Chilly Hilly Potty Parity ride
Today was the cascade bike club's Chilly Hilly ride; the official start to bicycling season here in the Seattle Area.
Chilly hilly starts on a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. Your entry fee includes the ferry fare, which is nice...
It is incredible to see how many people show up for this ride!
There were thousands of bikes. They had 3 lines, Fast, Medium and Slow. Raleighdon pushed us into the fast lane. We stood there for about 5 minutes surrounded by giants on race bikes bragging about how fast they were and I guess dear old D realized how uncomfortable I was. So we went into the medium lanes; (we're still just waiting for the ferry) there were 4 portapottys there, so I naturally got into the line and used one.
We got onto the ferry; it was, again, a sea of bikes. Bikes on the walls, bikes on the floors, new bikes, old bikes, red bikes, blue bikes, Raleighs, Tommasini's, Davidsons, you name it. plenty of MTB's were there too.
I had to go to the bathroom again, but there was a holdup. There was a huge line it wrapped around 1 side of the ferry; and it clogged the aisle. Then it hit me!! the line was MEN! :eek:
I hurried past the men and got to the lady's room. NO LINE! :D:D:D:D
There was NO line at the lady's room and a killer line for the men's.
All the ladies inside were giggling and smiling with this unusual turn of events. :rolleyes:
This is really a challenging ride for a lot of reasons. There are a lot of bikes, a lot of beginners, and a lot of hills, both UP and DOWN. So you're going up the hill and people are going all sorts of speeds and all sorts of directions. People are stopping and falling because they don't know how to unclip, or they have their chains crossed and can't shift right. Then you get to the top and the new danger are the big boys who are blasting through at high speed, passing on the right and left.
We passed the first potty stop because I wanted to get out of the thick of it. After that it was a little less crowded.
We went up several challenging hills, two which averaged 9-10% grade, long and grueling. Many people walked up those hills. Finally a potty stop, complete with food and vendors selling their new products. The bathrooms were up the hill on the other side of the park, and we headed there first, because there was QUITE a line. As I got closer, I thought, that's weird is the lady's room closed? NOT CLOSED, there was just NO LINE!!
I got in there and had it to myself. Another jubilant lady followed me. Gosh, it was amazing I got in and out long before DH got in. HAHA.
Back on the bikes, finally warmish, at about mile 20. We then went up a hill that was more like a wall. 16% grade at its worse, mostly 14% oh, my legs were starting to hurt.
but I got up the silly thing. And the next, and the next.
The hills never stopped, and there's always a hill right before a ferry terminal.
On the ferry coming back I was really getting into the fact that 80 or 90% of the riders were men. We sat down in a booth with 6 buff looking young men complaining about their leg cramps and general out of shaped-ness. They shared popcorn with me.
We rode the last half mile to our car once off the ferry and piled in and went home
35 miles, 2440 feet of climb
