Bellingham Thanksgiving Century Ride – the details.
Posted on November 30, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Rides | 2 Comments
Well, to continue on from THIS POST:
The nitty gritty. We bicycled from Seattle to Bellingham on Friday. 118 miles.
It’s the day after Thanksgiving. 6am on Friday six of us met at the 24hr Starbucks. Bob Hall, Suzanne Hyphen, Margaret Hall, Ryan Lemke, Rob and myself. This is Bob Hall’s route and at his offer, the 5 of us took him up on it.
We rolled out about 6:30, going North on the Burke Gillman. It started raining shortly afterwards, and basically didn’t stop until Sunday morning.
Lucky us.
SKIP TO THE WHOLE PHOTO GALLERY
Route: U-village to Snohomish
Route: Snohomish to Chuckanut washout
Route: Chuckanut washout to Bellingham
The route was good. Flat trail for a good portion of it, with the wind to our backs when it was present at all. Even riding on the road, standard cruising speed seemed to hover around the 16-20mph range without too much problem. When we reached the end of the Burke Gillman we jumped onto the Centennial Trail and kept going.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhTqXB4F21Y[/youtube]
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2F1mcpRXFA[/youtube]
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First stop was a bakery in Snohomish. Tasty.
ROUTE: Snohomish to Chuckanut Drive
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihi84PBh4X0[/youtube]
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Front loading proved to be the best thing ever btw. Water proof bag with clothes and my book in my basket. Chrome bag with lunch and tire patching stuff basically weighing nothing over my shoulder – that later got strapped to the basket anyhow. Yeah. Beat the shit out of panniers.
We made good time on the Centennial trail – 18 miles in one hour. ZOOM. We were moving. We stopped at the end of it to put on real rain gear. It was evident by this point it wasn’t going to do anything except rain harder for the rest of the day.
Can you see how wet I am? Water on my glasses and in my beard. I mean, damn. Oh look, it’s Margaret the muppet!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rRGXN5-HeU[/youtube]
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_8kycmZ8QU[/youtube]
Check out the swans in the fields. Beautiful..
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sws4X9u0fpk[/youtube]
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Notice how my pictures get more and more blurry around the edges, the wetter the day gets.
Stopping in Mt Vernon. We were making really good time. It was 1:30. Lots of daylight. We were wet and cold but overall spirits were high.
And yes, seriously, upon leaving Mt Vernon I stopped back into the gas station and for $1.99 bought a pair of yellow rubber dish washing gloves and swapped my soaking wet gloves out with them. Happily. Was the best thing ever at that point. I’m not going on a road trip without a pair of them again. Even uninsulated and unpadded they were warmer, dryer, and more comfortable in that kind of wet.
This was cool. I just barely missed catching the sign on this field that says “potatoes”. The field is filled with seagulls in the mud there hunting for worms.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE_8Bs8OrI4[/youtube]
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There was all kinds of wetland birds. It was really pretty.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swHCM4o8De0[/youtube]
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Then we hit a major snag.
Chuckanut Drive was closed due to massive washout. They even had guards posted and we had to find a way around. We only had 1 hour left, and this easily added another 2 hours to our trip, making it 3 hours to go, at sun down. We were not pleased.
We were tired of pedaling in the rain, and now we were climbing hills trying to get un-fux0rd We then had a succession of small mechanicals at sun down zapping whatever remaining daylight we had available to us… yeah. It basically started sucking there.
At one point I was hanging back because I had a good light and Suzanne and Margaret didn’t. (I cannot emphasize how good it felt to have a good light in that sort of bullshit weather.)
It was pitch black and the rain was coming down in sheets and it was pretty dangerous. We came over a rise and Ryan and Rob were there and told me to keep going, and sort of took over for me letting me stretch out and put some speed on. Next thing I know I’ve been alone for 45 minutes and am waiting for everyone at a crossroads on the outskirts of Bellingham. I’m waiting 10 minutes, 15 minutes, waiting for Bob or someone to show me which way to go. Still nobody. I’m eyeballing not 50 meters from me a brightly lit, warm and cozy looking art gallery/espresso shop, when I get a call from Ryan. Apparently there was a turnoff about a mile and a half back up the hill I just came down and I missed it in the dark. Quick conversation and I decide I’m not going back up that goddamn hill and will just find my own way to meet them at the Boundary Bay Brewery.
I hang up from Ryan, walk over to the cafe, order an americano, verify I’ve actually reached Bellingham, and use their phone to call a cab to take me to the brewery.
Heh. Fuggit. Best $15 I spent all day.
We were tired. Everything was wet.
And then… THERE WAS BEER
We ordered a massive plate of nachos and a hummus plate and in about 5 minutes we killed them both and 2 pitchers of beer. Fucking annihilated that food. And beer. And then ordered dinner. Seriously. It was time to load back up on calories.
Here’s Bob and his invisible cock.
Jeez we were in good spirits. 11 hours in the rain. From dark to dark. 118 miles by gmaps pedometer. Fuck yeah.
After our lengthy dinner, we finally saddled back up and headed back out, this time to Cass’s folks place, on top of Alabama hill.
For the record, Alabama hill is a motherfucker. We walked our bikes up. And we have gears and are used to climbing hills and whatnot. I mean no shit. You cannot fuck with this hill.
Anyhow – Cass and E were here in town celebrating Thanksgiving with her folks and they offered to put us up in their basement and use their dryer and lalala. It was pretty much the best thing ever right then. Mama Cass is friggin awesome.
Boy, we were dead.
The next morning Bob, Margaret and I got up and Cass made us a breakfast of pancakes and eggs, and we sat around being generally cozy. Rob, Suzanne, and Ryan had gotten up earlier that morning to take the 8:30 train back to Seattle.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiQ3SlRU4Ow[/youtube]
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Eventually we three saddled up and headed into town to poke around.
Stopped at the Little Cheerful Cafe for lunch. Super cozy, good food, totally hit the spot.
And then wandered over to a coffee shop around the corner (I forget the name now) and read my book for several hours. It was luxurious.
Later, over to the Grand Ale House for beers with Cass’s uncle, a friend of Bobs, Alaska Mike. Afterwards we split ways so I could hang out with an old college professor of mine, to circle back up the next morning back at the Little Cheerful again for grub before catching the 8:30am train back to Seattle.
Wadda nerd.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9xJ8aARDDw[/youtube]
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoyZbs2QNHI[/youtube]
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II took silly pictures of myself.
The trip back was pretty, especially between Bellingham and Mt. Vernon.
And eventually, we all got home intact.
You know, at the end of it all, even that night, I didn’t feel like the distance was the killer. Yeah it was tough, but the rain and the cold and the having to reroute and add another 2 hours to the very last of the ride, these were the difficult things to get around. And they weren’t unconquerable. I felt like I wanted to do the ride again. It’s not precisely how I thought I’d feel at the end of that night to be totally honest.
Anyhow,big thanks to Bob, Cass and the gang. Was a good challenge and was a good weekend, but next time, let’s do it in the dry eh?
Onward.
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Thanks for posting the route!
No sweat. Thank Rob for mapping it.