Three Dumb Guys Camping in the Rain

A couple of years ago I posted a little story about "Three Dumb Guys Riding in the Rain." You may choose to consider this post a sequel to that story. You may choose to consider this post evidence that while I am getting older, I'm definitely not getting wiser.

Christine and Eric are back east visiting relatives and Peter is off at grad school in Alaska so this week it's just me and the cat in Issaquah. I have Sunday and Monday off from work, so I leave a couple of bowls of food and water for Purrl Grey and load up my bike for a quick trip to the wilderness. Somehow I've managed to convince my buddies Matt Newlin and Jon Muellner that this trip was a good idea.

I leave home in the early, dark hours and ride the 19 miles from home to the Seattle Ferry Terminal where I meet up with Matt and we catch the 6:10 AM ferry to Bainbridge Island. The morning is mostly clear and a wind from the south urges us north, over the island, through Poulsbo and up to the Hood Canal bridge via Big Valley Road. On the western edge of the bridge we feast on roadside blackberries until Jon rolls up.

Jon is our native guide. He lives in Port Townsend on the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula and we figured his local knowledge will guide us to some suitable camping spot. "We'll head down toward Quilcene and then take little roads up into the mountains," he says. "Sounds good," we say.

We head west on 103 and then south on Center Road toward Quilcene. The south wind is bringing weather up from the south and it's relatively slow going to Quilcene. Jon warns us that the local lakes have had toxic algae blooms this summer, so we stop at the local market for some water and provisions. We also stop at the Loggers Landing Cafe. It's before 11:00 AM, so we each have a hearty breakfast. While we're eating, it starts to rain.

Now you have to understand that there is nothing epic about this story. The wind is not fierce, the rain is not harsh, the terrain is not brutal. It's all not even really annoying. It's just enough to make you ask yourself "why are we doing this again?"

Maybe it's to see a part of the world that we haven't seen. Well, Matt and I haven't seen it. Jon leads us south out of Quilcene on 101. We turn on Penny Creek Road and then turn off onto Forest Road 27 where we climb towards Mount Townsend.

The views are probably pretty when not shrouded in drizzle and fog. We climb at a rate of about 1000 feet per hour for several hours. A bit of the road is gravel, but much of it is paved. There is almost no traffic here but at one point a car coming down the road stops and the driver asks us if this road does in fact lead to 101. Jon assures the fellow that it does and we continue climbing.

Somewhere about 4000 feet above Quilcene and 16 or so miles into the rain forest we come to a fork in the road. We also come to the realization that maybe deciding to camp in the rain forest on a rainy day wasn't one of our better ideas. Both forks claim to lead toward the Mount Townsend and Sink Lake trailheads. Jon confidently points us toward the fork that seems to go less up and promises us that we are within a mile or so of where we will camp.

This little gravel road winds for much more than a mile, a little gash clinging to the steep side of a mountain. We keep moving onward, avoiding the deepest puddles, optimism driving us around every bend. "We'll stop when we find anyplace decent to camp" we say.

Or when we run out of road, which is what we did. The road just ends. What continues on from the road end is an overgrown trail that, when explored on foot, yields no good camping prospects. We retreat back to the wide end of the road, where Jon wisely declares victory. "This is the place."

We all have bivy sacks and while I have packed a tiny tarp, Matt has a huge tarp which we quickly put into service. Despite being surrounded by forest, there are only a couple of trees that we can put to any kind of use. Jon scales one to secure one end of the tarp and declares the other to be the tree which will hold our bear bag of food in the night. The mountain and the trees pretty effectively block the wind, so a spindly stick, some cord and a single tent stake secure the other end of the tarp, while some more cord and branches spread the tarp out as a broad shelter. We even manage to channel the water running off the tarp into our water jug.

While these trips may seem like renunciations of the comforts of civilization, they are in fact excercises in the purest form of materialism. We relentlessly critique our equipment. My Kelly Kettle, Jon's stove and Matt's tarp are all declared to be brilliant. Matt decides his bivy sack is way too hydrophillic while Jon figures his old bivy is not breathable enough. I feel like the pig with the house of bricks with my REI minimalist bivy.

