It’s been a big month for my legs.
Two weekends ago, they propelled me up Mount Baker.
I didn’t make the trip up there alone; these ladies came along:
This is actually the same photo as the first. I got a new phone at the end of July, the Google Pixel 7. It has the power to edit people out of photos. Upon sharing the Marianne and Shannon-free version of this photo with them, Shannon asked me if I could remove the car.
Not bad. BUT WHY STOP THERE?
BAKER BEGONE!
At the time of our Baker cycling outing, I hadn’t yet received the case I’d ordered for my new phone. Naked phones are slippery, so I didn’t whip it out of my jersey for snapshots while riding much.
Marianne took one of the best snaps of the day in the parking lot in Maple Falls, before we started our ride. Marianne was missing the foam padding inside the front of her helmet, so she came up with an amusing yet ingenious solution:
That is a pantyliner! It looks stupid, but it is clever! And it will protect her brain, where she stores all her genius!
Oh! On that note, Marianne beat me at Scrabble again:
As Marianne hasn’t seen it fit to splurge for the deluxe edition of Scrabble, with the raised grid to hug the tiles, I took a photo of our game periodically in case the tiles get knocked out of place.
I was ahead until the final turn. Marianne took me out with AJAR. I think the 8-point J even went on the Double Letter Score slot. At least with Marianne, I usually lose with a high score. As we packed up the game, Marianne uncovered a K that had eluded our fingers as we reached into the burgundy velvet sac. I may have been the last to fondle the bag when I announced that two tiles remained, but Marianne was the one who made the final draw.
Marianne saves the scoresheets, so I added an asterisk by her initials. That K could have been the only thing that separated me from victory, and her future opponents must know this!
Back to Baker, the definite highlight of my weekend: when I saw all the cars in the parking lot at Artist’s Point (the “summit”), there was a sense of gratitude. We were all physically fit enough to ride our bicycles up Baker. With trainig, sure, but most people opt to drive up. Most people aren’t interested in cycling, especially not uphill.
We finished the ride with a swim in the creek in Maple Falls, just a couple of metres from where we parked. By swim, I mean we sat on rocks and let the three inches of water cool our butt cheeks. A splash here and there, and we were good to go.
I was grateful for Shannon and Marianne’s company. I don’t enjoy solo rides as much. However, I love going uphill, and as I was on the mainland with my road bike, I had to go up Seymour for the first time in 11 years. The Baker climb was 36km from the base to the top, with an average gradient of 3.5%. Seymour is only 12km long, with an average gradient of 7.5%.
My first ride up Seymour was an unforgettable experience. I wasn’t nearly as well-trained back then and went into it too hard at the start, causing me to stop for a breather twice as Marianne eased herself well ahead of me. It was a real-life tortoise vs hare situation, except I didn’t fall asleep. And I’m not a hare, nor Marianne, a tortoise.
ANYWAY, it was the descent that established this ride as a core memory. We’d started the ride a little late, so by the time we reached the top, the sun was setting. It takes 10-20 minutes–depending on how bold you are–to get back into town, which is also about how long civil twilight lasts. Without inner ear balance to help maintain stability in low-light conditions, I was losing my ability to ride a bicycle. All the sweating I’d done on the climb was now counterproductive. Halfway down the mounting, I had lost feeling in my fingers. My shoulders were so tense that they were up to my ears, and in between those ears, blue lips. The people at the Parkgate Village Safeway draped me with a blanket from their first aid kit and helped me get warmed up enough for the ride home.
Traumatizing, but I knew that wasn’t going to be an issue. It was 34 degrees as I went up Seymour. Even the descent felt hot.
My visit to the mainland also included visiting Zoée and being wowed by their floral apiary. The flowers were beautiful, but I was mostly charmed by the fuzzy bees napping in Zoeé’s zinnias. If Zoèe desires to supply a photo of their garden, I’ll gladly share it in my next post!
On the 21st, eight days after my one-day visit to the US, I returned for a different mountain. I’d made this plan with someone else three weeks earlier, only to have them back out due to an injury flare-up. Unlike Seymour, I wasn’t willing to do this ride solo. My search for another riding buddy wasn’t looking promising. Who else has Mondays off and likes riding uphill? Kit was up for the challenge. Kit is a fellow mechanic at the bike shop. She mentioned having plans to move back to Ontario in the fall, so I said we needed to go riding together at least once before she moves.
“I’m free on Monday.”
“I’m supposed to do Hurricane Ridge with a friend, but it isn’t looking good.”
“I’ll go with you!”
It was our first ride together, and we did Hurricane Ridge: 20km with 5.3% average gradient. It was more similar to Baker than Seymour, except for the three tunnels. Going through these dark tunnels with just a shitty front light was comparable to my that first Seymour descent of doom. I braked halfway through the first tunnel sharply enough for my rear wheel to skid. Thank Jebus I didn’t eat shit off my bike in the middle of a dark tunnel in the US!
Also, without the heatwave that helped me down Seymour, the Hurricane Ridge descent had my teeth chattering. The ranger station at the top had burnt down in May, which meant there was no access to water at the summit. For this reason, the park rangers were limiting the number of visitors to the top. As Kit and I were riding to the tollbooth, I was horrified to read a portable traffic sign that read HURRICAN RIDGE CLOSED. There wasn’t enough room on the sign for the rest of the message, which was: …TO CARS.
Only vehicles that entered the park before 11am were still on the road. For this reason, I was slightly pleased that the ranger station burned down. A fortunate misfortune.
Chilly descent, charred ranger station, and dark tunnels aside, it was worth it. It also cost ~$100 (round-trip ferry ticket and park entry fee) and was still worth it.
squaremeat.com 