Dad came out and we went skiing at White Pass today and had the place to ourselves. We haven’t been skiing since before Christian in Tahoe.
More pictures in the 2011 Favorites album here:
2011 FAVORITES ALBUM LINK
Click “Read More” to see more pictures.
Part of our local explorations took us to Leavenworth, WA a Bavarian style village. We happened to stumble on it during Octoberfest, and the place was packed. We definitely plan to revisit the area when it is less crowded.
For the past few weekends we have been exploring the area around our new home. We have been biking the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, and were disappointed with the tunnel closures really causing road blocks on what could be an incredible trail. We started at Lake Easton and made it to a closed tunnel. We made it past the tunnel but were stopped again by a closed bridge over the river. Both the bridge and tunnel were in great shape as far as we could tell, but we were not able to proceed on without major detours.
We then took a trip to the Snoqualmie tunnel (on the John Wayne Trail at Snoqualmie pass) which is a 2.3 mile long tunnel through the mountain.
We both had a mag light flash light (one small and one large) and the baby had two little night lights and a glow stick)……this was not enough light, especially after the small mag light broke. As we left the daylight of the tunnel opening behind us, we quickly got disoriented. Eventually we were able to see the pinhole of an opening on the other end and just focused on that faint light. We finally made it through the cold tunnel to the Seattle side and ate lunch in the clouds. We then turned around and did it all again and had a blast.
From the snoqualmie wikipedia:
The tunnel was constructed from 1912-1914 by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, also known as the Milwaukee Road, as part of its line from Chicago to Seattle. Electrification in 1917 eliminated smoke dissipation issues.
In 1980 the Milwaukee Road received approval from the Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon its western lines. On March 15th, 1980, the final Milwaukee Road train passed through the tunnel. Later, Washington state acquired the right-of-way for recreational use.
Today the tunnel is part of the Iron Horse State Park rails-to-trails project. It is usually closed between November 1 through early May due to ice formations inside the tunnel. On July 5, 2011 the tunnel re-opened after 11 months of renovations. The $700,000 renovation added a 4-inch layer of concrete to the walls and ceiling, a reinforced structure, and a new and improved walking surface of crushed rock.
And the state park website:
Here’s a trivia question to toss out during your next trail party: The Iron Horse Trail and Washington’s other cross-state trail, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), intersect but never touch. Why not? Answer: Because the Iron Horse Trail runs through the 2.3-mile-long Snoqualmie Tunnel while the PCT rolls up and over the peaks south of Snoqualmie Pass. When you head out to explore this dark Iron Horse section, be sure you bring a flashlight–and a headlamp. In fact, make sure every person in your party has a primary light and a backup–this is not a hike you want to do without light. The tunnel is long enough that you’ll be in deep, total darkness much of the way. And it’s easy to get turned around inside. I’ve seen savvy hikers bouncing like pinballs inside the tunnel because they couldn’t get themselves headed straight down the tunnel after losing their light.
Find the trail on the south side of the parking area, and turn west to hike along the open railroad trail until you reach the eastern portal to the tunnel. Stop and recheck your flashlight batteries before diving into the darkness.
You might also want to pull on your sweater before you go in so you don’t have to fumble in the darkness. It can be 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside on a bright, sunny day, but underground the temperature drops into the 50s. The dampness makes it feel even colder.
Also, note that the tunnel is gated November 1 through May 1 for safety reasons. Giant icicles form in the tunnel during the cold winter months, creating massive spears that could threaten the unwary.
View 2011-10-01 Greenway in a larger map
We rode the Yakima Greenway recreation path today. We started at 16th ave and rode to the mall and back. I accidentally ran over a snake with both big apple tires and the baby trailer wheel…..and he still squirmed away!
We took a leisurely pace and played at the playground a bit. Here are the stats:
Total distance: 15.28 miles
Time: 1:35
Average Moving Speed: 9.60 MPH
Min Elevation 907 ft
Max Elevation 1093 ft
Added some pictures of our trip back to Ohio’s Hocking Hills.
The pictures are here, at the end of our 2011 Favorites album:
2011 Favorites
(dont forget to click “continue reading” at the bottom of this post to see the captions of the pictures)
We had planned on riding the Tahoe Rim Trail from Mt Rose to Spooner, but as we started off at Mt Rose, we couldnt get through all the snow that was left over. After walking in snow for a bit, one of us with tattered shoes, we decided it was still a bit too early in the season. So we rode the Flume trail backwards from what we normally do.