We have no great wildlife encounters, no spectacular stories to bring home. "You don't have to blog about this." "No," I counter, "I do. People need to know that these trips aren't all wonderful, gee that's nifty experiences. Sometimes you just have to go out to remember why folks have things like houses and heat and bakeries."

In the morning we pack up and roll down. Breakfast is great and it even stops raining for a bit. Jon rolls back to Port Townsend while Matt and I roll back over the Hood Canal bridge and back home via the Kingston Ferry.

This wasn't an S240 for me. It was more like a day and half with 162 miles of riding and some camping in the rain.

Jon's story of the trip can be found here.

I Bike For Pie

My favorite cycling event of the year takes place each August on Bainbridge Island. On Sunday, August 17th, 2008 I joined with a bunch of wise and hungry folks to ride my bike on a picturesque island and eat a bunch of wonderful pie. On returning home, Christine quizzed me about the food.

"What did you have?"

"A slice of pumpkin pie. And a slice of pecan. And a slice of chocolate creme walnut. And a slice of peach pie. And a slice of dutch apple. And then another slice of pecan pie for dessert."

"You had six slices of pie?!?"

"Well, yes. I restrained myself. I didn't want to appear piggish."

The ride itself features a fairly short, flat family-friendly route from Winslow to Fort Ward park and while the ride has no fee, the local bike club, Squeaky Wheels, raise funds by selling T-shirts and taking donations. Club members and local businesses provide all the pies and do all the work of setting up the ride. It's a great deal for everyone. Riders get a great ride with wonderful pie, the club makes some money and everyone has a good time. I paid twenty bucks and got a very full stomach and a t-shirt that proclaims that "I Bike For Pie."

This past week one of the panelists on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! commented about Olympian Michael Phelps' prodigious calorie intake. He observed "I don't think Americans are overweight because we eat too much, we're overweight because we swim too little!" I'm not much of a swimmer, but I do try to bike enough to burn off all those pie calories. I took the long, hilly way home, but I still don't think the 52 miles of Bainbridge Hills and Issaquah Alps quite evened the score. It's probably a good thing that the Bike For Pie Ride only happens once a year.

Jon Billman's Great Divide Story

In 2007 Jon Billman competed in the Great Divide Mountain Bike Race. His terrific story of the race appears in the August 2008 issue of Outside Magazine and can be read online here.

Bicycle Zombie Slayer

The brilliant cartoonist Ken Avidor has a great panel from "Bicycle Zombie Slayer" in issue #137 of Dirt Rag. Ken's book Roadkill Bill is a particular favorite of mine and I'm hoping Bicycle Zombie Slayer will also evolve into a full length book.

Nashbar Front Rack

While there are plenty of rear racks available for bicycles, front racks are harder to find. The Nashbar Front Rack works well for small loads and it mounts to the brake canti bosses. I've used this rack on various bikes of mine and my friend Matt Newlin uses one on the back of his bike as a saddlebag support.

Bike For Pie

The Bike For Pie ride is next Sunday. Details are here:

http://www.squeakywheels.org/#pie

Goodbye StuM2y, Hello Special Ed

Astute readers of this blog might have noticed that I have a bit of a fondness for bicycles. Long time readers may have also noticed that on any given day "my bike" may be in fact a different bike than the one I owned yesterday. Managing a place like Bike Works certainly provides me with lots of opportunities to experiment. Edison once said "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." Bike Works is the ultimate junk pile. My friend Mark Vande Kamp put it a bit differently, "you're like a drug addict whose managing a pharmacy!"

The latest bike out of the lab is what you see here. Special Ed is an old Specialized Stumpjumper but, as I pointed out to my wife, my personal bike fleet still remains at three: I have one road bike, one mountain bike and one folding bike. Special Ed replaces StuM2y, my previous Specialized Stumpjumper.

So why replace one Stumpjumper with another? Aside from the obvious "because I can" answer, Special Ed differs from StuM2y in a couple of ways. StuM2y had a red, aluminum frame with vertical dropouts. Special Ed's black, Cr-Mo frame has semi-horizontal dropouts.

Special Ed comes from that brief period of time when people thought putting a U-brake underneath the chainstays was a good idea. In hindsight it seems obvious that putting a brake in a spot where it can get bashed by rocks and gather up all the crud kicked off of the crank is a bad idea but a lot of crazy things came out of the 80's. At least Special Ed doesn't sport one of those neon purple and green Miami Vice paint-jobs.

