4th of July Rides

for me it was INDEPENDENCE DAY! Independence from everyone else's plans. Also, a hope that I can be independent of our horrible government. But I digress.
The plan:
return books to library on bike. Then fly down Cheasty blvd, a winding tree lined road that takes you right to the heart of south eastern Seattle; usually a place I don't like to go even in a car because of traffic jams and road construction.
But it's early in the morning, on the 4th of July! I went straight down Martin Luther King, Junior Way like it was my driveway! There were hardly any other vehicles, and since it's all newly paved concrete, it was a beautiful ride.
Then I went back up the hill on Henderson, even more tree-lined than Cheasty, a lovely 2% grade all the way up to the top. 12.2 miles and i'm in for the rest of the day to do domestic things Independently.
(Raleighdon is doing a 200 k ride today)
!

Today was independence day here too. :) Independence from men. A group of 7 girls I sometimes ride with got together. It wasn't on purpose, just turned out all the boys were busy. We rode down to Manayunk and had breakfast and then came back. 39 miles rt and 2 flats due to wet and gritty roads!

Now I'm gonna eat some chips and salsa with the boy and then take a ride with him out to a park nearby, maybe another 50 miles rt. It's a cycling day for me! :D

I'm puttering in the kitchen with my locally grown veggies, waiting for the sun to break through long enough to toss a couple of ribeyes on the grill.

I hope to get a longer ride in, but --

My big fun was seeing the storm clouds gathering and deciding I could beat the storm -- hopping on my bike to ride to the supermarket to buy prosciutto and melon and returning before it hit. I didn't go far, but I went fast!

A bit over 25 miles this morning -- up hill and down, up again and down with an around the corner look out for the gravel, and where the HECK did that head wind come from!

I don't remember riding into a wind like this one that wanted to push me around like this one before, so I decided to try something new for me -- I don't use my drops much yet, cuz unlike that svelte broad in the logo up top of the page, parts of me crowd other parts when I use the drops! So, I thought I'd experiment with that, and wow, what a nice difference that made! I think it was good for about three miles per hour, so I worked at staying there -- or at least going back to it often on this great stretch of road. Kind of rolling, long long stretch between any intersections, the gravel companies aren't driving their trucks today, so NO traffic at all! Well, no WONDER: we got to the end, and discovered the tow truck, the truck with the boat trailer, and the two sheriff cars, and the rolled pick up sitting on top of the tow truck's bed. (wheels down again) An abundance of people milling around too -- hopefully no serious injuries, and certainly not among the group standing around. We carefully cruised through the tail end of the clean up process....

Stopped for a bit under a shade tree to mess with the wheel DH broke a spoke on again, so we could finish the ride, then took a less direct route from that stop to the new favorite coffee shop, and then a pretty direct route home.

Chased by a chubby chihuahua on the home stretch, but he was no match for 18mph! Kind of exciting -- they usually go after DH, but he took a short cut and didn't get chased...

Now I need some lunch, and I should probably remind him that he needs to fix his wheel before long, or he'll be cussing before work tomorrow morning!

Karen in Boise

Well , I felt like Goldilocks
One part of the club was a full century to the beach in Orange County, Given my luck with Bicycling activities in the OC and that fact that it's 98 degrees at noon, I didn't want to do that. too far
Another group was doing Sunset Loop in Redlands 15 miles a loop with 2 loops - not far enough
And I had my RBA contact me last night about turn one of my permanent routes into a Brevet. The problem was I wanted to revise the route some more.
So I started off at 6Am and rode down to Azusa. Sure enough, found a better way to get my riders from point a to point b. came back up foothill through Glendora, Baseline, and 19th to Fontana. I then rode down the hill ,past Jiffer's house (Hi!) and the Rancho Cucamonga Adult Sports park and back home.
A Story, I like to have a chocolate milk after a long ride. I had meant to but one last night, so I stopped a C-Store about a mile from home and got one. By the time I got home it was already warm!

Did a 53.4 mile ride today (longest this year). It actually was most of the route of a charity ride i did 3 weeks ago, but we started at our house and met friends at a different start point than the original ride. The first 2 towns we went through were having 10k races this morning, so lots of runners and traffic and people on foot. In fact, there was more traffic than I thought there would be, probably like a Saturday. It was hot and humid for the first half, but the sun did go in and it is now cloudy, breezy, and great for riding. We stopped in Weston Center to refill on Gatorade and eat a Clif bar. Then we went through a bit of Waltham, into Lincoln, where we did the only really steep climb of the ride. Then on through Hanscom AFB, back into Concord. I have never seen so many bikes there! We ate lunch on the grass by the visitor's center and I was moaning that I was 4 miles from my house, but we had only ridden 35 miles, so on we went. The rest of the ride was on regular roads that I ride, so it was fun.
When we got back, I downed some choc. milk and hummus and pita. Now I have to stretch and get ready for our BBQ.

