Is This You, Seattle Rando, Flying Down Mt. Rainier?

Unknown Seattle Rando bedecked in new SIR lightweight jersey.

UPDATE: I'm told this is Elaine Jameson.

DartreDame and I took a run at Mt. Rainier last Saturday, but not as particpants in the Seattle International Randonneurs  #0243 Sunrise Climb Group Permanent. After tea and the newspapers in bed, we had breakfast. After breakfast and fiddling around, I packed our gear in the truck. After that I looked at the clock and realized...whoa, we had better hurry!

It was almost 11am, and we had to drive to Mt. Rainier, ride to the summit, descend, and return home for what we discovered was to be a fabulous wine-paired meal prepared by our now very good friends. Included in the dinner was a raucus Tour de France analysis about the battle between Contador and Schleck as it turned out that Steve (his wife Tanmeet and he prepared the fabulous meal!) was an avid Tour watcher. I could go on and on so wonderful were the food, wine and companionship of that evening, but we've got to get DartreDame, my wife Pramila, up Mt. Rainier right now.

Another pair of unidentified flying Seattle Randos.

So after the clock-checking, we had to "hustle our bustles" as my 8th grade English teacher Ms. Seneff used to say. I had wanted the day to be the antithesis of a time-bound brevet so Dartre and I could relax together, but my poor planning doomed us to hustling.

In fact, as we were about to leave the parking lot at the base of Rainier, Jansen, one of the readers of this blog, stopped to say a friendly hello after he recognized my new Pereira bicycle I've been bragging about here. Poor Jansen, I was so harried by my poor planning that he understandably assumed we were on a time-bound brevet. Not so. Jansen: I thought later I should have taken a photo of YOU for this post, but I spaced it. Next time, and thanks so much for reading this blog. I can't overstate how rewarding it is to be recognized simply by my bicycle and jersey by a reader of this blog. It is an honor to know folks read this. Thanks, Jansen!

Does anyone know this Seattle Rando? I know it isn't Dylan because I didn't whip out my camera in time for a shot of him.

And as for riding with us Seattle Randos, Jansen: don't wait. You've prepared enough. Even if you're not sure whether you're fully prepared, you'll learn more by trying than by waiting. Give it a go! I think that sometimes folks both inside and outside the Rando tent build up this randoing a little too much. It sure is tough at the longer distances, but a 200k to get started is well within most riders' grasp. Come join us!!

See the cue sheet? Yet another Seattle Rando. But who?

Sorry for the poor photo quality but I took these as we were riding up and getting the timing right to capture the descenders was tricky.

Here's Dartre on the early part of the ascent.

Getting closer.

Approaching Sunrise Point.

Made it to the first elevation sign!

Tired, but still willin'.

Climbing isn't easy.

The final approach.

Me, back in the lower elevations.

Mt. Rainier starting to dominate the skyline.

Hard to capture just how the mountain presses upon you near the summit. Really a full presence.

Dartre summits at 6400 feet. I think we started at 3500 feet.

I'm proud of Dartre. She toughed it out despite my poor planning. It wasn't relaxing at all like we wanted, but she reached down and did it, and did it in the hottest time of the day. The things she puts up with, me and my cycling obsession. The descent, however, was sweet. Another milestone for Dartre!

For an account of my solo summit as part of my Sunrise Climb Permanent, complete with elevation chart and map, go to this previous post.

Keep it well-planned,

CurioRando

I'm Trying Out dailymile.com to Log My Training

My Profile shot from dailymile.com.

I wasn't able to do a screen shot, so this is all you've got. I just joined up on the dailymile.com website. It is a training log website where you can log your training sessions, comment, share photos, etc.. It's essentially a training version of Facebook.

Here is the link to my Profile page of dailymile. If you like it, you can roam around to the other pages. So far I have zero friends on dailymile so if you do join, how about being my friend?! I sound pathetic, huh?

I joined as a way to encourage myself to take the training more seriously. The drag now is that I just injured my right shin, and it needs a rest.

But check it out, and if you know of better online logs--I'll bet there are plenty of training logs out there--please let me know.

Meanwhile, I put a dailymile.com widget in the sidebar to the right. Feel free to give me an attaboy when I'm training well and a poke when I need...poked!

The photo is from Dartre's and my ride up to Mt. Rainier last Saturday. A full post forthcoming.

Keep it logged,

CurioRando

Not for the Faint of Heart, and Mostly Unrelated to Cycling

My gumline pre-surgery.

OK, this is not remotely cycling related. Even I, who sometimes go into extreme contortions to make a cycling connection, cannot. I went to my dentist and he told me my gum recession had progressed to such a degree that I needed gum grafting. Or so he figured. So he referred me to my periodontist, Er-Jia Mao, DDS, MS, PhD.

I really liked Doctor Mao, and if you're looking for a periodontist--and who isn't, right?--I'd go see him.

For me, hard brushing and perhaps genetics left me with two spots that needed grafts. So I had a choice. Doctor Mao could "harvest" skin for the graft from the room of my mouth which he indicated was extra painful, or I could use "other" skin. By "other", he meant that it was "harvested" from a cadaver.

HOLD THE PRESSES! I did find a cycling connection after all. Much as I am not particularly a Lance Armstrong fan, his LiveStrong website does indeed talk about gum disease, so there! But just for the record if you check out that site, my surgery wasn't cosmetic, it was so I don't lose my teeth.

Another pre-surgery shot.

My cadaver donor skin before it became my skin.

Doc Mao peeled my gums back to insert the cadaver skin...

and no, it didn't hurt.

Here's my new gumline a couple months later, and do note the fence, as Doctor Mao likes to call it. It is the ridge that will prevent further erosion. He really liked the looks of this, and therefore, so do I.

