March cycling: In like the Lion of Flanders, out like...?

[rebeccaC]

I spent last week riding in the Santa Monica Mountains

I was hoping you were going to post They do think it though well!!

Those photos give an excellent feel of those routes! I’m soooo glad you had a good time. You had an unusual heat wave, a friend said it was hot. There’s now one person who will know the canyon roads I’m talking about. How would you compare it to your other away rides?

You get to know where the water is after some riding and talking with people….lots of outdoor faucets with good water.

[khg]

How would you compare it to your other away rides?

You get to know where the water is after some riding and talking with people….lots of outdoor faucets with good water.

It was a really nice way to have a spring challenge--the riding was definitely hard, but there were fewer feet of elevation/mile than my Dolomites trip last summer (I'm going back this summer!!!!! Yay!!!!) It was also nice that the climbs were relatively "short"--I think the most elevation gain at one go was 2200', and most climbs were more like 1500'-2000'. We have a couple training hills that locally that are 1200'-1500' (in just 2.5-5 miles) so it was nice mentally to be able to tell myself that the upcoming climb was barely more than I'm used to at home, and likely less steep. The terrain was a fabulous mix--some long steady climbs, some with really varying slope. I'd definitely like to ride there again--but winter might be my best time of year!

Having the local knowledge of water and such would be great--it would be really fun to be able to just head out and do these rides. But I will say that it was awfully nice to get to the top of a climb and be greeted with smiling faces, camp chairs, food, water, a van that I could throw stuff into or take stuff out of, etc This supported riding thing is kind of addictive...

And after these few days of rest, I'm ready for my next adventure--on Friday my husband and I bike up to Whidbey Island for a couple nights there, then back on Sunday. We've been wanting to do this for a while, and it just happened that the first weekend that worked with both of our schedules was also our anniversary. So by accident, we're actually doing something for our anniversary--this might be a first...

[azfiddle]

I love all the pictures- beautiful. How do you guys get the full size pics in your posts? Mine just come out as thumbnails.

I rode ALL the way up Mt. Lemmon last Saturday- 65 miles round trip, over 7000 feet of climbing. A little chilly up at 8000 feet! I was glad I brought an extra layer and knee warmers. I rode solo- and it took 4 1/2 hours of riding time going up (more because of various stops) to get to Summerhaven at the top (skipped the last 2 steep miles to the ski lift). A little over an hour to go back down. I shaved off 5 miles and met my husband by the base instead of riding home.

[khg]

I love all the pictures- beautiful. How do you guys get the full size pics in your posts? Mine just come out as thumbnails.

It took me a while (and some googling) to figure out the pictures. Mine are on flickr, and basically you have to get a flicker link that is a direct jpeg address. On flickr, if you click on a photo's share button, then on the BBCode option, you can choose photo size, and then get a line of code that (leaving aside the brackets and the actual addresses) reads something like

url=httpstuff img httpstuff /img /url

followed by url=httpstuff and photo title /url by url my flickr id /url on flickr

I copy and paste all that, then delete the second half of it, so I have the url img /img /url part, and voila, the photo appears.

That's how it works for flickr photos. I've also used photos from my blog, and in that case, I just insert the photo's specific address (I just click on the photo in the blog entry, then copy/paste the web address that the photo itself has) using img /img (plus appropriate brackets).

If you hit "reply with quote" to someone's post (with photos you like), you'll see in the quoted section how it works. The basic idea is that you need a stable web address ending in .jpg for your photo, either by it being hosted on flickr or similar, or on your own website, and you insert that with proper html, and then the image gets retrieved in the process of posting to the forum. And that is the workaround I have figured out for posting something larger than a thumbnail.

[khg]

I rode ALL the way up Mt. Lemmon last Saturday- 65 miles round trip, over 7000 feet of climbing. A little chilly up at 8000 feet! I was glad I brought an extra layer and knee warmers. I rode solo- and it took 4 1/2 hours of riding time going up (more because of various stops) to get to Summerhaven at the top (skipped the last 2 steep miles to the ski lift). A little over an hour to go back down. I shaved off 5 miles and met my husband by the base instead of riding home.

By the way, nice ride! It only took me once to learn to bring *warm* things on a mountain climb, no matter how warm the weather at the bottom. It gets really cold up there, especially when that air starts rushing by you at 30+ mph!

[rebeccaC]

Hoping you’re having a great anniversary weekend khg!!!....and that was a good description of your rides. thanks

Azfiddle….you've been doing some good climbs!!!! I’ll second Flickr….easy to sign up, just getting a yahoo email address that you never have to use. I’ll also re-sign up getting a new email for just a days/event photos I want to share with certain people who may want to download an original file for a print, which you can’t do on my main flickr site because I have settings that won’t allow it. As khg explained it’s very easy to get the code to just copy and paste into a post for showing a photo the size you want. The santa monica photos kgh posted look like 800 pixel size and I post 1024 pixel one’s for more detail.


