Chalking up another birthday bicycle ride

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My 3-year tradition of marking my birthday with a “years-equals-miles” bicycle ride is in the books.

Actually, it's recorded on BikeJournal.com, where I jumped from 1,423rd to 605th in a single day. That could be my high-water mark for the year.

Unlike previous years, this time I couldn't get out of my head the thought that I should have started this silliness years ago, when the distance would have been a lot shorter.

With pleasant weather promised on Sunday, I headed over to Issaquah from Bellevue, then south to Black Diamond and home via Renton for 62.8 miles.

My destination was the Green River Gorge Bridge, above, a 150-foot-high span over a raging river that drains the Cascades. Whenever I visit the single-lane bridge built in 1915, I can't believe it's only a few miles from civilization, if Black Diamond counts as civilization and I think it does.

Because it had been a few months since I pedaled this distance, I kept a steady pace and kept my stops to a minimum. But out in this rural area, there were quite a few roadside attractions worth documenting for posterity.

It has been a few years since this yellow submarine has had a good cleaning, but you can still see “The Beatles” printed on the hull. This roadside attraction is located on a hill south on Hobart on 276th Avenue SE. One of these days I'll stop in and find out about its history. By the way, quite a few folks have tried to figure out what the lyrics mean.

I always do a double-take when I spot this mannequin sitting on a shed roof alongside Ravensdale-Black Diamond Road in Ravensdale. If I'm not mistaken, the guy was wearing a gorilla mask the last time I pedaled past.

While the mannequin on the roof amuses me, this one of a child peering from the passenger seat of an old Ford pickup creeps me out. Why is the boy alone in the truck? Who is he waiting for? Where are his arms? Why is he wearing what appears to be a cowhide?

It is in a farm field in Black Diamond on the road to the Green River Gorge.

A gaggle of parked bicycles is not an uncommon scene at the Black Diamond Bakery on a weekend. Usually there are more, but it was getting late in the day.

The town is located about 30 miles southeast of Seattle, and as the name implies, it was home to several coal mines beginning in the 1880s. The state's rich coal mine history ended in 1975 in nearby Ravensdale when the last underground coal mine in the state of Washington closed.

Meanwhile, I struck it rich when a clerk dug out the last bear claw from the doughnut case at the bakery. Pure energy to fuel my ride home.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/01/09/chalking-up-another-birthday-bicycle-ride/

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