Author:
Mike Hassur
After our “Westside Road on Mt. Rainier Ride”
was cancelled last week due to road closure, Dwaine Trummert suggested an
alternate ride for Saturday, June 4th.
Dwaine outlined where the ride would take us and said that he thought
that it would be a 75-85 mile ride. Most
of the ride info was foreign to me (and we were vacationing in Whistler), so I
just said “I’ll be there” and signed off.
I showed up at Les Becker’s house at around
6:00 AM on Saturday morning thinking it would probably be just Les, Dwaine, and me
and that I would just follow them since I had no idea where we were heading. I set about taking my bike out of the van and
getting my gear together. Soon, Les was
opening his garage door and coming over to greet me; and Dwaine was walking
over from his house to say “good morning”.
Shortly thereafter, Kurt Maute and Rex Batson showed up.
Our group of five got rolling around 6:45
AM. We cruised along Grandview Drive
(just above Chambers Bay Golf Course where the 2015 US Open was held), made our
way down and through the coastal community of Steilacoom, climbed out of
Steilacoom,
and made our way past the Fort Lewis firing range. It always freaks me out a little if the
soldiers are actively firing their weapons as we ride by. Intellectually, I know that they are firing
at targets; but… Les, Rex, and Kurt were
really moving through this section.
Dwaine and I were riding pretty briskly as we visited – we looked up and
discovered that we were 100 yards or more behind. Dwaine took off to catch them, and I
followed. We were gradually catching
them, but I was worried that we were wasting a lot of energy when we still had
70 to 80 miles left in the ride. I eased
up and let Dwaine continue his pursuit alone.
Eventually, everyone slowed down, and I was able to catch up with the
group without burning too many matches.
We cruised through DuPont and began our descent
into the Nisqually Valley. This descent
is long and gentle. It is a good
opportunity to relax, take a drink from the water bottle, and eat
something.
Our path through the
Nisqually Valley proved to be a mystery to me.
Dwaine led us on roads with which I was unfamiliar. We cruised along and visited; and, before I
knew it, we were passing through the southern fringes of Olympia (which was a
surprise because somehow we missed Olympia almost entirely). There we connected with the Western Chehalis
Trail (a rails-to-trails creation) which we followed south from Olympia.
Once again, my description of our route will be
a little vague. All I know is that we
eventually left the trail and rode on country roads until we arrived a the
small town of Tenino where we refilled our water bottles.
From Tenino we headed back north toward
Olympia. It was in this section that
Kurt started to have significant pain in his right foot. He’d had this “hot foot” pain before on long
rides, and our suspicion was that it was due to the fit of his cycling
shoes. Rex had some time constraints,
but he wasn’t sure how to get back to Les’ house in University Place. We decided to send Les with Rex, and Dwaine
and I would accompany Kurt back.
I always carry a supply of ibuprofen on
rides. Kurt, Dwaine , and I stopped so
that I could access my ibuprofen and give some to Kurt. The three of us then made our way back to
Olympia retracing most of the route we had used earlier in the ride. Eventually, we came to a country store. We stopped, got a plastic bag, filled it with
ice, and “iced” Kurt’s ailing foot.
Before long, Kurt was significantly more comfortable. We hopped back on our bikes and resumed our
return trip through the Nisqually Valley and up through Dupont, past Fort Lewis
(the firing range was “popping”), through Steilacoom, and up the final climb to
University Place and Les’ house.
 |
| That should say "Negotiating one of the last traffic circles before arriving at Les' house"... |
Dwaine had underestimated the mileage of the
ride a bit, and we ended up riding 97 miles.
All of us agreed that it was a wonderful and beautiful adventure, and we
appreciated Dwaine’s willingness to share it with us.
Our next official ride is “The Skate Creek Loop
Ride” in two weeks (June 18th).
Here is hoping that our recent hot weather is gone by then.
Can’t wait!!
Click on the following link to see all photos associated with this ride: https://goo.gl/photos/VEdvsY6P2RUSqVYN9
Click on the following link to see all photos associated with this ride: https://goo.gl/photos/VEdvsY6P2RUSqVYN9
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