Today's ride was nothing special--just a chance to get out of the house essentially, because it's too hot to do much of anything energetic. So, I went to Big Soos Creek, and saw a huge crowd out there--more people than I've ever seen before.

Now, I've seen muskrats, river otters, mink, etc. down there. But I'd never seen a beaver--until today! I rode by this poor creature and did a double take:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...l/IMG_0748.jpg

The hat is in there for reference. It's not much more than a kit, but it confirms that there are indeed beavers down there. Now if only I could spot a live one :( .

East Hill

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Originally Posted by East Hill

Today's ride was nothing special--just a chance to get out of the house essentially, because it's too hot to do much of anything energetic. So, I went to Big Soos Creek, and saw a huge crowd out there--more people than I've ever seen before.

Now, I've seen muskrats, river otters, mink, etc. down there. But I'd never seen a beaver--until today! I rode by this poor creature and did a double take:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...l/IMG_0748.jpg

The hat is in there for reference. It's not much more than a kit, but it confirms that there are indeed beavers down there. Now if only I could spot a live one :( .

East Hill

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good thing it wasn't a skunk!!!

I smell skunks every once in a while, but I have NEVER encountered a live one. That's probably a good thing :p .

East Hill

In preparation for a mountain bike race, I went and rode the course. 8.2 miles - I'm racing beginner class again. Was a very nice ride. This particular route is primarily fireroad with a smattering of singletrack. There is a difficult climb about 5.5 miles in to the race. I couldn't climb all the up without stopping today. I think I've only made it up without stopping one time! Oh well, the way I figure it, I rode the route about 3-5 minutes faster than my race time last year, so hopefully I will better my finishing time from last year! :D

HAPPY 4TH!!!!

I went within 10 feet of one on the green river trail. He did his thing i did mine

Today I decided to sleep in, I got up at 6 a.m. I put on my red, white and blue cyling socks and went out for my ride around 7. I started out to do a 25 mile ride but I felt pretty good, there was not much traffic and it was so beautiful out I ended up going 40 miles. It was a nice ride and I was glad I went.

SouthernBelle and I went with a group this morning, but got dropped in the first 2 miles (they were something fast, I'll say!) so we ended up doing our own original route and it was so much more pleasant.

Stopped by my house on the way. Saw a deer run into a chainlink fence and SB forgot her bandana so I gave her mine. Very good ride.

There's nothing like a small town parade on the 4th of July!

Our sleepy little neighboring town, St. Paul, has a population of under 400. However, during the first 4 days of July the population explodes to about 40,000! St. Paul has one of the top 20 largest rodeos in the US that really brings in the crowds. We attended last night...always a good time. And I discovered that there is another use for my biking butt. I sat on a hard grandstand seat for 3 hours without a thought! Normally, I'm wriggling around trying to find a comfy spot after about an hour...but not last night!

Anyway, every 4th of July, St. Paul puts on a great parade. Since it's only about 10 miles from my town of Newberg, we usually bike out, and today was no exception.

There are all sorts of entries in the parade...from the rodeo queens and their horses, to the mounted sherriff's posse, to kids on their ponies. Lets not forget all the tractors and farm equipment, antique cars, fire trucks, boy scout groups, a band that plays marches on the back of a flat-bed truck, and even a group of caballeros on their fine looking Friesians and Andalusians.

The parade only lasts about an hour-and-a-half, but it's fun to ride out and not have to worry about parking.

We took a scenic route on our way home for a total of 23 easy miles!

Happy 4th, everyone!

I took my bike to the bike spa today. She's getting a full manicure, complete with new handlebar tape. We leave for California on Friday. Bring on the summer!

Headed out for a 40 mile rid this morning. Planned to head south on Rt. 27, but after 3 miles hit a detour sign. Rode another 5 miles and tried to get back to Rt. 27. It was still closed, and a parade was heading down the street. Watched the parade for a few minutes, then planned another route. Got to Natick center and found more parade/festival to be avoided. Final got past all that by riding on Rt. 135, 16, 115, 126. Final tally: 40.7 miles in 2.5 hours. Great weather this morning, now starting to rain.