Here are the stats from my cell phone:
16.54 miles
6.3 mph (moving average)
3420 feet elevation gain
four hours total time, 2:37 moving time.
Google Map of the trip:
View 2011-07-10 10:01 Flume in a larger map
We just did a half-epic mountain bike ride taking us from the spooner parking lot, up the flume trail and down over into carson city-
A. Starting at Spooner lake and taking:
1. North Canyon Road to Marlette Lake (5 miles)
2. Marlette Flume Trail (4.4 miles). Some snow, lots of water. We had to ride through a section of Marlette Lake about 2.5 feet deep.
3. Flume Trail to Redhouse ( about 4 miles).
4. Redhouse to hobart res. Lots of down trees we had to carry the bikes over. About 10 total. Then we had to carry the bikes across the dam at Franktown Creek.
5. down hobart trail (5 miles)
6. and finally at the end of hobart trail is the paved road, 3 miles to my house.
We did a total of appproximately 21 miles with lots of uphill and finally, a quick downhill down hobart trail and home. We drove a car back up 50 to spooner to pick up our vehicle. We started at 10am and finished the ride at 4pm.
Here is a map (the locked gate at the left of the screen is the gate you cross to go down hobart trail back to the street in carson city):
backcountrymap
The folks from “Bike Carson” did a very similar ride, except they added the Kings Canyon portion of the ride, doing one full loop:
Bike Carson, Carson City to Flume Trail
Here are some pictures from the ride:
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Christian didnt play in his cake as much as we expected, but he still made a mess.
I picked up a 1996 Litespeed frame and decided to make a fixed gear out of it. I didnt grind off any of the mounting hardware or hangers so it can easily be converted back to having gears.
The first issue came along when I couldnt remove the forks. The front forks needed to come off because the headset bearings needed service. The quill stem was stuck, so the forks werent coming off and the headset was not getting service. I took it to the Bike Smith and they could not remove it either. So stem had to be cut, freeing the fork, but basically destroying it in the process. Since the original headset was threaded, I decided it was time to put a new threadless headset in there (work done by the Bike Smith) along with a new front fork.
The bottom bracket was also pretty beat up, so it had to be taken apart and cleaned and re-greased. Its nice and smooth now. The cranks were reused with no issue and the small chainring is now where the big chainring was (with spacers for near perfect chain line).
Since the bike has vertical dropouts, chain tension would become an issue. The rear wheel was built by the Bike Smith using a White Industries ENO eccentric hub which eliminated this issue.
In hindsight, I may have elected to get a black brooks saddle and black brooks bar tape, but I think the brown leather is a good classic contrast to the modern titanium.
I put front and back brakes on it regardless of the idiotic reasons not to. Yeah, it looks cleaner without them, but I feel alot safer with them. I also added a bike computer because thats what I wanted. After only riding it for six miles I have already had a flat (thorn, not my fault) and broken chain (wrong chain pin, my fault). Both are fixed and its ready to go and its a really fun ride.
Here is a before shot:
Here is the final build:
Frame – 1996 Litespeed Ultimate TIFrame Link
Seat Post – Velo-Orange Grand Cru Long Set Back Seat Post Link
Saddle – Brooks B17 Standard HoneySaddle Link
Trunk Bag – Brooks Millbrook Saddle BagMillbrook Link
Bottom Bracket – Shimano Dura Ace BB7700 Dura Ace Link
Cranks – Shimano Dura Ace
Chainwheel – Surly Stainless Steel Chain Ring 130mm, 39 Tooth, 5 Bolt Chain Ring Link
Rear Hub – White Industries ENO eccentric flip flop hubWhite Ind Link
Rear Rim – Velocity Deep V Velocity Link
Front Wheel - Mavic CXP-22Mavic Link
Tires – Panaracer Pasela wire bead 700x23C
Headset – aheadset
Handle Bars – Nitto Road Handlebar Model 115 42 cm
Brakes – Shimano Dura Ace Brakes BR7800 front and back
Brake Levers – Shimano Dura Ace Levers
Pedals – Crank Brothers Mallet IICrank Brothers Link
Fixed Cog – White Industries 15T Splined Fixed Gear Cog
Lock Ring – Shimano Dura-Ace Track Lock Ring (FC001)
Free Wheel – Shimano 17T Free Wheel
Rim Tape – Velox Rim Tape
Brake Cables – Jagwire Hyper Brake Cable and Housing Set
Bar Tape – Brooks Leather Bar Tape HoneyBrooks Link
Front Forks - Surly Pacer ForkSurly Fork Link
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