July 14th Rides

[tulip]

My Bastille Day morning commute was fun, as I got into some traffic and had no choice but to go with the flow, which I did, right next to a bus. While I don't recommend doing that, at the time it was all I could do, given the volume of traffic. The speed was fast for me, about 25-27 mph, but luckily I was able to pull ahead and get on a quieter road. Whew!

I'm looking forward to a more relaxed pm commute (man, it's muggy!)

Bonne Fete!

[Fredwina]

I've been meaning to try and see how far I could make it up Mt. Baldy road. Today was the day. Started out on the wrong foot by forgetting my camera, after retrieving it, I was off. It was the usual rote through Upland. I was passed by a couple of guy who suggest I needed a lower gear . Sorry, but I was already in my 30X27. They pulled off at Sh inn Road. What wimps! I slugged my way up to the Hogsback, Taking a couple of rests along the way. The first photo was from one of those. I resumed going up the grade and made it to first goal of the day: Baldy Village and 4,000 feet (started the day at 1,200 feet) I also saw a neat yucca plant. The grade leveled out at bit. so I decided to press on. I wanted to make to Icehouse canyon, but wound up turning around at Baldy rest. You can see my bike, as well the view back down the hill. I took a little different route home. Met an Incycle Racer on the way down, how as giving me and odd look(Fat old broads shouldn't do baldy! You could the smoke from the fire out near Caligirl, which was about 80 miles away. I was going to take a photo, but was not sure if would turn out. Turns out, I was Half mile short of Icehouse. Darn! Took me about the same amount of time as took doing the Santa Ana Trail last weekend, but with considerably less distance. Next time : The switchbacks!

[Quillfred]

Good for you Fredwina. Thanks for sharing the pics.

I have almost convinced myself that I love hills. Well I mostly do anyway. I figure you get alot of bang for your buck with 'em.

So I decided to run errands on Fred today. I packed up my SS package and went to the Post Office and then on accross town to Northgate Group Health. Lots of hilly between. Met some friendly Good Sams on the way when I sat down huffin' and puffin' looking at my official Seattle commuter map. They also said they liked to run errands on bike. Got to love Seattle.

Quillfred