I decided to join the LBC for it's 4th of July century. This one started in Boston, Kentucky and went to Munfordville, Kentucky. I was surprised that it was not all that hilly. Now don't get me wrong we had some hills to climb but this area of Kentucky has a lot of hills. The one and only major climb was about 3 - 4 miles long and it was nasty. We also fought a strong headwind the first 50 miles. The winds were blowing at around 15 mph - so demoralizing. When we approached the big climb my average speed was 16.8 mph and by the time we reached the top it had fallen to 15.4. It basically was a slow grind all the way to the top. I was able to maintain this average up to the first store stop. The next 25 miles found us fighting the rollers and the wind and my average speed dropped even more, down to 14.7 mph and I was very unhappy. The talk at lunch centered around the wind and the hopes that since this was basically and out and back would mean one thing, we would have a great tailwind to push us home. How sweet it was and we were flying back to our cars. It was so nice to have that gentle push the last 50 miles. By the time we reached the 3rd store stop my average speed had climbed to 15.7 and I was feeling very strong and confident. Small groups formed along the way and it was evident everyone was enjoying the wind at their backs. When we finally made it back to our cars, 101.15 miles later, my average speed was up to 16.3 and I wanted to do a "happy dance" in the parking lot. However, I did not and decided instead to treat myself to large chocolate milkshake before I got on the expressway to head home. It was a great ride and I just so happy to have ridden a century 3 weeks and 1 day after my surgery - life is so good and I'm so blessed. Happy 4th to one an all!

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Originally Posted by Chile Pepper

I took my bike to the bike spa today. She's getting a full manicure, complete with new handlebar tape. We leave for California on Friday. Bring on the summer!

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Summer is waiting for you here. In the Bay Area the weather's been hot today and yesterday, supposed to cool down later this week.

I went swimming, first time in years.

My gym has a pool at the location nearest home, there are actually several public pools nearby, outdoors and probably more fun but since this is part of my membership why not go?

I'll need goggles if I keep this up. My eyes gave out before it did. But it felt great. Thanks TE swimming thread for reminding me how much I love to swim.

After that I stopped by Sears "where America shops", I'm looking for a small patio table. Everything I see is humongous. I'll keep looking. Dear Marketing/design people, some of us just want room for 2 coffee cups, maybe a scone. That's all I need. I don't need something that fills the entire patio.

Now back home keeping my dog cool.

Congrats Makbike on the great century time!

Just got back from ride #2 here, 43 miles so around 80 total here today.

Lady was all decked out for the ride (and not a car honked at us, when we encountered one).

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3...n/IMG_0329.jpg

Ended up riding the last tough hilly 10 miles home in the pouring rain, but we still had fun!!

K.

Also, Trek, you should look around for 'cafe tables' or 'bistro' sets, they are the very small (enough for a coffee and scone!) round tables that usually come with 2 chairs. I think Target.com has some...

It sounds like we all had a very pleasant biking morning :D . I did a July 4th ride with about 1000 other people :eek: I did about 28 miles on some very steep hills. My legs were just burning with lactic acid and the sun was in my face, but before I knew it I was at the top (hey, somebody has to bring up the rear ;) ). The ride felt like an accomplishment and they had free beer at the end and a big party in the park :p .
I am now home for the day and we will be bbq'ing steaks later. It is so great to be an American!!

Kalidurga, MDHillSlug, Regina and her husband, my neighbors Anna and Julie, and I did a 9.75 mile MTB ride in Rosaryville State Park. As usual, it was great fun. This was MDHS's first ride in the woods, on her new Jamis Coda Comp with knobby tires. I overcame my jitters after about 3-4 miles, as this was my first MTB ride after my face plant a few weeks ago.

DH & I tried out a new trail south from Lincoln to parts still unknown. We stopped at noon in a little town for hamburgers and iced tea (and to cool off it was a bit on the warm side today).

We didn't make it to the end of the trail, as I have work to do and DH has to get ready to travel tomorrow. It's on the list, though, perhaps an over-nighter in Beatrice, the next town on.

The trail is a bit new, we had to walk our bikes over some bad bridges and ignore "Road Closed" signes, but we had a good time. Speeds were slow, as we were on gravel the whole way, but that's OK.

