resolutions. I resolve to ride my bikes and take good care of them. I resolve to set some cycling goals for the coming year and have fun achieving them.

Goal 1: Ride at least 5000 miles again.

Goal 2: Spend time learning how to work on bikes and start fixing up the cruiser bike.

Goal 3: Get the paperwork in for the local cycling club, get my USA Cycling license, and do some racing.

Goal 4: Whitebird Hill Climb (Whitebird), and the I Made the Grade Climb (Lewiston)

Goal 5: Get some mountain biking in for the year.