Critters of the Night Brevet 200k, PBP Qualifier #2

Yep, I saw another Bobcat while riding a brevet in Oregon. I spied one on my first 400k (the same brevet I ran over a weasel). This time it was on Geiger Road at 3:30am where the road crosses a small stream. What a rush! I love nighttime riding on lonely country roads.

This route was put together by Marcello of the Oregon Randonneurs. Come to think of it, I met Marcello on this very 400k while I was photographing a Turkey Vulture. But this brevet last night was his night-starting 200k. I needed a 200k Qualifier for Paris Brest Paris, and I like the idea of practicing night starts as that's what it will be in Paris.

Only six of us started at 5pm--I wonder why more didn't join us?--and we jumped out fast. Once again, despite telling myself to start slowly I got into trying to hang with the faster guys. My rationale was that since we faced a stiff headwind, it'd be worth it. And it would have been if I wasn't too slow.

So I peeled off after 20k and rode the rest on my own. The weather held, and despite getting a spit of rain now and then, mostly we saw stars.

Before it got dark, I captured the picture above of a chawed tree along a bridge crossing a small stream. I'm guessing beaver since it was near the stream and porcupine often chew bark higher up the trunk, but I'm not certain. What do you think? Below is a closer look.

Reminiscent of a previous post featuring a beaver-chawed tree. Is there more beaver activity now, or am I just tuning in to beavers now that I've seen their handiwork while riding? Am I experiencing a rando version of the familiar Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon again?

I also really like the sounds. Lots of frogs last night. Once, it was quiet, and I was riding along when a frog croaked right next to me all of a sudden and very loudly. Maybe I startled him, but I know he sure startled me out of my pedaling reverie!

Like to hear some frogs I recorded last night? Check this audio file out!

Also saw a raccoon that crossed a road in front of me--from a wooded area along a stream on one side to an open field on the other. When he understood that he'd be out in the open by the time I got to him, he spun around and loped back from whence he came back into the brush and stood there staring at me in that scornful, defiant way they do.

It was a cold night--frost on my window after my 1.5 hour nap before driving back home to Seattle.

But it was nice and toasty in Marcello's and his wife Kathy's house. I was the last finisher, and she conjured up some biscuits and jam and hot tea for me. Really hit the spot. And as I ate she regaled me of their chicken-raising adventures. I was really interested as I've been contemplating chickens, even getting Dartre's blessing. But in the end, even though Kathy reminded me of how affectionate they can be (I really took to the chickens when I visited the farm where my grandfather grew up in Oxford, PA when I was a wee lad), I think I've come to the realization that we just don't need more responsibility in our lives.

On the way home from this nighttime brevet, I was pretty beat. But as I came upon the exit for the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge I had to stop. I used to visit there years ago, but they recently removed the dikes and opened up the area for reclamation by Puget Sound. The Ranger told me they doubled the amount of esturay in the Southern Puget Sound in this one restoration. Perhaps as much as 750 acres of restoration, I'm not certain.

I was too pooped to go for a stroll--I really wanted to be back home with the family--but I put it on our family to do list: visit the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. As I was leaving I saw an older couple with cameras and huge wildlife lenses. They were fixated on the little pond adjacent the Info Center. There, just in front of us was a pair of Wood Ducks. Talk about beautiful! They said they were told that they had just descended on this spot for the first time this year.

Perhaps the most beautifulest of all the ducks (though the Harlequin is right in there), the Wood Duck is stunning.

But all the critters great and small have their habits, whether they be wild or domesticated. I am enchanted by them all.

Night brevets are cool!

Photo of Bobcat courtesy of National Geographic. Wood Duck photos courtesy of Wiki.

Keep it croaking,

CurioRando

2011 Paris Brest Paris 300k Qualifier, Check!

I just finished the Oregon Randonneurs Winter Grab Bag 200k/300k Brevet last weekend, and I have a few observations. First, the picture above is of longtime randonneur, Duane Wright and his trusty fixed gear Peugeot as I dropped him off after we finished our 300k brevet.

Here are my observations:

• Good thinking on scheduling a 300k so early!
• Why on earth would you put the 200k folks finishing up in the same room with the 300k folks trying to gird their loins for the last 100k? Just kidding, it was cool, but it did test my resolve! Good PBP practice.
• Great route idea of three 100k-ish loops all starting and ending at the motel. Perfect for drop bag convenience on a winter day.
• Fabulous food and drink plying.
• Great spirit of encouragement and conviviality!
• Thanks for keeping the potentially really nasty weather away. Looking back, I feel guilty for cursing the wind at one point when I ponder how bad it could have been.
• Marcello and his family were fabulous hosts who understood our needs and anticipated meeting them!
• I'm glad I've been doing my R-12.
• Even though it is February still, the frogs were making serious love calls all day and night.