Another nice graft, though with the crown it can never quite be as good as it is on one's own God-given ivories.

Thanks, Doctor Mao!

Keep it smilin'!

CurioRando

Tour de France Heads to the Mountains...and so do I!

Mt. Rainier on the road to Sunrise Lodge.

I rode SIR Permanent 0243 Sunrise Climb last weekend, and what fun it was on my new bike! I love the 650B tires, and the geometry fits me. Ahh!

Here's the Mt. Rainier National Park entrance.

At the Summit.

Fig Newtons as alternative fuel source.

I love Fig Newtons, and I'm told they're not bad as fuel. That's all I needed to hear since I left my bottle of Perpetuem sitting in the refrigerator! So guess how many Fig Newtons I can eat at one time?

Well, back when I was (I'm guessing here) ten years old or so we tested this. My cousin/brother Jeff (yes, he is both my cousin and brother and it is a story for another day) and I were hangin' out with no adult supervision. so we had a contest and I believe I won with a grand total of TEN FIG NEWTONS in my mouth. All I remember was laughing so hard and spewing figgy crumbs all over the kitchen floor. God, that is a fond memory.

Greenwater Skis now carries bike stuff in the Summer months.

Being the sensible adult I am today, however, I stopped at Greenwater Skis hunting for biker calories like sport gels, and they had them. But that didn't stop me from eating all the Fig Newtons. Yum! Greenwater Skis' owner has a good dog, Bell, so that says alot about the owner. Worth stopping if you need something on the way.

Frying Pan Creek.

My new Pereira on the bridge overlooking the Green River.

Green River from the bridge, Summer version.

You can compare the above Green River Bridge/Bike photos to those we took in February for comparison.

Keep it heading up,

CurioRando

Pereira First Impressions & Weasel Confirmed on the Woodinville Permanent

First pic of my new Pereira Randonneuse.

A small farmer who supports unionized electrical workers. Nice to see.

Wiki photo of a weasel.  Remember my post about my Oregon Randonneurs 400k brevet last year wondering what it was I'd run over? In the subsequent post I hypothesized I'd run over a weasel in the middle of the night.

No, I didn't run this little fella over. I came upon him as roadkill. As soon as I saw him I remembered my pal from that 400k. It got me thinking: I'll bet it was a weasel.

Then I looked just off the road from the carcass, and spied this burrow. Aha! The habitat we were riding through at the time was tall grasses just like this, though not as hilly. I feel quite certain now it was a weasel, by gum! See how some of the soil is moist, but the carcass seemed not so moist? I wonder if the mate is still inhabiting that burrow? Poor mourning mate!

Here, my new ride is parked against the barbed wire fence at the top end of a long driveway into a place I used to fish for Steelhead along the Skykomish River.

It was called "Two Bits" for years since the farm owners had a heavy steel lockbox with a sign that said "25 Cents". The deal was you put your quarter in the box, opened the gate and drove your (hopefully, or you were likely to get stuck) four-wheel drive vehicle through, and closed the gate behind you. The owner sold the place and the new owner...you guessed it, raised the price to fifty cents or a buck. That was many years ago. I was tempted to inspect and see whether one could still get in, and if so at what cost, but the large, pit bullish dog put me off this trip. A little too exposed on my new one-wheel drive vehicle.

This is a view from the bridge crossing the Sky at Sultan, just upstream from Two Bits. I used to spend a lot of weekends crawling around these parts.

So how was the new Pereira? Fabulous. I'll be giving more reports soon, but it is a joy. Just one note for now. I really never was comfortable descending on my old Fuji. I'd always felt like I was riding on top of it rather than down in it. On the Pereira with the geometry matched to my rather odd body geometry (legs too long or torso too short), wide 650B tires, and a proper trail to match the tires, it was a delight to descend! I felt stuck to the road. Oh my, what a difference. But there is so much more to tell in future posts.

All of this took place on the Woodinville-Granite Falls-Woodinville Permanent, RUSA #0359, a Permanent organized by Geoff Swarts. Great route, Geoff. Thanks much!

Here is the route.

Here is the elevation profile. See those descents? I passed one cyclist who was coming up as I was descending and he yelled out "Yippee" as I passed because it must have been obvious how much fun I was having! I was yelling "Weeeeeeee" myself.

Keep it carving,

CurioRando

First Wheel, a Finicky CycloComputer & a Feast for Fathers!

Grandpa Jay, DartreDame's Father or "GJ" as I call him, holding my first ever hand-built wheel. This wheel is not for my new bike but rather for a commuter fixie. My earlier post on my inauspicious wheelbuilding beginning can be found here.

Dartre's mother Maya, or AmmaMaya as I call her, holding my wireless cyclocomputer. It took me a long time to figure out how to measure the kilometers for each leg without resetting the trip distance. Whew!

But it wasn't all bicycling this Fathers' Day. We Fathers--GJ, SingingCyclist's Dad Alan, and I--were treated to this fabulous Indian dinner. Can't quite make out the dishes? How about a close-up?

Peas and Mushrooms. Yum!

AmmaMaya's Special Eggplant & Yogurt. Scrumptious!

Dartre's Potato Concoction: Sukhi Aloo (Potatoes roasted with Garlic, Ginger, Turmeric, Cumin, Coriander, Fennel, Chili Powder, and Oil). Delectable!

Salmon Molee. Heavenly!

Saffron Biryani with Cashews and Raisins. Texturalicious!

Tomato and Cucumber Salad. Simply cleansing!

AmmaMaya

Alan

Dartre

GJ

Janak, the SingingCyclist

Keep it spicy,

CurioRando