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08-16-09, 02:32 AM
So I went out for a ride Saturday afternoon. The idea was to take Lake WA loop south to Coal Creek, then climb over Cougar Mt. to Issaquah, do a loop around Lake Sammamish, and go home through Marymoor up the 520 trail.
Let's begin, shall we?
I put on my best singlet and shorts, Giro Advantage helmet, and took my fancy bike. Got out of the garage and found my street closed due to construction: no right turn due south. I had to turn left/north instead, and go around the block through heavy traffic. Okey dokey...
I made it about 3-4 miles south to the spot where the bike lane becomes a trail just south of the I-90 overpass. I took a sharp curve and almost ran into a full size DUMP TRUCK COMING RIGHT AT ME. <blink> WTF??? <stop> <unclip> No really, WTF is this??? The road crews have been shoring up the embankment, which is of course next to the bike trail. Some genius decided that the easiest way for them to get at the embankment was to drive a truck up the bike trail. They had a guy there directing traffic, but he failed miserably because I ran into the truck first, and him second. The truck was still driving toward me slowly. Three more cyclists showed up and they too stopped in the path of the truck. The truck was just about as wide as the trail so there was no passing it, and it wasn’t possible to get off the trail (retaining wall on one side, a fence on the other). The spotter guy tried to tell us four what to do and where to dismount to get out of truck's way. Unfortunately, the spotter turned out to be Boomhower from King of The Hill. All I heard was: man... truck... dismount... trail... man... truck... over here... trail… man. :D The other three cyclists were just as bewildered as I. We gave up on him, turned around and went back north toward I-90.
I took the I-90 trail to Factoria, managed to dodge all the Saturday shoppers, and then Factoria Blvd south to Coal Creek and then the plan was to start the Cougar climb up the Newcastle Golf Club Road. Unfortunately there was more construction on Factoria right at the Golf Club Road intersection. The left turn lane was coned off. I had to use the crosswalk to get to the other side and start the climb.
The climb itself was uneventful. This side is a LOT easier to climb than the famous Cougar Mt. Zoo Road: 4.5 miles and 1400 feet as opposed to just 2 miles and the same 1400 feet. I got to 60th and yes continued up the small winding road all the way to the antenna towers at the top of the mountain.
I wanted to see how fast I could descend down the Zoo Road side. Alas, half way down and going at breakneck speeds I noticed that my wireless computer had gone to sleep and it wasn’t collecting any data. *$@#$@&&#! I climbed back up; yeah I climbed back up the steeper side and went at it again, this time with a working speed readout. I hit 46 mph. My rear wheel had slipped at every switchback and I almost went off the road into the woods once. (I’m never doing this again BTW, unless I’m racing. It isn’t worth risking a serious crash.)
On the way to Issaquah I discovered pavement on Newport Way so new and fresh it was crunching under my wheels. The tires somehow made it through a mile of this pavement and I found myself in Issaquah at highway 900. Construction crews have coned off much of highway 900 in this area so again I had to improvise to get across, or risk crashing on rough pavement or getting hit by a car.
I stopped by Veloce Velo, bought some gel and a couple of Livestrong bracelets, and proceeded north to East Lake Sammamish. I knew ahead of time there was construction at East Lake Sammamish and Inglewood and that I’d get stuck for 5-10 minutes and would have to be patient. But no, actually East Lake Sammamish was completely closed and detoured to 43th/228th up through city of Sammamish. Those of you riding in this area will know that the 43rd is a pretty serious climb, and the 228th undulates up and down about three times before it finally spills onto 202 in Redmond. I just climbed Cougar Mt twice and was forced to do more climbing??? That was NOT fun. The 228th was apparently in the process of being repaved from the Sahalee Country Club to the 202. A full 2 mile stretch of Sahalee Way has been scraped and the pavement grooved, cracked and badly uneven and potholed. Have you ever ridden on grooved pavement? It sucks, right? Have you ever ridden 2 miles on grooved pavement? OMG that hurt and it shook the crap out of me! I don’t know how I made it to 202 without crashing or at least getting a flat tire.
I made it to Redmond via the Hwy 202. The bike lane which parallels 202 was closed half way through Redmond due to highway construction. I followed the detour signs and they took me to… a dead end at a grocery store parking lot??? I was getting cranky and impatient at this point. I whipped the bike around and sprinted right through the heavy traffic on 202/Redmond way.
The climb up the 520 trail was uneventful. The 520 climb must be conquered to get home, and by definition this climb comes at the end of every ride so legs are tired. This climb is just a chore, really. Anyway, at the top of the climb the trail was closed due to construction at the Microsoft campus. <shakes fist at Balmer> The detour is 148th Ave which is of course a major 40mph road with NO SHOULDER OR BIKE LANES. Sigh. I made it through that okay and finally arrived home.
