Riding in the wet and dry

A couple of coincidental trips put me and my buddy Charlie riding about in Seattle and Albuquerque in the span of a week.

First there was some of this humid stuff.

Then some rainforest shredding with Charlie and his oldest

Then there was a bunch of this dry stuff.

Probably about 5000 feet altitude, 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and 70% humidity difference between the two.

Seattle weekend

So two weekends back I was out there in Seattle for my cousins wedding. It was a pretty busy weekend with a day and a half out on Vashon Island (here), non stop ferry rides to get out to the wedding site on the pennisula just north of bainbridge island and then some post wedding harbor cruising. Pretty fun stuff. Here is a photo dump...

Charlie, Elena and Me heading to Vashon on the ferry

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Yeah, strike a pose you handsome guys you!

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Well appointed raleigh outside elliot bay book shop...

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... where Elena and I met up with wenmei and her husband chris. My eyes were closed in all the photos except this one. Another one here on wenmei's flicker page. Yeah she is pregnant.

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Then Elena and I ran over to drop in on Kent at his workplace. Here he is folding his new dahon with alacrity.

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Elena and Kent talking it up in the seattle bike station. I loooove taking flash photos in bike shops. Kent's head nearly exploded after this pic he was reflecting so much.

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Me and downtown seattle on the bainbridge ferry

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A neat bike sculpture on the steps betwixt downtown and the waterfront

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My Cousin Keith trying to memorize his lines right before his nuptials

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Keith and Lauren all married and stuff.

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Keith was my second cousin in a row to get married in a place that had dead creatures on the wall. I am impressed.

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elena and me at the wedding

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A bike rack up on capitol hill

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Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmachiatto!

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Vashon Island Bike Tree

I was perusing Kent Peterson's excellent blog last month and saw this post about his visit to the Vashon Island Bike Tree. I thought to myself. Hmmm, I have a good friend that lives on Vashon Island, I have been there 3 times, and ridden there every time. Yet no one told me about this?


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Fortunately I went to seattle last week for my cousins wedding and I was able to spend a night out on vashon and get a good ride in the next day. So armed with directions, my buddy Charlie and I set out to recreate Kents blog post. We started with a long navigation around the island with a pause to meet Elena, Karin and Charlie's kids at the lighthouse beach for a picnic. It was cold and charlie and I were already near bonked from not eating enough pre ride. Then we made it to the tree.


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The directions on Kents blog are pretty good. Here they are again in case you found this page via google:

The bike tree is off of Vashon Highway (which runs between the Seattle and Tacoma ferry ports on either end of the island) on the northeast corner of the Vashon Highway and SW 204 St. intersection, about 50-60 ft (very rough guesstimate) into the woods on the north side of Sound Food Cafe.

Not too shabby, but I would say that it is less than 50 feet into the woods on a very well worn path into the woods. It is on the north side of the vacant building north to the Sound food Cafe, but we got there without being confused. The bike is only 6 feet or so off the ground, for some reason I was under the impression that it was 10-40 feet off the ground. I am not sure why.

Thats me and my buddy charlie

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The bike's front wheel actually turns still. Really neat overall. We ran into some Vashon Island water quality people in the parking lot and aksed them about the tree, none of them had ever been there before. So as we were taking the photos, first one, then two and then three water quality workers came by to check out the bike. I should have gotten a group photo.

We next stopped at the bay view exercycle brigade, where I got a few extra miles in.

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We saw a huge salmon jump out of the water mere moments after taking the photo.

We also went beyond the kent post and posed for a photo with the famed Vashon Island galvanized rooster mailbox:

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And then the obligatory post ride refueling:


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Coffee was good, pink donut not so much, but it was a good 30 + mile ride with some good scenery.

So very wrong in Seattle

I have been out and about and then back again. Hopefully I can get caught up a bit before the next trip.

I just want to say that I love bikes and like more people riding.


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I could not help smiling and laughing a lot though as I was wandering about downtown in seattle this fine Monday AM.


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Clearly a top tube pad is in order...

A Bike Day in Seattle

I blasted over to Seattle area for the long weekend for some visiting with friends and attending my cousin Keith's floating bachelor party. I came in thursday and headed out to Vashon Island to stary with my friend Charlie. Starting on Vashon Island in the AM I rode with my friend Charlie for a quick 10plus miles on the twisty hilly roads there culminating in a pastry feast and a brief spin around the block with his oldest son with the rest of his family watching.

Charlie:


Ethan putting out huge watts, while Karin and the wee ones watch:


Later, while Charlie went to work, Karin and I took the younglings to the beach at the vashon light house where we saw black bear foot prints. Apparently the bear swam across the Colvos Passage from the olympic pennisula to Vashon Island, walked across the island and then, most impressively swam from the Lighthouse 3 miles or so over to seatac. Bears, apparently, can do this. The lighthouse keeper informed us the sea lions hanging out on the buoy along the way were not impressed by the intruder.

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Then I took the ferry over to fauntelroy and road along the water over to downtown seattle. The view of seattle from Alki:

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I had a couple of hours to kill in Seattle before meeting Charlie for dinner, so I dropped in on bicycling superstar Kent at the seattle bike station. Kent gave me a sneak preview of his excellent repurposment of a dish rack as bike basket (here). Here is a nice reflecty photo of Kent helping a commuter with a nasty flat:

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Then a few of us absconded to the local coffee shop to engage in conversation. Kent, me and Brad, conversing madly at the 'geist (or is that the Zeit'?):

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I then took my leave and pedalled up Jackson to meet charlie for a delicious 7 courses of beef dinner at a vietnamese resturaunt near his work. 7...Delicious...Courses...Beeef...glarrrgh...

At some point on this trip, the styling convertacouch that Charlie had was by far the most comfortable place I slept. I think the 4 nights went: convertacouch-floor-(rocks/cacti+rattlesnakes-tent)-floor. Mmmm getting too old for this kind of low quality of sleep local weekend. . Hopefully some photos of the rest of the weekend tomorrow, stay tuned for fishing and fire.