Even before he knew I was building it up for myself, my colleague Dan Boxer commented that Special Ed looks "like a Kent Peterson bike."
Black tape over the most garish logos. Custom coroplast fenders stealthed up with black duct tape and set up for massive mud clearance. Armadillo tires. Front and rear racks. And just one gear. 46 by 20 fixed.

Riding fixed means I can gladly toss that U-brake in the parts bin. The deraillers and the extra chainrings and cogs go there too. The rear wheel gets re-spaced, re-dished and the 20-tooth cog got stomped on good and tight. Note that if I was building this bike for anyone else I'd probably either go with a real fixed hub with a lockring or dual brakes but I'm willing to trust my own life to my gear-stomping, lock-tighting and judicious use of my big old Kool-Stopping front brake. If anybody wants to know how to do this kind of conversion, Sheldon has a great page on the subject here.

I donated StuM2y to Bike Works Friday morning and sold it to a commuter about an hour later. I rode Special Ed home Friday night

Why Fixed Gear Bikes Are Better On Ice

We're in the midst of what passes for a heatwave here in the Pacific Northwest and somehow I find myself involved in an email discussion about setting up a bike for riding in icy conditions. I'm reminded that I heard once that Jack London wrote one at least some of his famous Yukon stories on a sweltering passage through the tropics and in that spirit I've extracted (with the permission of the other emailers) bits of our discussion of how Nate should build up his winter bike.

Nate wrote:

Fixed or SS?

Any benefit to either in inclement weather?

Michael replies:

You don't get that dérailleur thingy all covered in the omnipresent road grime.

If you go SS you can't join the Sunday morning rides out of River City Bikes.

Real suggestion: get a flip wheel and find out for yourself.

Kent adds:

Fixed definitely has the edge in dicey conditions. You know exactly how much traction you have. I blogged about that phenomena here:

http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2006/02/icy-commute.html

Note, this post predates my days of studded tire ownership. But the ultimate winter commuter would be a fixie with studded tires.

Michael then asks:

That would be because you're never not pedaling on a fixed. You don't think you'd get the same effect by never coasting? ie, is the fixed benefit because it's already there by default.

Nate adds:

I can see benefits to both ss and fixed in the ice. When approaching a known trouble spot, I like being able to approach it in a confident position and coast through it without changing position or momentum on the bike. Just passing silently like a ship through the fog.

But I can see the benefit of fixed for the overall trip. More instant feedback of what you are riding over.

The rear wheel I'll be using is a flip flop, so I'll try it both ways and see how it goes.

I'm taking my frame/fork in for a fresh powder coat this week and will begin building it back up, hopefully finishing before the weather gets cold. Because of clearance concerns, I'll probably go with the Nokian A10 700x32. Even though this is the smallest available 700c studded tire, fender clearance is still going to be tight, so I may be ashioning my first ever set of custom coroplast fenders.

Kent clarifies the fixed advantage thusly:

Michael, here's why the fixed on ice is NOT THE SAME as a single speed. First off let's assume that you actually never do coast your single speed. That makes you absolutely unique on the planet, BTW and leads to the question of why you bother lugging a freewheel mechanism along in the first place. But let's say you do that. Now let's take the case of deceleration, also known as slowing down. You can only slow by applying your rim or disk brakes. In both cases, the mechanism is the same, pads that interface with a rotating surface. Since brakes don't just stop you instantly (you wouldn't want them too!), the brake pads slide along the rotating surface. You increase and decrease pressure to control your velocity.

But (and this is the important thing) you have no way of knowing what slip you are getting comes from the pad/rim interface or the tire/road interface. So you think "hmm, I'm not slowing fast enough, maybe I'll squeeze the brakes more. If the slip is in the pad/rim interface, that will slow you more but if the slip is in the tire/road interface, you worsen your skid.

On the fixed, much of your velocity modulation is via your legs. Even when you use your other brakes, you get the feedback of your legs together with the action of the other brakes. This lets you do the same kind of calculation a modern automobile does when applying its anti-lock brakes, comparing the rotating speed of the wheel with the braking inputs to determine if a wheel is skidding. On a fixed gear bicycle, your brain can do this automatically, in real time. On a coasting bike, you don't have the data to do this calculation.

