Ouch! That hurt, and Bike MS.

Went for a ride on the 10th that was fun but I pushed a little too hard and my back decided that it did not want to go the full distance. The ride began at One World Café in Moscow and we rode out on the Latah Trail to Troy. Once we got to Troy we headed out Highway 99 to Kendrick. The descent was pretty fast and furious down to Kendrick. I think I averaged 38mph. This made up for some of the slowness that I encountered just getting to the top of the descent. After making it to Kendrick safe and sound we headed towards Juliaetta along Highway 3. Before getting to Juliaetta we turned onto McGary Grade Road. Wow, I thought to myself as we started going up and up and up. It was enough to just keep the bike upright and moving as gravity was trying to pull me back down the road. The view along the way was pretty spectacular but I did not spend much time enjoying it. The descent from the top down to Cherrylane Road was even quicker than the ride down to Kendrick. We crossed the Clearwater River and road along Highway 12 to get to Cottonwood Creek Road. We climbed to the top of and headed down Garden Gulch Road into Lapwai. The others rode the back way into Lewiston but I went along Highway 95. I tried to make it up the Old Spiral Highway but was unable to since my back started to really hurt and I decided that I did not want to put more pressure on it. I ended up calling home and Monica came to get me.

Wednesday night was a pretty relaxed Wild Wednesday Road Ride. We ended up going to Troy and doing several different roads from there. I didn’t get as much mileage in as I wanted but it was a fun time.

Today I rode up Foothill Road on Moscow Mountain until I ran into some pretty big gravel that I was afraid would puncture my tires. I made it back down and ended up getting a flat right outside of Moscow. I got the tube replaced and got back on the bike but decided to head back home after only 18 miles of riding. It was fun heading up the mountain but next time it will be using the mountain bike.

I registered for the MS Ride again. It is the weekend of September 13 and 14th and I am excited about the new routes that they announced. We start in Kellogg and ride towards Plummer on the first day. There are four different distances to do this year with the longest being 100 miles on the first day. The second day has a choice of two different distances with the longest being 50 miles. Please support me in raising money for this great cause. You and I can make a difference in so many lives. Here is a link to my participant page to be able to donate online. Thanks.

Lax on the postings

Been a little while since a posting has been done. Lots of commuting miles along with some 20-30 miler rides close to home.

The commuting rides have been anywhere from 3 miles to almost 8 miles. I like the ones that are longer since I get to see quite a bit of Moscow. I am going to try and ride every street in Moscow at some point either riding to or from work during the summer. I have been riding a lot down the main street of Moscow since they put in sharrows. Here is a nice video. Hopefully putting in sharrows will mean less bikes on the sidewalks in the downtown area.

I have done a couple of the Wild Wednesday rides so far this year. Most of the longer rides have been loops to Pullman and back on Airport Road or going out on Blaine Road and coming back on the Genesee/Troy Road.

I did do the Ronde van Palouse race again. This years race was a two lap shortened version of last years race. They took out some of the gravel section since there was some bad spots that and work being done on it. The potholes during the start of the race were the scariest part of the whole ride. I didn't have that much problem with the gravel except for a slow leak on the front tire that developed on the second lap. I was lucky enough to find someone that had a floor pump at one of the intersections. The extra air made the rest of the ride a lot smoother until I got nearer to the finish when the headwind really started going.