MS Ride Day 1 part 1

Joe Vandal’s Perspective - To the “Y”, Burgdorf Y that is

Why do we have to get up so early? Sourdough pancakes do sound good for breakfast but 6:00 is early. Guess Deb, Steve and Bill want to have everything digested before the time the ride starts. Guess I will go back to sleep up here above the TV. I had to sleep up here since Lucy (one of Deb and Steve’s dogs) wanted to play with me. I don’t think I would have been able to handle the trauma.

After devouring their breakfast they started getting dressed in all of the tight fitting clothes they could find. Bill wore his Vandal Club Cycling jersey and the bike shorts that he got from the MS ride last year. I dressed the same way I usually dress and it is not tight fitting clothing. Bill then put me on the strap of his Camelbak water pack so that I would be able to watch where we were going on the ride.
Deb, Steve, Bill and I rode over to the starting area at Alpine Village at about 7:30. Other riders were already there and more were filtering in. As we wandered around the parking lot we met Lori from the College of Education. They had a pretty neat rack of new Trek road bikes that Bill and Steve went over and drooled over. I got a few questions about why I was riding along. Bill said that it was for the fun of it. I started to wonder what fun it was going to be riding along hanging from a strap. I would suppose it would be easier than trying to ride the bike myself.
With about 5 minutes to go everyone gathered near the starting area to listen to final instructions for the ride. All I remember was: right, right, right, left, left and follow the motorcycle. 10, 9, 8 … 2, 1, GO! Right, right, left, OOPS! Motorcycle heading back the way we came. A lady drops her bike in the middle of the road and Bill heads through the dirt to bypass all of the chaos. The motorcycle gets back on track. Bill and a few others fall in behind him.

It sure does feel nice to have the cool air flowing through my beard as we head out on the ride. This part will take us past the airport and then across Highway 55 to Spring Mountain Ranch. There is not very much traffic so we do not have to wait very long at the light to cross the highway. Spring Mountain Ranch is a subdivision in McCall near the golf course. It is a nice area to ride in since it allows you to bypass the downtown area in order to get to the eastside of the lake. Our first destination was the Tamarack Bay Condominiums. This is where we were going to turn around and come back into town before heading up Warren Wagon Road to get to the Burgdorf Y. We made it to the turn around and headed back towards downtown.

Riding on the road through the forested area on this side of the lake was pretty neat. Bill rides this way whenever he rides around the lake. There is are few up and down sections along this route so it gives you a pretty good work out and you can get some good speed.
As we got near downtown we stopped at the first rest stop at Gravity Sports. All of the rest stops had a Hawaiian theme to them. Bill had a half of a banana at this one and then we were off again. As we made the turn back onto Highway 55 by the Hotel McCall we could hear cheering. It was Pam (Bill’s sister), Victoria and three other ladies sitting at the opposite corner. It was great to have somebody cheering for you as you rode by. Kind of made me think about the Tour de France and how loud it must get.

We rode on towards Warren Wagon Road with the shouts still ringing in our ears. We made the turn onto the road and made our way towards the “Y”. It was at this point that I realized that Bill sings and talks a lot as he rides. Never really sings a whole song, just kind of skips around and mixes them up. I can see why he rides alone. We were making pretty good time as we made our way alongside the lake. It is amazing the number of house and cabins that they have along here. Bill was following a couple of guys as we came to the first gravel area, (It seems that during the spring there was some washout damage in several spots along this road). As they got almost on top of the gravel area they almost stopped and Bill had to swerve around them to make it across. The bigger tires on his mountain bike made it easier to navigate across the gravel.

The lake sure looked pretty as we rode towards the north end of it. I should have taken some pictures but Bill had the camera in his back pocket. We came to the next part of the road that was gravel and it ended up being about twice as long as the last time Bill road along here. They had to fix two areas so it looked like they decided to do both of them together. We ended up riding on the left hand side since it was smoother than any other part. After making it through there we came to the second rest stop. We decided to wait here for Steve and Deb.

Bill grabbed some extra snacks to keep his energy level up. They had a nice variety of snacks for the riders. Since Bill was the one doing the pedaling I really did not need anything for the ride. Steve and Deb made it to the rest stop and rested for a while. After they got what they needed we took off. We made it to the third area for graveled road and made it across it just fine. Steve was in the lead with Bill behind and Deb behind him. All of the sudden, Bill had to stop to throw something off of the road. Deb asked if there was anything wrong he replied that he had stopped to throw something off the road. He then followed Deb up the road. Soon we decided to pass her to start the little climb to get to the Upper Payette Lake. This area is so beautiful. The river flows on the right side of the road as you ride along. Trees and brush all around you. Sun just starting to warm everything up. What a nice day for a bike ride or to be attached to someone who is riding a bike.

