Tour de Fat is coming! Tour de Fat is coming!

Tour de Fat is this Saturday here in Seattle and as of two minutes ago I'm more excited than ever. This will be my 5th TdF in 4 cities and the 4th time I'll get to see The Reals. The Reals is one of my absolute favorite bands. They'll also be at TdF in Portland and Austin so check them out if you get the chance. I'm going to be riding the Volpe down to the festivities so I don't think I'm going to stand a chance at taking home a second slow race title but that's ok. What I will be doing is taking the big camera to capture all of the action and maybe I'll even drink some beers.

Dad - TdF will be near you twice, Flagstaff is huge beyond belief, 187 kegs last year. Tempe is a little more subdued, larger park and half the crowd.

Volpe, meet Volpe

Brought home a second bike this weekend. Tim handed me a fat check and his decade(s?) old Bianchi Volpe and asked me to get it road worthy again. The drivetrain is actually in pretty decent shape except for the chain. The needs include wheelset, cables, headset, and brakes. A couple other small things needs addressing as well and if there's enough money left the bike might even get fresh powder. The shopping starts tonight.

There's a single braze on half way down the down tubeon the right side of the bike(you can barely see it in the pic between the B and the I in Bianchi). Anybody happen know what this is for?


Late edit - Here's a close up of the mystery braze on.

Sean vs. The McKenzie River Trail

Me.
MRT.
This is a ride I've been looking forward to for a very long time. I don't remember the first time that the MRT entered my radar, but I can say for sure that it's been there for a long time. I got up early Saturday morning in Portland and headed South toward the trail. My goal was to find a group shuttling from the bottom and tag along so I could do the entire 26 mile length of the trail. I prowled the three lots I found near the trailhead to no avail so I went with the predetermined alternative. I parked nine miles up the road at Deer Creek and rode up trail from there. I was mistakenly under the impression that it was approximately 9 miles up to Clear Lake where I could replenish my water. I was also told that this ride would also give me a good taste of everything MRT had to offer. I should mention at this point that I had some very high expectations for this trail and in no way did it disappoint.

The trail started out buttery smooth and snaking between trees right next to the river. Within only a few miles the trail got a little further from the river and a little more exposed but the trail was no less fun. After about six miles or so I entered a lava field where the trail got a lot less smooth and the trail surface itself was quite reminiscent of the rough trails of the 'nix. To ease the trail pain someone had the foresight to place a couple of beautiful waterfalls and a pool along the most technical section. By the end of the lava I was starting to feel the burn and wanted to head back down but I was so hard up to see Clear Lake(and refill my Camelback) that I kept plugging away.

When I finally did hit the lake it was like a great weight had been lifted, I knew that I had been headed up hill for nearly 13 miles but dammit if I didn't realize how much. As tanked as I was it still took me an hour less to get back to the car than it had taken me to get to the lake. Net drop from the lake to the car was about 1300 feet but that made all the difference. Trail came and went quickly and at times I was riding like a man possessed. When the trail got smooth with just a slight downgrade I was just hanging on for the ride with a smile on my face.

Back at the car I had covered 25.5 miles and just shy of 6000 feet.

Singletrack.








The pool, and by the way, the photo is untouched, that's the true color of it.
I don't remember their names but here's the two waterfalls along the ride.

Clear Lake,
and my salvation.
Here's every bridge I crossed during the ride.









Best ride I've ever been on.

Period.

'nix news, ready for primetime!

So the cat's out of the bag, my parents are headed to Phoenix. My dad will be starting his new job in just over two weeks time while my mom hangs back to sell the house. Dad also started a blog of his very own, apparently inspired by mine. Should be interesting, I'm looking forward to following his biking adventures in my former stomping grounds.

Say hello when you see them.

Commuting by bike

Not me, but Michele. She's on her second rotation at the main hospital much closer to home. Yesterday she rode in but wasn't feeling the ride home at 1am so after work and the Simpsons movie I dropped the Element a couple blocks away so she could just load up her bike and drive home.

Today she's riding both ways, I rode in with her at 5 and she ride home alone at 5 tomorrow morning. After getting her to the hospital I rode back home by way of Burke-Gilman to Fremont then up to Phinney Ridge.

Me and my lady.

Bye, bye lady.

Doesn't seem like a good thing.

Fremont Troll.

Almost home.

Starting to put together the weekend plans. I'll be headed South to hit a trail that's been on the top of my to do list for a long time. Any guesses?

Snoqualmie Middle Fork

Hit the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River today. Great trail that only a few years ago was opened up to mountain bikes. The trailhead is nine miles down a gravel road just East of North Bend. I think bringing the camera along was a big mistake, the hardest part of the ride was resisting the temptation to stop and take pictures every two minutes.

Beautiful suspension bridge right out of the parking lot.


Sweet, sweet single track.



Loads of these little waterbars scattered all over the place. Very fun part of the ride, I love going up and down these things.


I'd guess there's a good tenth of a mile of boardwalk along the trail, nice and smooth.

Except of course where damaged by last winters storms.






Do I look completely tanked?

I rode 11.5 miles and somewhere between 2700 and 3900 vertical feet depending on the data source. Definitely a place I need to return to before it gets shut down for the year.