While slips and skids are most common in deceleration, they can also occur on acceleration. Wouldn't a freewheel and fixed be equal there? Nope. Even a very tightly engaging freewheel mechanism (say a Chris King) will have a bit of slop before it engages. Fixed gear bikes also are never perfect and have a bit of slop but it's almost always less than the slop in a freewheel. And when pulling out from a stop, it's hard to tell if the slip you are getting is from slop in the drivetrain or the tire slipping on the road. Minimizing drivetrain slip makes road slip more noticeable.

Finally, in sub-freezing conditions, freewheels sometimes become sluggish in having their pawls engage. Back in Minnesota every winter I'd see freewheel pawls freeze, making the freewheel spin freely in both directions. Running light lube in the mechanism and keeping water out usually prevents this, as does warming the freewheel/freehub above freezing but fixed gear drive-trains are immune to this particular problem. Various riders on rides like the Ididasport and the Arrowhead 135 have kept a fixed cog in reserve for extremely cold conditions.

Sweet Bear-Loving

The Bike Works Program Staff are out guiding a bunch of kids on a two week bicycle tour of the Olympic Peninsula. The note above is still up in the classroom. For those of you unable to decipher my bad cell-phone picture, the text reads:

OLYMPIC LOOP CAMP
--------------------------

WELCOME TO ANIMAL WORLD

HARDCORE 101 TOILETRIES
-------------------------------------

NO SHAMPOO/CONDITIONER
& ONLY MINI SOAPS PLEASE

NO DEODORANT, SCENTED LOTIONS,
COLOGNE, MOUTHWASH, GUM OR SWEET
BEAR-LOVING SMELL PRODUCTS OF
** ANY KIND **

------------------------------------------

The phrase "sweet bear-loving" has managed to crop up in many conversations over the past few days.

Biking With Brad

Normally, my virtual weekend is Sunday-Monday, but this past week a visiting friend and the scheduling needs of one of the other mechanics at Bike Works let me swap my days off. As it turns out, plans to go camping with my visiting pal didn't work out but we had a nice visit at the shop on Thursday morning. Another buddy of mine, Brad Hawkins, had independently cooked up a bike trip out along the Iron Horse Trail for Friday-Saturday so Brad and I had a great trip.

Brad recently got himself one of these blog-thingies of his own, so you can read all about our trip and see some pictures by going here:

http://tinyurl.com/68kqr3

and here:

http://tinyurl.com/54ux7c

Topeak Morph Pumps

One of the nice things about running a bike shop is that I get to stock the place with products that I use and like. So at Bike Works we stock things like Kool-Stop brake pads, SRAM chains, WTB saddles, Schwalbe tires, Planet Bike fenders and lights and Topeak pumps.

For years, I've carried a Topeak Road Morph G with me on my adventures. This pump isn't perfect, the mounting bracket is kind of cheesy (I mostly stow the pump in some bag or supplement the mount with a velcro strap), the gauge is sometimes sticky (I've learned to tap it and I tend to trust my finger on the tire more than the gauge), the little hose can blow apart if the I don't remember to extend it to it's full length before I begin inflating a tire (I always remember to do this now and mostly remember to tell customers the same thing). Oh yeah and it's kinda heavy. Hardly a rave review, eh? So why do I carry this pump around and sell it in the shop?

Well, here's the thing. There are a ton of pumps that suck. Pumps that take forever to fill your tire. Pumps that just can't get up to a decent pressure. Pumps that will too easily tear the valve off your inner tube. A pump shouldn't suck, it should blow.

By and large, Topeak pumps blow. And I mean that in a good way. They inflate tires with a minimum of fuss. The Morph G and my new favorite, the Topeak Mini Morph, turn into tiny versions of floor pumps and do a good job of getting air into a bike tube. The Road G puts out more air with fewer strokes, so it's the pump I carry on my Speed Cruiser/Adventure Bike. The Mini Morph easily pumps up the high pressure road tires on my fixie, so it's the pump I carry on that bike. My Dahon doesn't need a Morph because it's got that clever pump built into the seatpost. But every bike I've owned but the Dahon winds up with a Morph. When customers ask about pumps, it's easy to recomend the Morphs. Because they really blow. And I mean that in a good way.

