The Summer's Long Ride

I like to do at least one long road ride each summer, and my excuse for the one I started today is to see the Buffalo Bill Western Museum in Cody Wyoming.  Of course, I don't go straight there, but instead ride all the Good Roads that I can get to on the way.  Big Mike and I had planned this ride together, but his chronic back problems caused him to need to cancel.  Hang in there Mike, we still have plenty of time. 

The plan was to leave on Monday, 16 September, but the forecast for Western Washington was for a rainy week, starting Sunday, so  I decided to leave on Saturday the 14th.  I just bought  all new leathers after Carolyn told me my jacket was looking really tacky and my pants have gone three years without washing.  Check my new gear, or "kit" as the Brits say.  

 

I really like the way everything fits, especially the jacket, and the jacket turned out to be perfect for the first day of the ride because it was HOT.  Tonight I am staying in Clarkston, Washington at the Idaho state line, and it was predicted to be 96 degrees.......wrong!  It was 100!  I had to stop a couple of times to get a cold drink and cool off in some air conditioning.  My new jacket saved me because it has vented leather in the chest and back and I could feel it drafting air through.  Still, when the ambient air temp is greater than body temp, there is not a lot of cooling from that.  The next test will be when it is cold.  Will the removable liner keep the cold air from getting to me?  I have a heated vest if all else fails. 

 

This first day also reinforced my desire to not ride on weekends......there was a lot more traffic, and it got particularly bad on hwy 12 between Packwood and Naches.  First, they were letting the water out of Rimrock reservoir in preparation for the winter rains and snow, and this causes huge rapids on the river below the dam; perfect for rafting I guess, because there were hundreds of people rafting the river.  All these people needed transportation from the take-out point back to the put-in point, so there were lots of buses towing rafts up the hill and pulling empty trailers back down the hill.  This whole mess was compounded by road re-surfacing in two places that caused massive delays.  The consequence of all this was that I didn't get halfway through my day's route until about 1 pm.   Here is a pic of the typical waiting line:

 

 

I was waiting a little ways back in order to stay in the shade.  I tried to get some pictures of the rafters but only got this one:

 





Seems like I've done a lot of complaining, but actually it was a nice ride and I enjoyed many parts of it.  I love to ride through the forests of the Cascade mountains, and I also got to see some new territory between Yakima and the Idaho line.  Lots of agriculture going on there, including hops, corn, apples and grapes.  Here is the obligatory pic of Mt Rainer:

Today was 390 miles.  The bike ran great in the hot temps.  The only equipment problem I have is that the Garmin Zumo is not talking to my Senna SMH10 headset, so I don't get voice prompts.  It just means I have to pay more attention to the screen for warning of upcoming turns.  I recently downloaded new updated maps for the Zumo, and it hasn't worked well since.  Time to call Garmin when I get home.