I noticed as we passed the lake that the road started to get a little steeper and wondered if I would need to get off to help push the bike. Bill seemed to just keep going with much resolve. It was as if he had done this before. He started singing and talking again and I wondered if this helped him. I guess I would have to ask him later. We continued on passing a couple people as we trudged up the incline. Bill mentioned that this was not as bad as the climbs that Steve and he did during the Three Summit Challenge. As we got near the Secesh Summit, Bill lost his watch and had to turn around and go back to get it. Velcro is good but when it goes bad it does not hold up to well. After getting the watch we finished making it to the summit where Steve was waiting. We decided to stick around for a little bit to see if Deb was going to make it.

After a while Bill and I decided to take off towards the “Y” and Steve would wait for her. The trip down the other side was awesome. We reached some pretty fast speeds and I felt pretty sure that Bill had everything under control. We made it to the Burgdorf Y with no issues and turned around there.

To be continued…

MS150 coming up.

The MS150 is almost here. A few more days and I will be heading to McCall to relax for a bit before the two day event. On the first day we will be covering 75+ miles. Steve, Deb and I might end up going for another 25 on that day to make it a century type of day. Still playing it by ear at this point and it depends on how my legs and tush feel after the first 75.

The next day is the 50 mile ride to Tamarack Resort and back to McCall. I doubt we will do any extra miles that day.

I am really looking forward to the weekend and getting together with all of the other riders that are raising money for this cause. I would like to thank all who have donated so generously to help out.

Ride like the wind and climb like a mountain goat

What a finish to biking in July. Went to McCall this past weekend to participate in the 3 Summit Challenge and hang out in McCall.

Victoria and I went down on Thursday evening to just hang out and for me to get ready for the ride on Saturday. Friday morning I took a ride out around the lake and up to the Upper Payette Lake. This ride allowed me to see how the Warren Wagon Road looked for when we ride on it for the MS150 at the end of August. I got to see where the roadway was washed out during some of the hard rains that hit the McCall area during the Spring. Two places are single lane and one of them is about 50 or so feet of gravel. The gravel may give the road bikers a little bit of a problem but hopefully they are able to make it through with not much trouble.

On Saturday morning Deb, Steve, Victoria and I headed to Cascade for Steve and I to get ready for the 3 Summit Challenge. At 8:00 AM we headed out on Highway 55 towards Warm Lake. The weather was perfect for this ride. Nice and cool with the sun out. First destination is Big Creek Summit, elevation 6594 feet, 17 miles out from where we started. I start the climb up at about 13 miles out and it is 4 more miles of pretty good grinding to get to the top of this summit. I am feeling pretty good as I go up this climb but I can tell it is going to be a long ride since I will have two more of these climbs to deal with. I get to the rest area at the top and get a couple of things to tide me over for the trip down. The decent is very nice hitting speeds of 38MPH while passing and getting passed by other bikers. Talk about an adrenaline rush.

The second ascent to Warm Lake Summit started at about 28 miles out and ended up being about 4 miles of major kick in the tush. I had to stop about 5 times on the way up to just catch my breath. WOW! Maximum slope of 11% with an average of 8.7%. This was getting the best of me. Finally got to the top of the summit and an elevation of around 7300 feet. Steve was there getting stuff for the ride back into Cascade so I decided I had better get some essential nutrients. I got back on the bike and started back down to go to Big Creek Summit. As I started the decent a chipmunk decided to come out and run into the side of my tire. I looked back to see if he was hurt but he just spun around a couple of times and rushed off of the road. I hit a maximum of almost 42MPH as I headed down the road. This was another adrenaline rush.

To bad I didn't save the adrenaline rush for the climb back up to the third summit. I ended up stopping a couple of times and walked the bike a quarter of a mile just to keep my calves from disowning me. I finally made it up to the summit. On the way down towards Cascade it started raining. The rain felt good as I descended down the mountain road.

This was a great ride and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.

With this ride I ended up going 677 miles for the month of July. It was a great month for riding and I hope that I will be able to get that much in August.

