January 15th . . . Interurban/Green River Trail

[Susan126]

Hey, I am off on MLK's birthday January 15th. If the weather is nice (no rain) I am thinking about doing the Interurban/Green River Trails starting at the Regal Theater's parking lot in the Super Mall in Auburn. I would like to do the entire length from Auburn to the end of the trail near the Seattle Distribution Center. If anyone would like to join me I will post again the closer we get to the 15th. Would be nice to meet some of you! My daughter may join us. I don't know if she's able to ride the entire length so it depends I guess. Ok . . . let's hope for some nice weather.

Sue

[mimitabby]

I have to work that day, but i tell you what, if it's a beautiful day (yeah, right)
I'll take time off especially if you're starting at noon or something so I only have to take off 1/2 day.

[KnottedYet]

I have to work that entire day. Bummmmmmmmer.

[East Hill]

I'm not off (I'll be working the night before), but if it's relatively early in the morning (say around 8, perhaps 9), I think I could manage it.

Just have to figure out which bike I'll have...but I'd like to finally meet some of the TE ladies.

East Hill

[Susan126]

Ok, I'll keep an eye on the weather and keep everyone posted. Those that can make it great! :)

[Susan126]

I reread everyone's comments here and at my other post "Yawn . . . Good Morning!!!!"

I would like a vote.....

Ride on Sunday, January 14th start at 10 AM

or

Ride on Monday, January 15th start at 10 AM

Please let me know which day would be better for you. If more people can make it on Sunday I think I will change it to Sunday.

Thanks everyone!

Susan

[East Hill]

Sunday would actually be a better day for me because I wouldn't have to go into work that evening.

However, Monday would also work, although I wouldn't be able to do the entire round trip (I would leave around the KOA campground on the way back, so I can get back up the East Hill).

I'm looking forward to meeting whoever makes it down there on either day!

East Hill

[Susan126]

Ok let's try for Sunday at 10 AM . . . Please East Hill, Mimitabby, and KnottedYet I hope you will all come! It would be great to finally meet you guys!

Auburn Super Mall, parking lot next to the Regal Cinema. I will be driving my white maxima unless I can get my hubby's red dodge dakota away from him.

[mimitabby]

Great!
I'm in!

[East Hill]

I will try to have my husband drop me off, otherwise I'll be driving a Ford Focus station wagon. Still don't know which bike I should bring :D .

East Hill

[Susan126]

Great! Looking forward to Sunday! Make sure you dress warm . . . booties, skull cap for underneath helmet, warm gloves, pants, wind breaker LOL Going to be chilly but should be fun! I'll PM my cell number.

[logdiva32]

I am off all weekend, would love to go, but Sun I have church. If weather is nice mon and there are any leftovers who did not make sun and may want to hit the trail, I may be game, if the ice melts....

[mimitabby]

if the ice melts, of course. I won't be out there unless it's melted either.
none of us wants to slip and slide on the ice!

[Susan126]

My husband said that on his drive home from work yesterday he could see the Interurban Trail and it was covered with ice and snow. I may drive down and take a peek for myself. If this is true I am going to cancel until we get some decent weather. Better to be safe so that we can play another day! I'll report back by tonight. So check!

I think next weekend looks promising . . .

Komo Weather (http://www.komotv.com/weather/planner)

[mimitabby]

we just cross posted!

[Eden]

Crazy as it sounds I got out on the road this morning. The hubby and I and a team mate of his started the south loop. Lake Washington Blvd was actually dry and clean for the most part, but as soon as we began climbing up out of Seward it was an icy mess. Somehow we made it to the top of the hill, but it was pretty unpassable on a bike after that. Didn't ever fall down (those core and balance exercises on the ball are paying off!), but had some pretty hairy moments. We actually walked back down the hill, and weren't sure how we made it up in the first place when we looked at it and just did some laps down by the lake. The only places that seem passable are either spots that were in the direct sun on Thursday and Friday and melted off and dried or roads that have a fair amount of traffic on them to melt and dry them, but now since its snowing once again I'd say all bets are off...Some of the worst spots are placed where people have walked since it creates choppy ice thats just about impossible to ride on. If anyone does decide to go outside be careful, don't try to brake or steer or pull your foot out of the cleat if you get caught on an ice patch - just ride it out and when in doubt (especially downhill) get off and walk. If you do fall try to not stick out your arm - that's how wrists and collar bones get broken.

