In my 10 years of bicycling in the Pacific Northwest, I've never witnessed dreary, overcast skies turn into a sparkling blue so fast.
Fortunately I was perched atop a little hill called Holden Knob between Hobart and Issaquah at the time with the western drainage area of the Cascade laid out at my feet and snow-covered Mount Rainier shining in the south.
The knob is one of the features at Taylor Mountain Forest, a county natural area shared by equestrians, hikers and the occasional mountain biker. Although I had driven out there to ride before, I thought it was be better to pedal my mountain bike the 15 miles to the park on Thursday.
Overcast
If history is any guide, there aren't too many more days of cycling in Western Washington this year that won't require fenders and raingear. It was overcast all the way out there, however, but warm enough for me to take off my jacket for the final climb up Holden Knob.
Finally reaching the top, I was greeted by 360 degrees of grayness. I could see some farm fields down below, but not much else. I ate my peanut butter sandwich and some trail mix and tried to track a black snake slithering through the underbrush.
Then the clouds began to lift and I could see sunlight reflecting off farm buildings in the distance. Within 20 minutes, I was blinking at Mount Rainier, about 50 miles south as the crow flies. I had to drag myself away in order to get home in time.
Tale of the tape
Thursday's ride was certainly the highlight of September. I also enjoyed some nice long bike rides out to the historic roads in the Snoqualmie Valley this month. With numerous errands by bike, I tallied 305 miles this month, and surpassed my 2009 total mileage of 2,498.
At this rate, I should achieve 3,700 miles for the year. The challenge will be keeping up by pace of bicycling as the wet weather surely arrives.
Meanwhile, I have failed miserably in my one bicycling goal for 2010 — stay ahead of Barry.
Barry is an old college chum of mine who found me on Facebook a couple of years ago. He's an avid cyclist too, and we started comparing mileages and trash-talking. We were neck and neck in our virtual race the first half of the year, but Barry has buried me the past couple of months. He's more than 500 miles down the road.
I'll just have to find comfort in exceeding last year's mileage.
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