Now my observations about the gentleman with the Peugeot pictured above:

• Duane first did PBP in 1995.
• He runs marathons all the time.
• He dances.
• He is a photographer.
• He is a great conversationalist concerned about the world and all others.
• He likes to savor.
• Duane did this 300k, and many other brevets, on his fixed gear bike.
• I was clever enough to ask Duane to ride the final 100k with me before I left that warm motel room and ventured out once more into that dark night.

Truly, Duane was a delight to ride with. I had heard tales of Duane, and had gotten the gist of those stories about how he often uses all the allotted time for each brevet. But like all stories, they capture some of the truth, but miss other pieces. The only real point of deviation between Duane and me--and we realized this on the drive back to our mutual hometown of Seattle from Newberg, Oregon--was that on this particular Super Bowl Sunday, he hailed from Wisconsin and I was from Pittsburgh! Ah well. Congrats, Duane, your Packers bested my Steelers this day, but thanks for riding into and out of the night together. That's what I love about randonneuring.

And for the record, I now have my 300k PBP Qualifier in the checked box!!

For a sampling of Duane's own ride reporting, here's a link to a 600k pre-ride report from ten years ago! Damn near pre-Internet days.

Thanks again, Marcello, Susan and all you Oregon Randonneurs for your hospitality! And, thanks, Duane, for your companionship!


Keep it qualifying,

CurioRando

R-12: We Did It!

If you hear something while reading the following text, don't worry it is only the incessant sound of me patting myself on the back.

In a previous post over a year ago I set out to win the Randonneurs USA R-12 Award, pictured above. The inspiration for the attempt came from a rider named Tom Russel from California who accompanied me at the end of my first ever 400k. Tom said that one of the best ways to get to Paris for PBP was to ride more and more consistently, and that in addition to cyclo-commuting, the R-12 was his ticket.

Because the R-12 is awarded for riding a 200k (or longer) brevet or permanent in each of any 12 consecutive months, it keeps you going. On that cold day in the winter when it's hard to get up, what gets you up in spite of yourself? R-12 does! You may curse R-12 as you're rolling out of bed, but R-12 does the trick.

And as I eventually learned, the more months you have invested the harder it is to give up. I actually had one start that I aborted in November of 2009 because I had a sinus infection. Having had just two months under my belt, is wasn't difficult to make that prudent choice. But once I had 8, 9, 10 months down, there was no way I was going to be deprived. So I planned, and stayed in touch with everything related to finishing one 200k each month: health, family and work responsibilities, weather, etc.

But really, the secret to my success was following Dr. Codfish's 10 tips published in the RUSA newsletter. You can do no better! As always, Dr. C puts it out straight.

For a peek at some of the rides that I counted toward my monthly 200k-or-better-ride (some were Brevets, others were Permanents) starting in Decemeber of 2009, select R-12 in the "topics" sidebar to the right.

But why do I say "We Did It!"? Because it is a whole family endeavor to fit in a 200k or more once/month. Much juggling to keep it going, going.... Thanks DartreDame and SingingCyclist!


Keep it going, going...,

CurioRando

Fall City, Granite Falls, Falling in Love with Fall, Part 1

Fall is my favorite season. The leaves, the smell of salmon carcasses, ripe manure, spawning, briskness, clarity.

Until Winter. Then I'm a prisoner of snow, the smell of smoke from a woodstove, getting cozy, hot drinks.

Then Spring.... You get the idea. My stepson, the SingingCyclist, often asks which I like better: this or that. I'm just not a this or that guy. I love them all!

So right now, I'm infatuated with Fall. What follows is a two-part album of Fall pictures from my weekend Permanent: the SIR #0850 UW-Granite Falls-Fall City Permanent.



A barn I happened upon.




And the horses that called this barn home.





See ya next time, pals.



Above is a sign by local police calling out why the liquor privatization initiatives in Washington State (I-1100 & I-1105) are bad news. They will cut local law enforcement by stripping millions in revenues from local communities even while they increase access to hard liquor from 315 outlets to over 3300. Bad news, indeed.

UPDATE: Initiatives 1100 and 1105 did fail. For randos, that means that in Washington State, car drivers can't buy hard liquor at a convenience store until 2am and drive on down the road after the bars close and we're out there with our faithful blinkies in the dark. A small but real consolation. Hard liquor can still be bought in State Stores that close much earlier and do a proven much better job at not selling alcohol to minors. For full disclosure, I worked hard in my day job to help defeat these initiatives. Yippee, we won!

Now that is not to say this randonneur doesn't like his post-brevet drink. Deed I do! A little Scotch can be just right!

Not everyone agrees with the way I look at things though, and this ring-nosed bull got a little irritated as I focused in on him.

Here, he's pawing the ground and feigning coming toward me.

But I backed him down with my heart forward approach, and we became friends.

Like many Fall days, this day had many moods. Here is my bicycle just after crossing the Skykomish River near Monroe. The Sun was out, the sky had blue patches, and my bicycle fairly shone. But that was just one moment.

In Part 2, we'll discern this coming Winter's weather with the help of one of our critter pals, and we'll also see whether another critter pal is in contention for a world record.