Various Views of the Seattle Century

Sunday, July 27th 2008, marked the first running of the Seattle Century. Like version 1.0 of anything, there were some problems with the ride, but I think people generally had fun. My former employer, the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, and my current employer, Bike Works, are both beneficiaries of the ride and while both groups helped to recruit volunteers for the ride, the group who organized this ride are based out of Portland, Oregon. This resulted in some interesting choices of roads, where "interesting" ranged from "this is a cool road that I've never been on" to "why the heck did they route us here instead of there?" The two perspectives are probably best illustrated by Lisa Lawrence's rave review here and Eric Gunnerson's more critical review here.

I spent the day riding the course as a roving mechanic and I'd have to say I shared Lisa's view of the food and the enthusiasm for hard work of all the volunteers, while also sharing some of Eric's frustrations and bewilderment at the course design and inconsistent marking.

One of the ride highlights for me was getting to ride the Novelty Hill to Duvall section with a genuine cyborg. This fellow, who I'm pretty sure is a T-1000 from the future, was happy to fill me in on the specifics of his titanium and carbon fiber lower leg. He told me he also does triathlons and is looking to get specific extensions for the leg, a cycling leg ending in a pedal cleat, another extension designed for running and a third for swimming.


Another highlight was the pie stop at Remlinger Farms. In fact, all the rest stops were highlights. Good food and helpful folks filling people in on the various details of the course ahead.




I was beginning to despair of ever getting to help anyone with a mechanical problem. It wasn't that everyone had a trouble-free ride, but that the riders by and large were quite well prepared. So the first few flat tires, dropped chains and loose waterbottle racks, were already being taken care of when I rolled up with my standard question of "ya got what you need?". I did manage to make myself useful by helping riders figure out some turns and finally, when I was headed back home along the course, I got to help a young woman who'd left home without a patch kit.

Damn You, Fat Cyclist!

Just because Elden (the Fat Cyclist) Nelson can't think of anything to write on his blog, he decides to inflict another of these tag things on his fellow bloggers. Like we don't have anything better to do.

Well, uh, here I am responding so, uh, I guess maybe I don't have anything better to do.

Damn you anyway, Elden.

Here are the stupid answers to your stupid questions.

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?

I think my answer is sort of like Thoreau's when he was asked at dinner what dish he'd prefer. He said "the closest." Or as Stephen Stills put it "love the one you're with." No matter what bike I happen to be on, I pretty much always envision it like this:

(You can buy your very own copy of this print from the brilliant artist Philip Newsom here.)

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?

Yep, because for me my perfect bike has to be imperfect. It's got to have something I'm still meaning to tweak. It's got to have something about it that makes me work a little harder than I'd like.

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?

I think this would be my Issaquah to Seattle commute, a bit over 18 miles each way. For one thing, this is the route I've chosen to ride about 5 days a week. It's got great mountain views, wildlife, home on one end and a great bakery and my bike shop on the other, lots of friends en-route, all the weather a guy could want, time to think and enough distance so I feel like I've earned second breakfast at the bakery.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to to do for the rest of her / his life?

I think Elden is only doing this to remind us that we are truly free. Or maybe he really is a sick SOB with a rich fantasy life. It's one of those two things. Or something else.

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded?

Yeah and I sometimes ride mountain bikes on the road and road bikes on the trails. Names are a scam, man! When I was a kid we had bikes. We rode Stingrays in the woods and we liked it. Now you whippersnapper, get outa my yard!

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.

I've ridden lots of recumbents. Heck I wrote for Recumbent Cyclist News for a couple of years. I had to stop riding them because they are such chick magnets that my wife wound up insisting that I go back to riding conventional bikes.

Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss?

I did one years ago but it doesn't count because I was part of the three man relay team. I did the bike part, and my pals did the running and swimming part. I will run if I am chased, I will swim if I am thrown overboard. But if given a choice, I will bike.

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?