The root beer floats were nice, too. :)

DH and I went riding around our house. It's a 20 mile loop that we do a lot. We started around 8 am to beat the heat (it's over 100 today !!!!). As we were going up Mt. Baldy Road from Mills we saw some guys in a truck with mountain bikes in the back pulled over and looking at something in the bushes. We didn't stop but we were going to slow enough (as it's a steep uphill at this point) to see the cutest little black bear !!! Maybe he/she was trying to beat the heat too! Anyway, we kept riding and about 5 minutes or so later, pulled over to fix a flat on my bike. Well wouldn't you know that this was the time the mountain bike guys started honking their horn at the bear. All we could think of was the bear running up to where we were, etc. I have to say that that was the quickest tire I've ever seen DH change !! We were off uphill to the turn off towards Euclid Avenue to finish the rest of our ride without incident. Where is a camera when you really need one !?! Watch out Jiffers and Fredwina as I know you frequent this road a lot yourselves!!
Happy 4th to all !

Blessings!
Susan

DH and I joined our LBC for a special 4th of July ride in Fredericksburg, a quaint old German town in the texas hill country. Last night storms were predicted, so we were sure it was going to be cancelled, but at 6am things looked good so we headed out (bit of a drive). We started with a really nice ride at 8:30, I did the 38 and DH the 50 so we could get back at the same time. A couple that just had a baby couldn't decide who would get to ride and who would have to babysit, so they decided to share the ride and run a rest stop since it was so rural there were no convenience stores to get water at. She rode the first 25 miles, and then relieved him at the rest stop, well stocked with hydration and snacks. In fact, she even ended up loaning her wheel to a gal with a bad tire failure. Another cycling spouse took the older children of the other riding couples to the parade, so they could ride together instead of having to switch off to babysit. Then we all met at a restaurant for a really nice lunch afterwards, joined by some of the non-cycling family members. We did get rained on during the final 2 miles, but all in all a fun day was had by all! It was nice to ride in a different place, and the route that was selected was incredibly pretty and traffic free. I should have taken a camera to share!

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Originally Posted by Kimmyt

Also, Trek, you should look around for 'cafe tables' or 'bistro' sets, they are the very small (enough for a coffee and scone!) round tables that usually come with 2 chairs. I think Target.com has some...

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Thanks Kimmyt,
Have you thought about leaving the flags on if drivers treat you better? I've noticed even here in the bluest of blue states that I'm treated better in my one and only Red White and Blue jersey (A Rails to Trails jersey).

I'm shopping impaired, hate to shop unless it's bike stuff of course. I already checked Target', Lowes, Sears, Orchard Supply, a couple local nursery-garden supply spots, Homeless Depot, I refuse to go to Wallmart so don't tell me they have "bistro sets", don't care.... my local Ace has some :) , they are pricey but I know I can get 'em there and they are very simple and elegant not unlike me. ;)

Onward to Shopzilla to compare! Also may check around Sonoma when I go Friday to see my Mom.

Sorry for the hijack, gals. :)

Great ride with the D.C. T.E. gals - and my DH.
As DivingBiker noted, a bunch of us rode Rosaryville State Park for a sweet singletrack fix on Independence Day. With a few extra spurs, I got in a hair over 11 miles.
DH left our group when he hooked up with friends and discovered a whole new section of the park - definitely the "R" rated section to our "G" - well, perhaps PG-13 - ride!
Check out our route at: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Rosaryville-SP

DH and I opted out of the big 'Red White and Blue" local ride (too many people with lousy bike handling skills!) and drove up to a quiet county north of us. We love riding up there, and most of the time, we don't have time to do the drive and then the ride, so today was a good opportunity. We rode 45 miles of country roads in an incredibly unpredictable wind. It was DH's first ride on a new bike, so we didn't want to go too far, so it was just right.

The route we chose only had 3 major climbs. The nice thing about today's ride was that mother nature aparently felt badly about the wind, because she was super nice to us on the climbs. Each time we started climbing, a big cloud moved in to cover the sun and offer some otherwise nonexistent shade! Temps never got much above 95 either.

All in all, we had a fun ride.

Happy 4th of July to all!!

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Originally Posted by divingbiker

Kalidurga, MDHillSlug, Regina and her husband, my neighbors Anna and Julie, and I did a 9.75 mile MTB ride in Rosaryville State Park. As usual, it was great fun. This was MDHS's first ride in the woods, on her new Jamis Coda Comp with knobby tires. I overcame my jitters after about 3-4 miles, as this was my first MTB ride after my face plant a few weeks ago.

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Yes, my first dirt ride and boy did the bike look it. I had to hose it down before I took it into the house.

I was an absolute newbie, riding the least competent bike of the group.

I also had the distinction to be the only one to fall, twice, (but we won't talk about the first one). I have a bruised right hip, but my left ankle came through it all fine.