[salsabike]

Wow, Eden, I cannot believe you guys did the hill out of Seward. Glad you're all home and reasonably intact now.

[mimitabby]

You and my DH are another cut of biker.He rode from Ravenna
to ALki and back today, he was riding in the rain.

I'll wait until the ice is gone.

[Susan126]

It is pretty icy on the trail . . . I am cancelling our ride for tomorrow on the Interurban/Green River Trail. It would be horrible (and I would feel awful) if someone fell and broke a wrist or something. We have a new year ahead of us . . . spring is just around the corner (I sure hope so) and I will definitely repost a ride when the weather is warmer and the ice and snow a thing of the past.

Let's all do a mantra now . . . warm, sunny, windless days . . . warm, sunny, windless days . . . warm, sunny, windless days . . .

:)

[East Hill]

We'll have to go for next Sunday. I haven't looked outside yet, having just gotten up to go to work, but I doubt there's been much improvement.

Even rain would be better than this ice!

East Hill

[mimitabby]

It's colder than it was yesterday! the promised warming did not yet occur!
what a drag. and i have a date next sunday. grrr.

[KnottedYet]

i don't like this ice! My bikes are crying out for a ride, but jeez, this ice stuff is nuts!

Looks like another day of huddling under blankets. I don't even want to try to get to church (10 miles) when I'm surrounded by icy hills and can't even get to the grocery store (10 blocks)!

Those spiked mtb ice-tires are starting to look mighty fine!:D

[mimitabby]

Knot, once you get past the 'hood, it's not too bad.

We live in a bowl on the side of a hill, we have to go up and then down
to get ANYWHERE. But the cars have made ruts in the snow so there is enough asphalt showing that we can get in and out.

[Susan126]

Good morning to another cold day in the Seattle area! What ever happened to land of mild winters and summers? :confused:

My poor bikes are hanging sadly in the garage. It's even too cold to go mountain biking. I'm susceptible to bronchitis. Last time I had it was four years ago while doing a ride in Montana (in May) with snow, ice, and sleet.

Oh to be warm again and riding with sweat dripping down my nose! :D

Hang in there girls!

[salsabike]

ARGHH. We wanted to take a ride today. Dammit. THIS HAS TO STOP. IT SIMPLY MUST STOP.

Pitooey.

[East Hill]

I was thinking of taking the mountain bike over to Lake Youngs and tearing through the snow.

On second thought, it occurred to me that those were some big hills that I would need to get up before I got to Lake Youngs.

I decided to stay and ride the exercise bike and jump rope instead.

:(

East Hill

[KnottedYet]

Think I'll do some shoulder work and some physioball exercises, a few planks (front and side).

Some day I'll find a cheap used trainer that'll fit the Commutermobile, then I'll ride in the house.

Must. Ride. Bike!

[HipGnosis6]

I still have a 3x2" hole in my calf and haven't ridden more than a couple of times since I got my bike fixed, so I'm not in good enough shape to go for a ride of more than a couple of miles. But soon, this spring without question, I'll join you guys on rides... Y'all can hold me to it.

[Susan126]

I will hold you to that HipGnosis6 because I really would love to meet you and all the rest of you local girls from this forum. All of you! So here's to spring and a ride together some time soon. :D

[East Hill]

If nothing else, today's sun did melt off quite a bit of ice. Still plenty of snow loitering on my front lawn, however. I'm going to hope that tomorrow does not bring too much snow. I will hope that we get rain in the afternoon. And then, perhaps, by Wednesday I can finally get out there and ride a bicycle outdoors for a change.

Perhaps this one:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k317/East_Hill/IMG_0458.jpg

This is the new Nishiki mixte.

Anyone want a purple water bottle holder?

East Hill

[mimitabby]

If nothing else, today's sun did melt off quite a bit of ice. Still plenty of snow loitering on my front lawn, however. I'm going to hope that tomorrow does not bring too much snow. I will hope that we get rain in the afternoon. And then, perhaps, by Wednesday I can finally get out there and ride a bicycle outdoors for a change.

