Monday, January 5, 2015

Centennial Trail II (2014-12-27)

Getting tired of rain and caffeine. Friction shifting is cool, though.

Geotagged Album

NOTE: It's been over a week since I did this ride, so I won't remember all the details correctly.

Relevant albums:

Centennial Trail (Album)

More after the break…

Outbound

Outbound

I started at 05:00 as usual along my normal route north out of Seattle, riding the same bike as last time. The rain wasn't too bad unlike that time, so I didn't have much of an issue.

However, the indexing on the shifters was rather unhelpful. I tried to figure out which way I had to turn the barrel adjuster to increase tension on the relevant cable, but gave up and switched it to friction shifting. In reality, it wasn't any worse so I stuck with it.

I eventually made it to the Rock City Cafe, where I wasn't alone. I thought to myself that I want to join one of these rides someday on my fancy new Surly Pacer.

I think I had an americano made with lukewarm water as I asked, but I can't recall exactly.

Next up, I went up to and along the Centennial Trail. I was surprised to see the "little free library" along the trail upgraded to a huge degree.

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Friction Shifting is Like Shaking Hands with Your Derailleur: "Hello Mr. Derailleur, how are you today?"

I came across what may be a future entrance to the Centennial Trail north of Lake Stevens.

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I then stopped by what was probably the original northern trailhead of the trail, which I'd never done before.

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Then I continued north.

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When I got to Arlington, I had hoped to use the restroom for both the tapwater and the toilet, but it was all locked up without notice, which I've never seen before there.

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So instead of taking care of business there, I stopped by the Local Scoop (which now goes by a new name I can't remember) for soup, coffee, and the facilities. The coffee helped as the rain was getting worse at this point.

And then further north I continued, along the trail and SR-9 as is my norm, to Lake McMurray. I stopped at the little convenience store and chatted with the older Japanese women as I always enjoy doing.

At this point, the caffeine was really getting to me and I wanted to minimize the amount I was taking in.

Outbound

Inbound

The rain continued to pour as I started on my way back south. I can't recall when, but I know I put latex gloves on under my riding gloves (a trick I learned last week) as the latter were soaked.

I saw something pretty cool on the last leg of the trail north of Arlington.

Knowing that Legion Park was closed, I stopped by another cafe in downtown Arlington for both coffee and a bathroom.

The rain died down signicantly after I left the cafe, and was completely gone when I started up Culpeper Hill on the trail.

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For some reason, it was really smoky in Lake Stevens.

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Since the clouds were gone and a northerly wind was blowing, it started to become frigid. I kept pushing along to Snohomish to keep warm.

My gloves were still drenched and cold, but the bike shop that contains this cafe was still open.

Lobster Claws: I've been thinking about them and finally pulled the trigger after my regular thick gloves had been soaked by the rain.

The gloves took some getting used to, but the bar-end shifters on this bike didn't really demand much dexterity.

I kept riding without pushing too hard as my legs weren't too happy at this point. The new gloves were amazing and my hands were even starting to sweat a bit even though they would've still been fairly cold in the other gloves when dry at the ambient temperature.

And after I got home, I went out to get some cereal as not stopping to eat was definitely taking its toll.

My touring bike is getting a new dynamo wheen, so this bike is getting the old one.

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