Weekend and Ramblings

Trail of the Coeur d'Alene

The Trail of the Coeur d'Alene is a pretty neat trail. Ended up biking 37 miles of it. 7.5 miles I did twice in the same direction. A blown tube was the main reason that I got to ride it again. I ended up getting a hole in my rear tire so one of the gentlemen that does upkeep on the trail gave me a ride in his little Mitsubishi pickup back to Harrison to get a new tire. Took about 45 minutes to get it all back together. After getting the wheel back on the bike I went back down to the trail to head out towards Cataldo. I met up with the group after they had turned around after about 15 miles. The weather was great for the ride. Kind of wished that I would have been able to get farther on the trail but I was glad that I did what I did.

Miles

So far this month I have ridden 430+ miles. I have not driven to work at all since the beginning of the month. I have driven on out of town trips but most of my running around town has been on one bike or the other. Most of my miles have been for just pure riding. I am going to try and do a century this month at some point. If I do not get it done this month then I will probably do it in August at some point.

MS150

And of course we can not have a post without the usually plea for pledges to support research and helping those with MS. On August 21st and 22nd I will be joining other cyclists from all over the state on a two day ride in the McCall area. Please help if you can either by donating money or donating time at the event. They are needing help in all areas to support the riders as they ride. You can either donate at my page. If you are going to be in McCall that weekend and would like to help out then you can go to the volunteer page. Thanks to all that help at this wonderful event.

Cycling

A couple of rants to end this:

1. Please do not ride your bike on the sidewalk at speed. If you are going to ride on the sidewalk please ride as fast as foot traffic. Bobbing and weaving is dangerous.
2. Please ride on the right hand side of the road.
3. Cars do not need to stop if I am waiting for traffic. I am not a pedestrian unless I get off my bike and walk it over to the crosswalk.

4th of July

What a weekend. It was a great time to go to McCall and spend time with family. Got in quite a few rides. Ended up going around the lake twice by myself. The second time was on the 4th when everyone was trying to get to the north end of the lake for whatever festivities were going on up there. There was quite a bit of beer flowing I am sure.

Rode to North Beach with Philip, Steve, Deb, and Rochelle (friend of Deb's from high school). Philip did very good. Thanks to Steve for teaching him a bit about how to ride on the way back. That is the most he has ridden in a day. The ride to North Beach allowed Deb, Steve and I to see what the condition of the road will be for the first day of the MS150 (August 21st). It was not to bad except for where a bridge is no longer paved and places where they put seal coat on the seams of the road.

Steve, Deb and I rode to Roseberry in preparation for the second day of MS150 (August 22nd). It was a nice 30 mile ride to see how the road was doing. The road was fine so we should have a good ride.

Pullman, Troy and Back

Baseball game at 9:00 with warm-ups starting at 8:00. The morning came quickly as I got to bed at 4:30 AM after a great senior party. Last game of the season for Philip and they won the game on a last inning past ball to allow the runner on third to get home. What excitement for the team.

Made it home after and decided against taking a nap at that time. It was bike ride time and this was going to be a long ride. Pullman was the first destination of the day. Other riders and runners where out in force. There was a slight wind coming from the west so it did not hinder my progress. The wind helped a little after I turned around to head back to Moscow and beyond. It was so nice to be riding without the usual threatening clouds that we have had for the past month. There were just little cotton ball clouds that would shade the trail every so often. Back through Moscow and onto Troy for the second destination of the day. I was making good time and feeling really good on the bike. As I started the downhill into Troy I came upon this little chipmunk starting to run down the trail. Tail up and trying to stay in front of me. What a hilarious sight. I ended up passing it. I was kind of worried that it was going to run right in front of me and become a casualty of a skinny tire. I went ahead and rode through Troy and to the end of the trail pavement east of Troy. The ride back to Moscow was a little more of a struggle as the wind had picked up a little more the closer I got to town. All in all this was a pretty good ride.

Sunny June Day

For once we have a sunny day in Moscow and I got to go for a good long ride. Went to the end of the Latah Trail outside of Troy this morning. This trail is so nice to ride on. Quite a few people out jogging, riding and walking. On the way back through Troy I stopped to see some friends and then headed back to Moscow. Came up on a group of people doing a charity walk on the trail near the cemetery.

In the afternoon Philip and I rode downtown and over to the baseball fields to watch the end of a game and then rode home. His new bike is working really well for him. This summer will be fun riding with him in the mornings. He can keep up a lot better with this bike then the previous one.

Latah Trail

Sunny day
Riding hard
Joggers and walkers
Bikers biking
Dogs not leashed
Watch the poop
End of the line
Turn around
Back home

Arches

Rock formations
Wind blown
Pictures taken
Arches and Balanced
Climbing up
Flying down

Leadville

High elevation
Twelve miles to go
Mining area
Nineteen degrees
Skiff of snow