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).

July and Bike Description

July is almost done and I have done just a little over 200 miles for the month. 21 days of biking for about 9.5 miles each of those days. Not bad for mostly going to and from work. There are a couple of days in there where I rode over 20 miles in one trip. I know that August will have a higher total mileage then July. The main ride will be the MS150 ride plus a few other 20+ rides.

I have a 1992 Giant Rincon mountain bike. It is pretty much the same as when I bought it. The only change that has been made is a Scott curved handle bar. I mostly ride with a Burley hard shell bike trailer on the back. This past week has been spent hauling an extra 40 pounds of weight in the trailer. I have a laptop case with several free weight plates inside.

Glasses

Nice day to ride the bike to go pickup new glasses in Pullman. Started out at 7:40 after dropping all of my work stuff off at the library. The Chipman trail between Moscow and Pullman is pretty smooth and has a gradual slope. Had a slight wind at my back as I headed down the trail. Made it to Pullman by the optometrist in 48 minutes from home (12 miles). The ride back to Moscow felt like it was slower since I was going into the wind. The bike trailer acts like a little parachute. I did make it back to work after another 48 minutes (9 miles). Just a little slower then the first leg of the trip.

The heat was really starting to come down when I was about 3 miles away from getting to Moscow. I was kind of glad that I had to stop at WalMart to pick up a tube for Philip's bike. It will be good to get his bike fixed so that we can ride to campus tomorrow.

The MS-150 ride is exactly a month away and I am getting so ready to do it. I just hope the deer are ready for me this year because I am ready for them. :)

Weekend

What a great weekend. It all started on Friday morning. Fr. Vogel and I biked to Troy starting a little after 7:00 in the morning. We did a total of 26 miles. We arrived back at my house at about 9:00.

Victoria, Philip and I went on a geocaching excursion in the afternoon. We went with some of our neighbors that are really into geocaching. We found 5 out of 7 that we looked for. Would like to go back out and find the 2 that we were unable to find.

That evening we had everyone over for dinner and played some card games while the kids played Rock Band. It was fun listening to the kids as they sang to the music. We did have to go in every so often to add to the voices.

Saturday morning was made up of playing several games of tennis at the annual 4th of July tennis extravaganza. It was a pretty warm morning and the tennis was very good. Worked up quite an appetite that was filled with plenty of food at the neighborhood picnic. Table tennis and more card games rounded out the evening.

Sunday was pretty relaxing other then going to the in-laws for dinner.

Mileage

Over the past year (July 2008 to the end of June 2009) I have ridden almost 1080 miles on my bike. The most I rode in one month was in August and that was 260 miles. 110 miles of that was during the MS150 in McCall.

All the biking has been a good thing for me. I must say that just getting outside and doing some activity is going to be good.

This Friday morning I will be biking to Troy. I will have a special guest on this trip by the name of Fr. Caleb Vogel. Fr. Vogel is the new priest at St. Auggies in Moscow. This is an introductory tour to show him one of the trails. The next time it will be the ride to Pullman.

Getting Prepared

Another summer is here and along with it comes more biking. I am currently getting prepared for the Bike MS 150 in McCall. Last years ride was very nice and inspirational for me.

So far this month I have made a 26 mile ride from my house to Troy and back. That trail is truly amazing now that they finished the bridge and paved the rest of the trail.

This years MS 150 ride follows the same routes as last years ride. Day one makes a nice ascent to a place called the Burgdorf "Y" about 30 miles north of McCall. This was the most scenic part of the ride last year.


The second day will follow a route south of McCall that leads to the main entrance to the Tamarack Resort.


I have a page on the National MS site for donating to this worthwhile cause. If you would like to donate please go here.