Starting tour ride in rain

:( It's a mental thing, but there's a high probability of starting off a ride ..in steady rain tomorrow. Towards Seattle

I've done this several times on various trips. For inexplicable reasons, I've done 2 different loaded touring rides in Quebec, where each time it was nearly a full day of steady rain. Never forget on Route Verte where I rode for 5 hrs. (with stops) for 90 kms. My feet in shoes were so wet and cold though it was summer, the skin was deathly white..abnormal..for me. (My skin is not that natural skin tone.) Another time on a busy highway where during the steady downpour, logging trucks were passing by us! Downright scary.. I could hardly see with rain pouring on my glasses.

Several times in Ontario ..and so on.

Have done it once here in our local area...for 70 kms. and just shorts, light jacket in the summer.

Anyway better not psyche myself out now....at least we're chopping off 50 kms. of cycling travel because of our route..will describe later.

I just checked accuweather.com for the morning commute, and it looks like it should be clear until late morning. But they've been off all week . . .

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that you have good riding conditions!

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Originally Posted by jocelynlf

I just checked accuweather.com for the morning commute, and it looks like it should be clear until late morning. But they've been off all week . . .

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that you have good riding conditions!

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Thx for good wishes.

Right now..I'm gonna bed..survival tactic...we have to get up at 3:00 am tomorrow...long story here. Enough to put anyone to sleep.

Happened to me too.

The first day of our tour of the Puget Sound and the San Juan islands, it poured like crazy. We rode from Port Townsend to Sequim that first day. Sequim likes to boast that it's in a rain shadow and that it gets substantially less rain than Seattle. Well, riding into Sequim in the torrential rain I yelled out "Rain Shadow my Azz!".

Fun day. :)

I feel for you. :( I hope it wasn't as bad today as you thought it might be.
Stop often if you need to, stay warm, and try to have fun. On my tour in June, I stopped on the second day because of torrential rain. I kept singing "Singing in the Rain" then changed all the words to fit my biking in the rain. It worked until I stopped for lunch and got too cold to go on.

Have a fun time regardless of the weather! :)

Solvang double century 2006 - probably 160 of 200 miles in the rain, beginning about mile 20. Davis 400k last year - most of it in the rain, let's just leave it at that. (The only really nice weather was the first part of the return where V joined me.) 600k in 2006 had only 15 miles in the middle in the rain, but so hard I thought I wouldn't be able to breathe.

It's definitely harder to start in the rain or when you know rain is imminent than to keep going if it starts raining in the middle. :rolleyes:

I'll work on blowing the clouds the other way.

Wishing you a good ride. Be safe.

Holiday Inn (and new one) has never looked better and drier tonight here in Marysville, WA. :) I didn't bring another pair of shoes except for flips-flops for hotel. Shoes are wet enough that I'm concerned for tomorrow..:(

103 kms. of cycling today. Vancouver piece no rain, dark but lovely, Saanich piece after getting off ferry at Vancouver, started to sprinkle and stopped after a few kms. I wore my rain pants (not totally waterproof) and similar jacket.

Then I changed my clothing into shorts, thinking it would be rainless or hardly. Anacortes onward for lst 15 kms. was no rain, fantastic tailwind in big chunks...and then later intermittedly rain, blend of drizzle, then steady downpour for 15 kms., stop and restart. This U.S. part was 80 kms. and didn't start until 2:00 pm since other earlier parts blended 2 ferries and a local bus after we cycled mid-point to a bus stop at 5:30 am.

I was NOT wearing my raingear at all. In cycling shorts, etc. It wasn't too cold but my fingers were numb for last 50 kms...I had great difficulty flipping my gears. So I opted for an easy gear ..it was flat with some hills here and there.

Blend of headwind and fantastic tailwinds also.

Problem with being continuousy drenched and dirty, is that one doesn't stop to enjoy the lovely stuff. Instead it's obsession to destination. We were cycling on the Old Pacific Hwy. parallel to the busy I-5. It was a dream being on the old hwy...so peaceful. :) It was the part of Washington I wanted to experience.

And the killer in all this, was my water repellant bike shoe booties were in my pannier. I just couldn't be bothered to stop in rain and put in them on... choice of warm, already wet feet in booties.

Surely you know this already, having lived in Vancouver longer than, me, but just in case:

Packing shoes with newspaper makes them dry overnight. It's unbelievable.

I lived for 25 years in Quebec and endured never-drying boots in the winter only to find out about this trick when I moved here!!!

Wishing you better weather for today!!!

Hi Shooting Star,

I'm not sure of your final destination in Washington, but there are much more peaceful roads to ride than Old Pacific Hwy (aka Hwy 99). A nice route would have been to head from Anacortes onto Hwy 20 and across Deception Pass onto Whidbey Island and then the ferry to Mukilteo (then you are back on the mainland).
I know you have had better weather the past two days!

Stay safe,

-Dog

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Originally Posted by Dog

Hi Shooting Star,

I'm not sure of your final destination in Washington, but there are much more peaceful roads to ride than Old Pacific Hwy (aka Hwy 99). A nice route would have been to head from Anacortes onto Hwy 20 and across Deception Pass onto Whidbey Island and then the ferry to Mukilteo (then you are back on the mainland).
I know you have had better weather the past two days!

Stay safe,

-Dog

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Thanks for the thoughtful advice. Coincidentally, we did head along Hwy 20, then we cut onto Best Rd. eastward...I need a map here, went up a highway bridge that cut through an Indian reserve that started with "Se"...when suddenly the heavens unleased alot of rain. No choice but just chug up that road overpass in haze of downpour...which wasn't bad to do but not uplifting in crappy weather while wearing shorts..

We did end up Old Pacific Hwy. parallel to the fast, splashy I-5. We got to it after cycling up curving hilly service road parallel to I-5. Stayed on Old Pacific hwy. as long as we could...as mentioned earlier, was peaceful ride there with the old growth coniferous trees soaring above and ...absolutely dead as a doornail except for 1 car passing every 15 min. or more.

And Grog, yea instead I used lots of paper towels to do initial soak-up of water....and many asphalt bits in shoes and socks. We did ride in the rain through some highway construction zones.

The weather was much better today and hopefully will be tomorrow too.