Why do you want to limit the world, Elden? Do you want to see me suffer? This is hard because a Surly Crosscheck tastes terrible but New York Super Fudge Chunk doesn't corner worth a damn. I guess I'd give up ice cream but then I'd bike up Mount Rainier to find some snow to mix with Nutella. That'd show you, Fatty.

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.

“If 650B wheels are so much better for road bikes than 700c wheels and 29er wheels are so much better for mountain bikes than 26" wheels and porteur racks are so much better than rear rack and recumbents are so much better than regular bikes, why the heck do people keep buying all this other junk?”

Answer: Can I revise my just one bike answer? Because I totally want 29er/650b recumbent Moulton. Yeah, that'd be sweet!

You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do?

I gotta go with Jill on this one, this happens to me all the time. Surprisingly, I didn't see any bears on the GDR but I see 'em around here. Heck sometimes we see 'em in town. I tell 'em the same thing every time, "back away from the Nutella. Nothing to see here, move along. Get outa my yard you whippersnapper!"

Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.

Michael

Beth

Tarik

I hope they have more sense than I do and ignore this tagging nonsense.

Damn you, Fat Cyclist.

Chris Horner is a class act

The Everyday Athlete has the story and pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/6qo82g

Fixin' to Ride

Lao-tzu said "Limiting is what results in clarity; minimizing is what results in attainment. Therefore when the external is controlled by the center, nothing is neglected. If you can attain the center, then you can govern the external." ***

I think if Lao-tzu rode a bicycle, it would be a fixed gear. Over the years I've ridden many bicycles and logged many miles on fixies. Now things run ahead, now things run behind and bicycles ebb and flow through my life. "Ownership", like this life itself, is only some sort of temporary condition.

Here and now, the government has decided to task me with stimulating the economy. Who am I to disagree? Something in my sense of propriety is offended by the fact that this Fuji League has languished on the sales floor of Bike Works for weeks. I decide to spend locally and bring this bike home.

Lao-tzu famously advises “To gain knowledge, add something everyday. To gain wisdom, remove something everyday.” Having just gained a bike, I set to the work of regaining wisdom.

The drop bars, the derailleurs, the multi-cog freewheel, the big chainring and the excess chain all go into a satisfyingly heavy bag, destined for some other machine on some other day. My hands, feet and butt know how this bike should fit me. Flat bars with bar ends, BMX platform pedals and a WTB saddle all find their proper place.

My friend Mark Vande Kamp has observed that overall, I'm fastest on a fixed gear bike and while being fast is not the point, it is an interesting phenomena. My friend Jan has also rightly noted that when derailleurs were introduced into the Tour de France, average speeds went up quite a bit. I have a theory that reconciles these two facts and it goes like this:

• Racers use gears to go faster
• I am not a racer
• I am lazy
• I use gears to go slower (shifting into an easier gear to climb)
• Fixed gears don't shift (or coast)
• The fixed gear forces me to be strong on the climbs and to spin quickly on the descents.
• Because the bike is less, I have to be more.

I don't train, I just ride. For riding, sometimes a fixed gear is just right.

The bike is silent except for the sounds of tires on the road and breath in my lungs. Pedals turn, wheels turn, the earth turns beneath us. The road goes from here to there, up and down. Geography instructs my legs, reminding me of the true shape of the land. We have negotiated a mathematical bargain, 42:16 with 170 mm cranks and 700c wheels. I no longer trade time for comfort, but today's efforts become tomorrow's strengths.

There is something light and strong and right about this bike. It gets me to work a bit faster than my other machines and after just a few days the effort is becoming effortless. I do not to tell my heart to beat, my lungs to breathe, my legs to turn. I grab this machine and riding is automatic, like a heartbeat.


*** This quote is from Further Teachings of Lao-tzu translated by Thomas Cleary, page 6.

S24O: Moolock, Nadeau and SMC Lakes

I live in a town at the base of the Cascade foothills. Riding east means riding up and if I ride north and east, turning onto old logging roads and trails, I can find the wildness Thoreau called the preservation of the world.

Mark Vande Kamp and I had a plan and a goal, a sub-24-hour overnight trip to Lake Moolock, a tiny circle of blue 3,903 feet up in the mountains. A day would be enough time to get there, a day and a night, Sunday bridging into Monday.