Keep it Falling,

CurioRando

A Derby Queen with Her King, An Artist with Her Apprentice, A Stubborn Political Party with Their Turf & Many Questioners...all on the Little Arlington Mambo

DartreDame with Bellingham Bay as backdrop from atop Chuckanut Drive.

DartreDame and I tackled the Little Arlington Mambo 200k Permanent on Sunday, and we had a blast. The weather held out better than expected, and we encountered some curious fellows. One man, in a pickup with his wife, asked me to pull over so he could admire my bike. Turns out he is a 650B convert-to-be, and he is all over the kind of bike I just built up. He ID'd my Nitto water bottle holders, my 55mm Honjo fenders, and my MAFAC brakes without prompts. He was stumped as to my rear hub until I told him it was a Maxi-Car. At that, he questioned whether I was the famous Jan Heine?! Not so, said I, though by him much I have learned.

My ride, in case you too want to admire. Here sporting the Ostrich saddlebag for larger carrying capacity than my little Berthoud pouch allows.

Later in La Conner, Dartre and I sat ingesting some calories from the Pioneer Market and a couple approached. The man, a marathoner and self-described "recreational cyclist", inquired as to whether we were "ultra-cyclists"? I demurred, assuming those RAAM crazies are the ultra-cyclists; we are mere randonneurs. But I suppose it may be one's point-of-view.

As for point-of-view, we happened on these two artists below between Conway and La Conner.

 I particularly like how I captured the tilt of the little girl's head as she takes in her putting down.

Who painted these cows (Belted Galloways or Belties)?

 A cupola in a field.

Never having participated in a barn raising--though my grandfather was raised in Amish country--it made me wonder. Does one build the barn from underneath? Was this fellow just planning ahead? Or could it be that all we see is the exposed cupola that sits atop a buried building like my mother so admires? Hmmm.

Yes, those are Dartre's arms as she stretches in front of the chicken coop. Can you read the yellow sign?

 Our Rivers Court Fishing Derby Queen with her winning King Salmon and winning Smile!

And here's my idea of an emerging political party: a stubborn group that stakes out the high ground and defends it!

As a Capricorn, maybe I should start a new party...? How about the Billy Goat Party?

This was Dartre's third ride of 200 kilometers! Congrats to DartreDame! And her secret training secret? She doesn't train! Go figure.

And as to the details of my no-longer-so-new bicycle, I promise to dedicate some future posts to the details.

Keep it on the High Ground,

CurioRando

Summertime...and the Living is Easy: The SIR Summer 200k Brevet

"Summertime...and the living is easy."

I saw the rope hanging from the tree over this crick, and Gershwin's tune came to mind in the heat of the day. This was a summertime brevet, and the fish were jumpin' and the crops (if not cotton) were high. I've always been struck by the irony of the high cotton. Easier to pick, but still picking the master's cotton. According to Wiki, it can also mean that the price is higher. This 200k Brevet (7/24/10) sponsored by the Seattle International Randonneurs was indeed a hot one.

These two sisters had just left Seattle headed for California. It's great to come across touring cyclists. First, it changes my perspective from "I'm really on a long ride, probably longer than that cyclist." to "Wow, imagine what they are doing!". Second, it feeds my dreams.

Hay, in ordered bails in neat fields.

A hay disorder.

Fox, or young Coyote? Tough summer for some. Another rider said Fox after I suggested Coyote. Looking again now, I think her Fox guess is right.

Old Growth Forest Wayside Mini-Park. A cooling oasis.

A mini-nap by my companion-for-a-while, Chris. Unfortunately, Chris didn't finish.

Chris told me he'd been working 90-hour weeks for a while prior to this brevet. This confirms my Physical Therapist's theory that our ability to perform depends much more on the amount of rest we get in the weeks leading up to an athletic event than a little sleep loss the night before. I use this to comfort me as I toss and turn with excitement the night before. I am happy to report that Chris came bgack the next weekend and slew this DNF demon by completing the same route as a Permanent, then finished the challenging Three Volcanoes 300k the following week, and to top it off completed RSVP the week after that!! Something tells me I caught the only time Chris was on his back in four consecutive weekends!!

A young Great Blue Heron also didn't make it across the road. I came upon this beautiful bird shortly after it was hit. Unlike a Great Snowy Owl I came across one cold winter night in Oregon that felt remarkably "light as a feather" for its size, this Heron felt about as heavy as I imagined by looking at it.

Oregon Trail era cabin.

Yep, that's coon gut stretched out there. For tennis fans, have you played with rackets strung with "Catgut"? Wiki tells us catgut isn't made from cats' guts. Any guesses whose guts do make fine racket strings?

My new tree-hugging Pereira.

I ended up hooking up with another posse, and together we formed a group lanterne rouge.

At the finish, we were greeted by Brevet Organizer Josh. Last time you saw him here he was helping to fix my sunglasses on an early season permanent. Thanks for your brevet organizing, Josh! It was a great ride!!

Keep it heavy with summertime heat,

CurioRando