At some point in August of 2019, Leon Matz received an email from a fellow named John Clyde. John was a physician from the Edinburgh, Scotland area, AND he was an avid cyclist. He explained that his wife's best friend lived in Puyallup and that they were coming for a visit. The "best friend" had done some research regarding cycling in our area and found the Puyallup Cyclopaths (and Leon's contact info). John contacted Leon and asked if it would be possible to borrow/rent a bike and to go for a ride with some of our group while he was here. After getting some information from John, Leon referred John to Adam Abrams (they were about the same size, and Leon was hoping that Adam might have an old bike that John could borrow). Eventually, I received a call from Adam who told me about John's upcoming visit. Adam was willing to loan John one of his bikes, but he was not available for a ride during the dates that John would be in our area (and Leon was out due to his accident in RAMROD).
I made contact with John via email, got his contact phone number (in Puyallup) and gave him a call once they had arrived in Puyallup. I told John that I would arrange to pick up Adam's bike a couple of days before our ride and bring it over to where he was staying so that he would have a chance to make adjustments to the fit. I, also, gave him some ride options: The Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier, Skate Creek Loop, Sunrise (with Cayuse Pass and Chinook Pass as added options), etc. John said that he was interested in doing about 50-55 miles, and we selected the Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier Ride because it would give him more time to spend with his wife and friends on the given day. Because of their arrival and departure dates, our only options for a ride fell on weekdays. After looking at our options (and the weather), I decided that Thursday, September 12th looked like the best option for a nice ride.
After establishing our date to ride, it was just a matter of getting Adam's bike to John and sending a note out to the rest of the Cyclopaths to see if anyone else wanted to join us. I sort of figured that no one would be joining us given that the ride was on a weekday; but, to my surprise, I heard back from Dwaine Trummert. Dwaine said that he would like to join us. The plan was that I would pick up John in Puyallup, we would meet Dwaine in Orting and be leaving Orting on our bikes at around 7:15 AM.
I picked up John on Thursday morning and headed toward Orting where we met Dwaine and were leaving Orting right on time. As usual, we took the Foothills Trail from Orting to South Prairie. We continued on the trail a little further past South Prairie before making a slight detour to get onto Lower Burnett Road. From there, we proceeded to Wilkeson, up to Carbonado and on to the Fairfax Bridge.
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| Dwaine and John on the Fairfax Bridge |
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| John, Dwaine and Mike (Fairfax Bridge) |
I love to brag to anyone who will listen about the fact that this bridge will be 100 years old in 2021; and, of course, I mentioned this bit of trivia on this ride. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, it occurred to me that John was from Scotland. He - in a very gentle manner - said that some of their bridges dated back 500 YEARS!! We all enjoyed a good laugh at my expense (later, as we were crossing this same bridge on our way back to Orting, I made it a point to say that "this bridge will ONLY be 100 years old in 2021").
After stopping at the Fairfax Bridge for a few photos, we headed toward the Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier. During that part of the ride, we visited about all sorts of things including BREXIT. Between Dwaine's insightful questions and John's thorough answers, I learned a lot. This portion of the ride seemed to fly by, and we soon found ourselves at the Carbon River Entrance and on the bridge over the Carbon River which is nearby.
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| Dwaine and John at the end of the paved road... Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier |
After taking a few photos and taking in some food and liquids, we were on our bikes heading back. On the way back, we took a short detour up the road to Mowich Lake to see if we could get a nice view of Mt. Rainier. We got a decent view and a few more photos...
We retraced our steps on the way back except that we took Tubbs Road from Wilkeson to South Prairie and enjoyed the fast descent down into South Prairie. The ride from South Prairie back to Orting went smoothly and gave us the opportunity for more conversation.
From my perspective, this turned out to be a memorable ride. The weather was great, I love riding with Dwaine, and it was a pleasure getting to know John and riding with him. Hopefully, John and his wife will return; and we'll have the chance to take him up on some of the passes on Mt. Rainier.