We don't need much, a couple of bicycles, a couple of sleeping bags. Some kind of shelter. Some kind of food. Perhaps a few comforts chosen carefully. The thermos or the stove will be weighed, comfort in camp measured against discomfort on the climbs. Each trip yields its own verdict, experience forms our personal case-law, bound not books but in our bones.

Duties keep us in town 'til 1:30 on Sunday and on familiar trails we catch each other up on bits of our lives, what kids and spouses are doing, what books we've read, what we think of the pressing matters of the day. As we leave the world of men behind, the news becomes more laconic, precise and pertinent. Single words and simple pointing is enough.

"Wow" sums up the view.

"Bear" identifies the pile of scat.

"Deer" directs the gaze toward the fleet herbivore.

"Bear" repeated does not denote the scat but the bear itself, galloping like a stocky horse, running up the road far faster than our wheels.

This is clearly bear country, lots of scat on the road. I comment to Mark that "I thought they were supposed to do that in the woods."

"Lots of folks would call this the woods," Mark wryly notes.

Moolock is one of three lakes, the highest and most remote. A crow flying from Lake Hancock would go less than a mile to reach Moolock but he'd climb more than 1700 feet to get there. And the crow wouldn't have a bicycle and camping gear. We take a longer, rockier road.

It was summer back in Issaquah but there is still snow on the banks of SMC Lake. We hope, vainly, that SMC is some polite abbreviation for some vulgar name from a rougher age but later Google, that modern killjoy of contemplation, will tell us that SMC stands for Snoqualmie Mill Company.

We press on and up. Lake Nadeau (about which Google will later prove be refreshingly ignorant) has some ice on its surface and snow on its orbital road.

Moolock, the Chinook word for elk, is wrapped in ice and fog. At 6:45 PM we've reached its bank but found no welcome. We retreat to SMC and settle in for the evening.

The small comforts are comfort enough. A stove and a kettle, a hot meal and a hot beverage. A warm sleeping bag and a shelter against the dew. Because this is bear country, what remains of the food is sealed up and stored away from where we'll sleep.

I wake at 2:00 AM. The sky has cleared, the stars blaze with a clarity that the city has forgotten. I'm reminded of a line from a poem and title of an Edward G. Robinson film I saw years ago, "the night has a thousand eyes." I rise, pee like a bear in the woods, have a bit of warm coffee from my thermos (a luxury that earns its place on every trip) and burrow back into my down nest.

The sun clears the crest of Moolock Mountain about 6:00 AM and Mark and I have our first breakfast of the day before packing up and rolling back to a lower, louder world. Descending is far quicker than climbing and even taking the time to stop at Twede's Cafe in North Bend for a big second breakfast, we're back in Issaquah a bit after 11:00 AM.

GAIT: Cyclists, Walkers, Crimefighters!

My job at Bike Works goes late enough in the day that I'm often not back from Seattle soon enough to attend GAIT events and meetings. But last night, while walking to the market with Christine, I crossed paths with first Jeff Youngstrom and then Bob Miller. Both Jeff and Bob recounted their adventure on the Bridges of Issaquah ride. It's a great tale highlighting how the simple act of getting around by human power can help make the city better. It also is a wonderful example of just how handy an Xtracycle can be. You can read all about it on the Gait blog here.

Help needed to load bikes to El Salvador, Saturday June 28th, 2008

My pal Meg Watson from the Village Bicycle Project forwarded me the note below. Meg, Dave and all the others at VPB do wonderful work (check their website for details) and these bike load sessions are always super fun. I'll be taking Saturday off from the shop to help out and if any of you Seattle area folks can come on down, we'd love the help. You can see pictures from previous bike loading parties here and here.

-----Original Message-----
From: Village Bicycle Project [mailto:ghanabikes@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 9:54 AM
To: vbp@pcei.org
Subject: Collecting and Loading bikes June 28

Greetings,

Help us load nearly 500 bikes for CESTA (the El Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology). Loading is at the Total Reclaim warehouse, in Georgetown, (directions below). We'll start at 9, and finish by 5 PM. Refreshments will be provided.

We are also accepting donations of ADULT and adolescent (24" wheels) sized bikes. Please no children's bikes, we have too many now.

