Been on a bicycle kick lately. I begrudgingly started it as a way to help with my less than gung-ho dieting I’ve been attempting. In that time, I have discovered I really enjoy it as a hobby. As I told a friend, it’s like jogging for fat people. You reach a point where you stop focusing on the difficulty of pedaling, and just glide with the bike and enjoy the scenery.

It’s also given me a chance to explore the area where I live in more detail and appreciate the great beauty around me. Today was the second time I made a circuit that took me half on a country road and half on a packed rock trail. I bought a gps mount for the bicycle and was able to see the trip was a full 10 miles. A much more enjoyable ten miles that last week’s mountain trail ride with Jason. My average speed was 10 mph, and somehow I got up to a max speed of 35 mph.

At the end of the trail I ran into this only piece of obvious graffiti.

I’m willing to forgive the persons enthusiasm at riding the trail on fixed gear bike as I just purchased a fixed gear bike myself. It’s a brand new Redline 9-2-5 2008 model in a very retro tan and burnt red paint scheme. The 2008 models haven’t even shipped yet, so it may still be another week or two before it’s delivered to my local bike shop and assembled.

As with many things in this world of ever increasing complexity, people are rebelling against the push and moving back to a cleaner, simpler way of doing things. This push has reached the bicycling world in the form of fixed-gear and single-speed bikes. Both use a single sprocket in the front and rear of the bike. They are lighter, easier to maintain, and free the rider from constantly having to break concentration to focus on switching gears. My Redline 9-2-5 has a flip-flop rear end that allows me to ride in fixed-gear mode, meaning a zero coasting always spinning pedal, or single-speed mode that has coasting. I’ll start out with the single-speed mode and maybe try the fixed-gear after a while.

Either way, I look forward to my first “new”, “real” bike and the oneness with the bike and the road I’ll hopefully derive from the simplicity of a single speed.

Well, the bike and hike was canceled, as Jason’s dog was sick and Jason couldn’t camp overnight. We were able to do the 5 mile bike in, then turn right around and bike 5 miles out.

However, Jason’s memory of the trail was completely and utterly wrong. This trail was all uphill, all rocks, and even some ledge climbing and fording streams - with our bikes on our backs.

After we actually survived, I decided it was a great adventure. During the times I was planing over beds of rocks, or dodging grapefruit size boulders, I wasn’t too sure.

I took only one dive at low speed on an uphill. Jason fell so many times I lost count. His only damage was his pride and an old GPS unit he had in his backpack. To his credit, he was riding a bike with egg-beater pedals and thin cyclocross tires. His new 800 dollar bike he just had to test out. I was on my trusty 50 dollar Trek 820. Only one on-trail repair, a screw fell out of my luggage rack.

Onto the photos:

These first three are the first bridge we came upon. Lovely small rocky waterfall and clear pool below.

We actually thought we hit the end of the trail here. We were confused though as the GPS said we traveled only 4 miles, not five. As we climbed some very large boulders to the left, we saw a small stream, then a very narrow trail continuing on. We had to climb carrying our bikes to reach it.

Trails end, at least for us. Shortly after this the path becomes hikeable only. The picture doesn’t do the waterfall justice. It’s a massive rock face climbing to the sky with water pouring powerfully down it. Below is a large crystal clear pool that leads off again as a stream.

After a rest and some food and drink, we turned around and did it again. Returning was downhill and much better going except for a few very rocky patches. We ended up completing the 10 miles in about 4 hours.

The view on my after work bike ride….

Found this in my drafts folder… About three weeks old…
At Bellevues ‘Absolutely Puppies’ dreaming of rescuing the puppy mill doggies…

A local free newspaper has a column called “Uptight Seattleite“.. It’s supposed to be a parody of the overly conscious people here in the Northwest. However, I don’t find it funny, I find it SPOT ON… Guess I’m one of those Uptight Seattleites..

Dear Uptight Seattleite,

What’s with that creepy way people on Seattle streets look at but don’t really see one another? Where I hail from (hint: It’s the real “most liberal city in America”), people make eye contact, say hello, and smile. It doesn’t matter if they’re strangers or neighbors.