Perhaps this one:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k317/East_Hill/IMG_0458.jpg

This is the new Nishiki mixte.

Anyone want a purple water bottle holder?

East Hill
This is a new bike?
very interesting frame!

[Susan126]

Beautiful bike East Hill . . . but yes, the purple water bottle must go. ;)

[East Hill]

The bike is new to me! It's actually from the early 1980's, although I haven't quite figured out what year specifically.

The frame style is a mixte. Although commonly referred to as a 'woman's' frame, it is actually a unisex frame, and many men ride and enjoy this style of frame, especially in Europe.

I now have three mixtes--a 1980 Centurion LeMans, a 1980's? Peugeot, and this Nishiki. I love mixtes.

East Hill

[KnottedYet]

And now it's snowing AGAIN and the kids have a snow day from school AGAIN.

Am I ever gonna get to ride my bikes?

Oooh, I hope my work closes for today, because this snow on top of the polished and re-frozen ice fromthe last few days is gonna be awful on the roads.

[Susan126]

Ok, enough already! This is my sixth day off from work (I am a Library Media Asst and Building Tech at a local Middle School). I had one day off because of flooding, two days off because of power outage, and now three days off because of "snow" . . . I do not want to work into July. Although I've heard rumors about not having to make up the flood and power outage days. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for this!

I want to ride my bikes!!!! Argh!

[Susan126]

Ok, enough already! This is my sixth day off from work (I am a Library Media Asst and Building Computer Tech at a local Middle School). I had one day off because of flooding, two days off because of power outage, and now three days off because of "snow" . . . I do not want to work into July. Although I've heard rumors about not having to make up the flood and power outage days. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for this!

I want to ride my bikes!!!! Argh! :mad:

Will spring and warmer weather ever come to us? Oh please please please I sure hope so. And SOON!

Hang in there girls! We'll get to ride soon, right? :confused:

[salsabike]

Ok, enough already! This is my sixth day off from work (I am a Library Media Asst and Building Computer Tech at a local Middle School). I had one day off because of flooding, two days off because of power outage, and now three days off because of "snow" . . . I do not want to work into July. Although I've heard rumors about not having to make up the flood and power outage days. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for this!

I want to ride my bikes!!!! Argh! :mad:

Will spring and warmer weather ever come to us? Oh please please please I sure hope so. And SOON!

Hang in there girls! We'll get to ride soon, right? :confused:

+1 to all that! I'm getting stir-crazy. Am a school psych and not looking forward to making up all these days--I think we've had five days total, one from the windstorm and four snow days. I'm DONE with this snow stuff. And frankly had been looking forward to going to work today so I wouldn't have to listen to all the construction noise again. Bleah. Took a walk in the snow this morning, but the ice underneath makes it a little precarious. I'm DONE, I say.

[East Hill]

Well, the P.O. never sleeps, and I think it would have been nice to have had one snow day, but I have yet to not make it into work due to snow. However, I'm not a teacher, and I would not want to have to deal with children, their parents, and snow!

So I'll keep going to work even in the snow. I am just glad that Mr. East Hill is very good at driving in the stuff.

But it's getting awfulllllyyyy boring here at home. Can you imagine living in a place like Buffalo?

East Hill

[salsabike]

Yeah, I was born in Buffalo, moved to Albany when I was eight and grew up there. They NEVER--or almost never--have snow days because they have the equipment to clean it up fast. Here, we get an inch and we're all in trouble because of the icy hills and side streets. Bah.

[Eden]

But it's getting awfulllllyyyy boring here at home. Can you imagine living in a place like Buffalo?