Our new partners in El Salvador have gotten bikes from Bikes Not Bombs in Boston and Bikes for the World in the DC area. Both BNB and B4W send bikes to VBP partners in Ghana. The rising cost of shipping has encouraged us bike collectors and shippers to economize. We will send more to Pacific side receivers, and the East Coast will send more across the Atlantic.

Here is a bit from an interview with CESTA's director, printed in Red Pepper, April 2007 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/ (and accessed today at bikesnotbombs.org)

"From global climate change to pedal-powered garbage carts, thinking globally and acting locally comes readily to El Salvador's Ricardo Navarro." He recently found himself meeting then-World Bank president,James Wolfensohn, to demand that the bank scale back its investment for fossil fuel exploitation and mining. "The best birthday present President Wolfensohn could give to the world's poor would be to stop bank funding of fossil fuel and mining projects and invest in wind and solar," he said. [more on line]

Hope to see you! Special thanks to all who've helped collect and load more than 1400 bikes already this spring in Seattle, Sammamish and Bellingham.

dave

DIRECTIONS to the loading:

By bike from Beacon Hill, go south on 15th Street and cross the freeway at Albro Pl. then take the first left. You'll be on Corgiat, go about half-mile, the road curves sharply to the right, then you'll see the warehouse, 1915 on the left. If you keep going you'll be on the railroad tracks.

Driving from downtown Seattle, take I-5 south about four miles to Albro Pl. Swift Dr. exit 161. Go straight at the off-ramp traffic light, you'll be on Corgiat, go about half-mile, the road curves sharply to the right, then you'll see the warehouse 1915 on the left. Keep going and you'll be on the railroad tracks.

From Tacoma on I-5 take Albro Pl. Swift Dr. exit 161turn left, cross over the freeway then take the first left you'll be on Corgiat, go about half-mile, the road curves sharply to the right, then you'll see the warehouse 1915 on the left.

website pcei.org/vbp

Village Bicycle Project is a program of Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute, pcei.org

The Seattle Century benefits Bike Works and the Bicycle Alliance of Washington

On July 27th, 2008, a century ride will happen right in my local stomping grounds. The Seattle Century (or Half-Century if 100 mile rides aren't your thing) will benefit two of my favorite bike groups, Bike Works (my current employer!) and the Bicycle Alliance of Washington (my former employer!). It looks like there is going to be good food, a very pretty course and lots of support. I'll be working the 100 mile loop as a roving mechanic. For more information (and to register to either ride or volunteer) visit www.seattlecentury.com. You can also register for the ride at Bike Works.

The Erickson is for sale

I built-up the Erickson in just the way I thought it should be for a rando/touring bike and rode it around for a while. It really is just about perfect. A couple of dings in the paint and a tiny dent in the top-tube, but very, very sweet.

And not right for me. Too pretty. Too boring. Nothing left to do on it. And that whole "pump painted to match the frame" scene was never anything I aspired to.

I really like a bike that I'm comfortable beating the heck out of. I bike I can fold up and schlep on the bus & train or a bike I can take into the back-country, past the places where the pavement ends. So I'm sticking with my converted MTB Speed Cruiser and my Dahon D3 for my adventures.

On Wednesday the Erickson is going up for sale at Bike Works. I don't need this bike and the shop can use the money.

We're selling it the way it's shown here. This is the breakdown:

$ 450 -- Erickson Touring Bike 52cm c-c seat tube, 54 cm top tube
$ 20 -- Fenders & flaps
$ 24 -- Rear rack
$ 20 -- Cateye Velo 5 computer
$ 20 -- Koolstop salmon brake pads
$ 16 -- SRAM chain
$100 -- 2 Planet Bike 1/2 Watt Blaze headlights, 1 Planet Bike Superflash tail light, 1 Planet Bike Blinky 3 tail light
$ 50 -- Front & Rear bags
----------
$700 (with tax, the total will be $763). If you know anybody who'd like a very sweet bike, have 'em come on down to Bike Works. I don't think the bike will stick around the shop for too long.

--
Kent Peterson, Shop Manager
Bike Works
3709 S. Ferdinand St.
Seattle WA 98118
hours: 12-6 Tues - Fri, 11-6 Sat, 11-5 Sun, Closed Mondays
206-725-9408 x3