One of the Seattle area's great summer treats are wild blackberries, which take over abandoned lots, roadsides and bike path rights of way.
They're tasty come late August and September, but think kudzu with thorns the rest of the growing season. A shoot can grow 30 feet in a year, and blackberry plants alongside bike paths can send prickly obstacles through fences.
That's how I ran afoul of a thorny shoot on a gloomy evening, looking down to check my gears and glancing up just in time to get raked across my nose by a blackberry branch. Boy, did that hurt. I hate it when that happens.
That minor mishap was the only bicycling displeasure for me this month. My son and I got away for two days of bicycling up in the San Juan islands at the beginning of June. I had a good ride the day I pedaled over to the Fremont Summer Solstice then checked out the finishers at the Flying Wheels ride based in Redmond. I wrapped things up with a bike ride with a neighbor and a longish ride south to the Green River Gorge.
My tangle with the blackberry came on the way home from playing in a community band concert last week. I rode my bike down to the concert, slipped on a pair of khaki pants, and was ready to play. Later it occurred to me: Bike nerd to band geek in 30 seconds.
Here are the stats on my goal to ride 4,000 miles in 2007:
June
Total: 413.6 miles
Needed for goal: 333.3 miles
Difference: Plus 80.3 miles
4,000 in 2007
Total : 1,807.8 miles
Needed so far for goal: 2,000 miles
Difference: Minus 192.2 miles
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