East Hill

Grew up in Pittsburgh, went to college in Rochester NY (just up the road about 60 miles from Buffalo). Its just different out east. Everyone knows how to deal with snow so people know how to drive in it and have good snow tires on their cars, the cities knows how to deal with it and have the equipment to do it properly and effieciently. This much snow wouldn't have been even thought about in either of those places.
Due to its proximity to Lake Ontario, Rochester was for sure the worst of the two weather wise. Out here - pffft, this is nothing, though I fail to understand what it is about the climate here or maybe what they make the road surfaces out of that forms so much ice! In Rochester it generally started snowing around Halloween and melted out completely some time in March or April. You could expect at minium one big snowstorm in the winter that would dump up to several feet of snow, perhaps even the lovely blowing kind that is almost impossible to shovel or plow since it just blows right back, several weeks of sub-zero temperatures - we're taking -20 to -60 wind chills here, and maybe top it all off with a nice ice storm right around Easter.
Pittsburgh's weather isn't quite that nasty, but there was definitely still snow and ice. Pittsburgh, unlike Rochester (really flat), and more like Seattle is a city built on a series of hills, but since snow and ice are always a factor there there are plenty of salt trucks out and about to keep the roads clear. I never saw cars with chains or studded tires until I came out here strangely enough. We rarely had days off school because of snow - in fact I think the entire time I was in high school we did not have one snow day.
Our biggest problem here is that this kind of weather doesn't happen enough. Its not worth it for the cities to have a lot of plows or salt trucks (I would bet you wouldn't even be allowed to spread salt here - the runoff would contaminate salmon streams) and many, many people do not have good tires on their cars. Plus it seems like the roads ice over very easily. I'm not making light of it mind you - its definitely not a good idea to get out there and drive- its a real mess, but elsewhere it just would have been taken care of. One thing my husband and I have noticed is how few people shovel/de ice their sidewalks out here.... Out east if you fail to clear your sidewalk and someone slips and falls you will be liable so everyone does it. On the other hand you don't ruin your shoes out here because you are walking in rock salt all day long (it really eats leather shoes!).

[mimitabby]

Eden
I suspected you were from back east. But you do explain it well!
I grew up in New Jersey. We had to WALK in snow like this.
We had to wait until a foot or more fell before we could take a snow day.

[Eden]

Show you how naieve I was - until I saw (and heard) chains on busses and cars out here I never knew that was what made the ching-ching-ching sound of the salt trucks.... I always thought it was the salt spreader making that noise :p It was always a sign that it was going to snow, no matter what the news weather was saying, if it was going to snow the salt trucks would be out before it happened, no trucks, no snow - they must have had access to better forecasting. It really is nicer to not have the salt though. it kills everything on the sides of the road, eats cars (rusts them out really fast), eats shoes and is probably not really great to be putting into the water system all of the time.

[Susan126]

Oh wow . . . you have to watch this video that was shot this morning in Portland, Oregon. Talk about cars and ice not mixing!!!! :eek:

Icy Hill in Portland Oregon this morning (http://www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/showVideo.php?vidId=114054)

[mimitabby]

Oh wow . . . you have to watch this video that was shot this morning in Portland, Oregon. Talk about cars and ice not mixing!!!! :eek:

Icy Hill in Portland Oregon this morning (http://www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/showVideo.php?vidId=114054)

THAT is amazing!

[Eden]

I took the Marin out today for some shopping - the kitties need their food! It actually wasn't really all that bad. The last time we had ice I tried out the Marin and didn't make it a block before I hit the pavement, but it handles pretty nicely when its slushy snow- though I did have to whack the front fender every once in a while to clear out the slush clots. Ventured down to the U district and the only hairy bit was going down through Interlaken park as its a back street and mostly in the shade so still pretty snowy. The Burke was mostly just wet or a little slushy. Went to Ballard to buy my husband an exercise ball since they are on really good sale at Fred Meyer right now $10! (he's getting jealous of my abs - my coach has me doing just two 1/2 hour sessions per week on the ball and its actually pretty amazing how much it does tone you up) and then over to the U Village to get the kitties food. Took a different route home, since I needed to make my ride a little longer and wanted a less icy and steep route, so up MLK to home. It was starting to get dark, a bit colder and a little more slippery when I got home, but all in all it was actually not a bad day to get out.

I'm thinking if I got knobby tires for the Marin if it would be even more stable. The ones that came on it are wide, but slicks none the less. Its and interesting bike, kind of like an Ford Explorer, looks a bit like a mt bike, but really isn't meant for the actually wilderness....., but cross tires should fit it.

[KnottedYet]

Oooh, I want a bike ride!

If it's very warm tomorrow, maybe I could ride in for my 2 hr shift at work.

sigh.

Must. Ride. Bike.