So… how was your ride? :D
Let's begin, shall we?
I put on my best singlet and shorts, Giro Advantage helmet, and took my fancy bike. Got out of the garage and found my street closed due to construction: no right turn due south. I had to turn left/north instead, and go around the block through heavy traffic. Okey dokey...
I made it about 3-4 miles south to the spot where the bike lane becomes a trail just south of the I-90 overpass. I took a sharp curve and almost ran into a full size DUMP TRUCK COMING RIGHT AT ME. <blink> WTF??? <stop> <unclip> No really, WTF is this??? The road crews have been shoring up the embankment, which is of course next to the bike trail. Some genius decided that the easiest way for them to get at the embankment was to drive a truck up the bike trail. They had a guy there directing traffic, but he failed miserably because I ran into the truck first, and him second. The truck was still driving toward me slowly. Three more cyclists showed up and they too stopped in the path of the truck. The truck was just about as wide as the trail so there was no passing it, and it wasn’t possible to get off the trail (retaining wall on one side, a fence on the other). The spotter guy tried to tell us four what to do and where to dismount to get out of truck's way. Unfortunately, the spotter turned out to be Boomhower from King of The Hill. All I heard was: man... truck... dismount... trail... man... truck... over here... trail… man. :D The other three cyclists were just as bewildered as I. We gave up on him, turned around and went back north toward I-90.
I took the I-90 trail to Factoria, managed to dodge all the Saturday shoppers, and then Factoria Blvd south to Coal Creek and then the plan was to start the Cougar climb up the Newcastle Golf Club Road. Unfortunately there was more construction on Factoria right at the Golf Club Road intersection. The left turn lane was coned off. I had to use the crosswalk to get to the other side and start the climb.
The climb itself was uneventful. This side is a LOT easier to climb than the famous Cougar Mt. Zoo Road: 4.5 miles and 1400 feet as opposed to just 2 miles and the same 1400 feet. I got to 60th and yes continued up the small winding road all the way to the antenna towers at the top of the mountain.
I wanted to see how fast I could descend down the Zoo Road side. Alas, half way down and going at breakneck speeds I noticed that my wireless computer had gone to sleep and it wasn’t collecting any data. *$@#$@&&#! I climbed back up; yeah I climbed back up the steeper side and went at it again, this time with a working speed readout. I hit 46 mph. My rear wheel had slipped at every switchback and I almost went off the road into the woods once. (I’m never doing this again BTW, unless I’m racing. It isn’t worth risking a serious crash.)
On the way to Issaquah I discovered pavement on Newport Way so new and fresh it was crunching under my wheels. The tires somehow made it through a mile of this pavement and I found myself in Issaquah at highway 900. Construction crews have coned off much of highway 900 in this area so again I had to improvise to get across, or risk crashing on rough pavement or getting hit by a car.
I stopped by Veloce Velo, bought some gel and a couple of Livestrong bracelets, and proceeded north to East Lake Sammamish. I knew ahead of time there was construction at East Lake Sammamish and Inglewood and that I’d get stuck for 5-10 minutes and would have to be patient. But no, actually East Lake Sammamish was completely closed and detoured to 43th/228th up through city of Sammamish. Those of you riding in this area will know that the 43rd is a pretty serious climb, and the 228th undulates up and down about three times before it finally spills onto 202 in Redmond. I just climbed Cougar Mt twice and was forced to do more climbing??? That was NOT fun. The 228th was apparently in the process of being repaved from the Sahalee Country Club to the 202. A full 2 mile stretch of Sahalee Way has been scraped and the pavement grooved, cracked and badly uneven and potholed. Have you ever ridden on grooved pavement? It sucks, right? Have you ever ridden 2 miles on grooved pavement? OMG that hurt and it shook the crap out of me! I don’t know how I made it to 202 without crashing or at least getting a flat tire.
I made it to Redmond via the Hwy 202. The bike lane which parallels 202 was closed half way through Redmond due to highway construction. I followed the detour signs and they took me to… a dead end at a grocery store parking lot??? I was getting cranky and impatient at this point. I whipped the bike around and sprinted right through the heavy traffic on 202/Redmond way.
The climb up the 520 trail was uneventful. The 520 climb must be conquered to get home, and by definition this climb comes at the end of every ride so legs are tired. This climb is just a chore, really. Anyway, at the top of the climb the trail was closed due to construction at the Microsoft campus. <shakes fist at Balmer> The detour is 148th Ave which is of course a major 40mph road with NO SHOULDER OR BIKE LANES. Sigh. I made it through that okay and finally arrived home.
So… how was your ride? :D