Check out these dirty legs!
http://home.comcast.net/~nicole.thom...yLegs_0207.jpg

I rode with my bike club in the towns parade. It is sure hard to ride at 2mph lol.
I have to say this was a lot of fun. We put the American Flag on our bikes and gave bike pins to all the kids.

I rode to there from home so at least I got to some regular riding in there also.

~ JoAnn

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...G_0363_Kim.jpg

Sorry for the grainy quality. I had to just shoot at the portion of the field she was in and hope for the best after a lot of trimming. I was strategically positioned in front of our new Peets Coffee so as to catch her after the ride, baiting the trap so to speak.:D

Easy to get in the mood around here in July.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...G_0361_TDF.jpg

did a 26 mile loop around our house and we took some new roads (not a preplanned, we just went). It's been nice to expand our riding territory this year. Today's route was much flatter than what we've been riding the past several times out but we still managed to log decent elevation gain. There were no dirt roads today... the sun was out and it was very warm for the early part of the ride so we eventually worked our way back to more backroads with trees. Phew. Had a good ride overall.

We got back to the house, changed, and got our kayaking gear together as we met up with friends and headed out for a few hours of paddling. During this time it got overcast and rainy, but we all had rainjackets and it was still a great time. The nice thing about kayaking in the rain is it drives a lot of people away. We had many sections of the water all to ourselves. It stopped for a while, and then just as we hit the boat ramp it started again.

So, a tale of two activities, two types of weather, and all in all perfect.

Oh, in ref to above comment... we've been "finding" dirt roads on a lot of our more exploratory rides recently... the below is a pic of me on one from Sunday's ride. This one was not rideable, but luckily we knew it was a short connector to pavement and just walked it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/m750/684951499/

I was SO looking forward to today's ride to the beach on the tandem with our tandem buddies. We were SO going to kick butt! Dh has gotten so strong in the past few months, and I've gotten stronger since the last time we rode with our tandem friends.

Everything was going well until the first hill. Hills have become my husband's specialty on his single. He's much stronger at them than his buddy who was on the other tandem. However, we were so weak on every hill we hit. In fact, about 20 miles into the ride, we were both commenting on how dead we felt. The next 10 miles or so were fairly tough for me as I was lacking energy, the "hoo ha" was hurting, the backs of my thighs were feeling weird (I think I need to try other saddles) and my muscles just didn't want to push any more.

We took a good 10 minute break and it helped. A little later we found ourselves drafting with a group of guys, which helped with the energy level and made the ride more exciting. We were passing people like crazy the farther we got to the beach. The bike trail was full of all sorts of interesting folks.

When we 1st got to the beach, we had gone 54 miles from our house. It took us 2:49 minutes of actual riding. We conitnued on the beach path through the circus of beach people celebrating 4th of July. It was overcast and cool. We forgot they had a 5k & 10k run there every year (which we've done before), plus a parade, so it was even more craziness everywhere. Kind of exciting, but made it hard to get to and even figure out where they had parked the truck the night before. I was so ready to get off the bike and was emotionally spent. Therefore, when I heard the words, "Oo! A tandem!" and was slammed with a water balloon ... I was SOOOOO not happy about it. I found myself in misery for the next 30 minutes as we finally found the truck, loaded the bikes and headed to lunch. My entire front side was soaked and I was now cold and wet with nothing to change into (that won't happen again). To add to it all, I was PMS-ing, so I kept finding myself crying over the ridiculousness of it all!

Luckily, Dh offered me a t-shirt he had and it was big enough for me to take off my wet bra and not be obvious. We ended up at a Mexican Restaurant sitting outside, away from the beach where it was actually sunny, which was perfect. I warmed up in the sun and hid from anyone who thought I might look ridiculous. :)

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Originally Posted by Regina

Great ride with the D.C. T.E. gals - and my DH.
As DivingBiker noted, a bunch of us rode Rosaryville State Park for a sweet singletrack fix on Independence Day. With a few extra spurs, I got in a hair over 11 miles.
DH left our group when he hooked up with friends and discovered a whole new section of the park - definitely the "R" rated section to our "G" - well, perhaps PG-13 - ride!
Check out our route at: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Rosaryville-SP

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Hmmm, bikely.com's being temperamental this morning and won't load the map. I ended up with just over 14 miles, due to my exploration of the rest of the park before you guys got there.

Definitely a good ride. I wasn't quite as comfortable this time around, and my squealing brakes probably scared off all the wildlife within 5 miles, but I definitely want to get back out there again.

Regina, we should check out that "R" rated section to see if there are any good vantage spots where we can sit and watch the boys hurt themelves :D