In Seattle, it seems like people passing in the street give the appearance of making eye contact, but never really look at one another long enough to establish anything resembling acknowledgement or communication. They glance furtively, then avert their eyes to avoid interaction, or mime a vacant smile while staring blankly ahead. WTFU with that? It’s pathetic and offensive as hell.

Not A Zombie

Dear Not,

Gosh, with your attitude, I’m really surprised you don’t have more positive interactions! No, but seriously, I’m a bit puzzled by your question. Seattle is a very friendly city, unless by “friendly” you mean the kind of superficial friendliness common in one of the West Coast states to the south of us (hint: It’s not Oregon). Like, “Hi, what’s your name? My name’s Chad! Let’s be best friends forever! Let’s swap wives!”

That’s not us, “bro.” The Northwest is characterized by its soulful reticence. Those people who avert their eyes on the street are not disrespecting you. They are granting you space. Space under our tranquil gray skies to be yourself, to be at peace, to just be. The suppressed half-smile is the emblem of the personal air space that has been granted to you, no matter how unappreciative you may be. “You’ve got your own thing going,” says the half-smile of the Northwest, “and so do I. Proceed as you will through life’s journey. Let’s not violate the subtlety of our understanding by crassly speaking out loud.”

Another:

Dear Uptight Seattleite,

I was leaving the Essential Bakery in Madison Valley a while back with two young children in tow when a man followed me out the door to point out, accusingly, that we were expected to bus our own tables inside. I had not done so but was taken aback by his pursuit. While I admit I transgressed, is it reasonable to police the busing behaviors of others?

Busted

Dear Busted,

Please help me understand. I assume there was some kind of emergency. Maybe one of your children, or both, were bleeding from their necks? In such a situation, yes, of course, it might well be understandable that you wouldn’t do a full clearing of your table (though you could have perhaps at least thrown away your trash).

Or was there some other reason that you mentioned the presence of your children? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you didn’t expect that the cafe, or society as a whole, would accord you some sort of special treatment because you made the choice to reproduce.

Let’s back up a moment and imagine this situation from the man’s perspective. He’s quietly going about his business—drinking his coffee, reading his paper, and watching you carefully from an adjoining table. Sure, he thinks, that woman may have children, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s insensitive about the larger footprint she therefore makes on the Earth. I’m sure she will, if anything, be even more diligent about her responsibilities. She certainly wouldn’t expect minimum-wage workers to clean up after her. Or so he thinks.

And then he sees you get up and leave your napkins, cups, and maybe a diaper or two all over the table. As if the words “please bus your own table” were not carefully printed in sun-faded marker and affixed with cellophane tape above the cream station. He could have simply shaken his head sadly and gone back to his soy latte. But no, he chose to take advantage of the teaching moment that was presented to him. Just as he took the higher path, I encourage you, too, to enlarge your view of the matter. It’s not every day that we are afforded such an opportunity to reflect productively upon our actions.

Visited the Tattoo Expo at the Seattle Center on a whim after brunch at B&O Espresso…

Friday at work Jason brought up the idea of a combination biking and hiking adventure. He said it would be an “easy” 6 mile bike and 6 mile hike to some particular wonderful lake. We’d camp over one night, then hike back to our bikes (that we left chained to trees) and bike the rest of the way out to the parking lot and our cars.

While this sounded to me like something a tri-athlete would do, not doughy tech industry guys, Jason assured me it would be easy and fun. I mostly agreed to it since Jason is just about as doughy and inactive as me. I imagine the point he would start crying and curl up into a fetal ball begging for his mommy to be roughly fifteen minutes after me.

So, first step was to buy a cheap but decent mountain bike for the adventure. One that we wouldn’t be too crushed about if it walked off during the night we camped over at the lake. I was the first to strike gold with a very nice Trek 820 from a 10 minute old craigslist posting. Googling shows the overall opinion of the bike to be a nice entry-level “real” bike. Definitely better that any K-Mart or Target bike. What really sold it for me was the brand new tires, brand new pedals, and a rear luggage rack. All for only 50 bucks..

Here’s Sarah taking it for a spin today. This ones mine though. She can get her own…