Doing some work in Portland so friends (my STP riding friends) set me up with a bike (a beautiful purple Sweetpea) and we went for a ride. Drove south to the Champoeg state park and then we did a round trip bike ride to the Ankeny wildlife refuge south of Independence Or. on the Willamette Valley scenic bikeway. The bikeway is a wonderfully scenic route that follows the Willamette river, is 135 miles long and ends just north of Eugene Or. I’d really like to do the whole route someday. Wonderful pastoral settings with farmland, hop fields, some vineyards, grazing alpacas, sheep, cows to moo to, covered bridges, a 250 year old black cottonwood, a Blue Heron at the wildlife refuge that unfolded its huge wings and flew away when we accidentally startled it and a quaint small ferry ride. We rode through a few small towns and the larger Salem. No real climbing, mostly rolling hills and some short climbs up river bluffs. Weather was in the high 50’s to middle 60’s with the occasional cross wind but mostly tail winds going south and slight headwinds by the time we headed back north….109 miles total. It was nice not worrying about where the route was as I just followed my friends who have done the whole route a few times. A farmer had put a large hand painted sign in his field close to the road that said ‘life is an adventure’…..indeed

Rewarded myself with some ice cream at Salt and Straw when we got back to Portland. They opened a store in LA around 6 months ago so I knew how good it is…..Chocolate gooey brownie ice cream ftw

[Crankin]

Unlike all of you doing big climbs and 50-100 mile rides, I am just getting back into the season. Even though 12 weeks is not a long time to be off the bike, and I certainly did enough x country skiing/snow shoeing/gym work to stay fit, every year it's the same for me. I have to go through a few weeks of suffering, even on short rides. It's mostly my legs, not my endurance.
Yesterday we had snow showers all day. Today is about 40 and bright sun. Waited until it hit 40 to go out, so a 16.5 mile ride that is sort of flat, except for the beginning and the end, about 800 feet of climbing. Monument St. in Concord is full of dangerous pot holes; the town just fixed these last year, and now it's worse. I am so glad we changed the location of a group ride we lead in early May, because I don't want to take a group of people I don't know down this hill.
Speed was better than Wednesday, but way off my average on this particular ride. I am going to ride to work Tuesday and do a group ride Wednesday.

[marni]

and I'm sure that you thoroughly enjoyed Californias brief 10 day spring green period which can be so clearly seen in all of your beautiful photos. Amazing, a car free ride. If only.

[khg]

We had a lovely weekend up on Whidbey Island. It was a 27 mile ride from Seattle to the Mukilteo Ferry, and it was a better ride than I anticipated. The Interurban trail has been much improved since I last rode it, and even a lot of the suburban unfriendliness of Snohomish County has a bike lane or a reasonable shoulder. Then, after a short ferry ride, just 6 more miles or scenic island roads, and we were at vacation!

The best part was even though the bike ride wasn't too strenuous (we both took it easy, and had a huge tailwind), it was just enough to help work up a good appetite for the wonderful dinner we had reservations for.

Though I took no ride photos (the Mukilteo Speedway just isn't that scenic), here's my bike on the balcony of our room:



And a couple of the views we had:







Biking into a monster headwind today to get home seemed like an appropriate way to be welcomed back to real life... But headwind and all, it was really fun to get there under our own power. I foresee more trips like this in the future!

[VeganBikeChick]

Beautiful pics! And looks like you had gorgeous weather, too. I'm moving back to Seattle in a few weeks and your pics make me happy

[Jolt]

19 fairly hilly miles today, with quite a bit of wind at times. I've decided crosswinds are worse than headwinds...headwinds make me have to work harder, but crosswinds are just nerve-racking! At one point as I was going down a hill, I felt like I was about to get blown into the crapload of sand on the side of the road, which might well have resulted in a wipeout. Other than that, the ride felt pretty good for being about the third one of the season so far. Only averaged 12.5 mph though...I guess the headwind at the beginning and my slow climbing really brought down the average, because I felt like I was really cruising along nicely during the second half of the ride.

[khg]

19 fairly hilly miles today, with quite a bit of wind at times. I've decided crosswinds are worse than headwinds...headwinds make me have to work harder, but crosswinds are just nerve-racking! At one point as I was going down a hill, I felt like I was about to get blown into the crapload of sand on the side of the road, which might well have resulted in a wipeout. Other than that, the ride felt pretty good for being about the third one of the season so far. Only averaged 12.5 mph though...I guess the headwind at the beginning and my slow climbing really brought down the average, because I felt like I was really cruising along nicely during the second half of the ride.

I totally agree about crosswinds--they can be really scary! On one climb I did, the wind was strong and unpredictable/gusty, and before I knew it, I was riding perpendicular to the road in the downhill (opposite) lane. It was just luck that there were no cars or cyclists coming down at that moment. After a couple more moments like that, I decided that walking my bike up the rest of the way would be just fine. Better to swallow my pride and still be alive to tell about it.

Did you see any of the highlights from Gent Wevelgem? It was so bad that even the pros were getting blown off the road



Only 39 finished out of almost 200 starters...

[Crankin]

I did my first commute of the year today, a whole 10.4 miles RT. 36 degrees in the AM at 9, 46 on the way home at 6:20. Slow, but fun. Only one big pot hole from the storms had to be avoided on the way home, as the rest have been filled. Anything else was there last year! Been wearing my heated gloves, which work very well. We got them at half price, and that pretty much solves my cold weather riding problems. Any other gloves/mittens that kept me warm compromised my shifting and made my hands feel strangulated. I've had everything else dialed in for a couple of years.
Don't think I'll be commuting again this week, but I am going on a hard group ride tomorrow.