Susan of course has been spending a LOT of time on the computer searching for things. She has already scheduled time to have a hitch for a bike rack installed THIS WEEK! And has found just the right bike rack that has more bells and whistles than any I have ever known. Hard to think of a bike rack having bells and whistles but I will tell about those once we have the rack.
In the meantime, January continues to have stellar weather for cycling. About every year I tell Susan I would love to go to somewhere warm for at least 2-4 weeks during our cold and wet months. That would normally be January and/or February as we would never go away during the holidays and miss family stuff. This year, our driest January in 40 years, I am so happy to be HERE.
A ride to Lake Serene would be right for today. I always like seeing this “No Horses” sign at the entry path to the lake. There have not been horses around here for a very long time!
True to its name, the lake offers a serene moment to contemplate just how lucky I am.
I may have found notes that came in a corked bottle from afar…
Gottta be alert where you ride so not to run into/over any wildlife.
Finding some off the beaten path through a local neighborhood is always nice.
Along my route I pass by another body of water. Quite small this one, and I always like to stop and look at it for a few moments. I find it too, calming as well as picturesque.
As I round the corner onto the main road I stop for a Valentine’s Day photo of Beverly, named for the road he is located on — Beverly Park Road. He lights up at dark.
On another day I was not sure where I would ride as it is still in the freeze around here meaning a late start again. But the sky was blue and I must ride.
Staying closer to home, my photo ops would be slim. I took a short spur into the elementary school parking lot and was so pleased to find so many bikes in the rack.
I know that does not look like much when you think of how many students there are in the school, but still — temps in the low 30s at the start of a ride makes this seem almost remarkable.
There were even some mighty little bikes included.
Obviously there are some cycling parents around town. They bundled up their little and growing tykes, put them on bikes and either sent them off or accompanied them to school. The red Fuji in front is also a clue to cycling parents 😉.
Continuing on, I thought it was about time to take a photo of this church and steeple.
I pass by this local church on every ride I take from home, and now I thought it showcased the blue sky of the day.
Another beautiful day, another ride ;’-). A favorite ride that I do to the Milk House Coffee Shop has been curtailed during this freeze. Part of the route I do is on a trail, and that trail has about a 5 foot expanse of water drainage (from somewhere) year round. The water spans the entire trail leaving little to no space to even walk around it, and is in a shaded area. That makes a perfect storm for ice during these freezing days. I have avoided the Milk House ride.
There is of course an alternate way of getting to the Milk House that is on sometimes busy roads. This being Sunday however, I figured the traffic would be light and a good day to take that alternate route.
I started my route from home with the airport portion of the route and stopped by the museum of flight Renovation Center. A creative soul or souls, made this mechanical man who is displayed in the front window. Looking at him from this angle puts one in mind of Elvis — slightly.
Looks a little different close up.
This alternate route worked very well and, as I had thought, traffic was minimal on this Sunday. I stopped for a photo of what I consider an interesting house. You don’t often see a house with what appears to be a tower.
I often seem to show a photo of our Olympic mountains, but here I am riding toward one of the peaks of the Cascade mountains.
I arrived at the Milk House Coffee Company just in time for a potty break! And of course my tea and crumpet. 😉
Whilst my stead waited outside in the sun ;’-).
ADVERTISEMENT BREAK. I want to give a plug to this mirror I have purchased. I had seen it advertised a while back, and then got to see and ask about it when I rode with my friend Kristin who was using one.
This was my first time to use it as it arrived early this morning, and it is everything that is said in this review…
I agree with it all, and cannot say it better. The view is wider and I see more a bit further behind me than I did with the Take A Look mirror that I have used for years. For me, the additional positive is that it easily and SECURELY attaches to the helmet. You can look up EVT helmet mirror on Amazon and other sites I’m sure.
Back to our original programming — bicycle riding ;’-).
As days continue to be rain free and beautiful, my next two rides were just slightly ill fated.
Susan wanted to take the new car for a good long drive so we brought our bikes with us (on the new bike rack connected to the new hitch) up to Bellingham. Susan had found what sounded like a good 31 mile ride with little elevation gain, and we could shorten that if need be. All sounded so great!
However the two mile trail that was part of the loop gave us pause with rocks and mud. Very slippery and somewhat deep mud.
Let’s take this trail…
Whoops, sorry there seem to be lots of rocks here…
But look at this beautiful view of the river..
Beautiful weather, nice area along the river, but when we were not slipping and sliding in the mud, there were frost heaves caused by mountain bikers who had ridden here when the mud was softer and wetter. Those heaves could not be safely ridden across at this time of freeze. I was too busy slipping around to think of taking any photos! At this point we turned around and went back to the gravelly river site and had our lunch. Good lunch spot at least.
Not wanting to walk in mud for two miles, Susan found our return route.
We did travel in an unintentional circle at one point where I took at least one other photo for the day. Tumble down buildings always get my attention.
There were of course several other photo ops that I passed by on this day, but maybe another time. At least we got in a decent ride, the car is a dream and we had a good adventure ;’-).
My next ill fated ride was on the next day — the day of much frost. I thought 11:00 was late enough for the frost to, well, de-frost! I was wrong. I could have guessed this ride would be shortened by the beginning ominous happenings. Shortly after I started, I realized I had forgotten my under helmet hat. Since that is my second layer for my head, it seemed not necessary today. A little time later Susan had phoned and I stopped for that. All is well so continued on. As I rolled along, my saddle post slid down and I stopped to fix that. Somewhere along the way I realized I had not turned on my rear light. I stopped to do that. Then I came across frost that refused to defreeze.
Though I did keep on for a few more miles, I made the choice to live, and to be un-injured to ride another day. My route has a lot of shaded places and I slowed or skirted frost similar to this for too much of the ride. Will give it another try tomorrow by starting my ride even later.
With this post getting quite long, and with my desire to share about my new helmet mirror, I will post this one now and continue when there is more to share.
Adventures with Nancy 