I had high hopes for riding to Wilkeson and back, only for the weather to have other ideas.
While it started off well enough, a combination of rain, wind, and saddle position problems made this ride less than fun towards the end.
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Let's be honest, I just wanted to put my new Schwalbe Thunder Burts to good use.
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I had a couple of choices for the ride this time around: The Palouse to Cascades Trail to the Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel, or the North Fork Snoqualmie Road. For the first part of the ride, I left both options open, but by the time I got to where the routes forked, I decided on the former.
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A short spin on a familiar trail.
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This is the first ride other than a commute that I'd done on my Crust Romanceur since having the fenders and tires swapped. After much deliberation, I decided to switch to the Schwalbe Thunder Burt, which was recently discontinued in 26", so I eventually got a second pair for when these wear out.
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Originally planned to head out to Snoqualmie Pass, but decided to see the valley instead.
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I had originally planned to ride to the Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel and back before the snow threatened the open status of it, but when I got onto the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, I decided that I'd rather ride that instead. I couldn't get home too late due to evening plans with my partner, so this presented less risk, too.
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My original plan was to simply check out the new additions to the Olympic Discovery Trail, but the allure of going all the way to Sequim pulled me into a double metric century.
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I finally summitted the pass that had been eluding me for years!
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I've been talking about going to Stevens Pass for many years. On my first ride out to Skykomish, my plan was to get to Scenic at least, but it was just too far. I'm glad I split it up into multiple days: the last five miles to the pass are a real doozy! It also gave me time to check out some sights I would've missed otherwise.
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Always a fun time!
I'd strongly recommend taking a look at these older albums, as there are photos of things in them that I didn't get in the latest album above.
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A nice little snack of a ride.
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Largely one of my past rides done in reverse past Belfair.
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I'd gone toward Tahuya along the river few times, but I'd never gone up the river before.
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Headed out past Index again.
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The road sure has changed since they paved it!
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Actually doing a ride I would've done years ago!
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It's been a while since I've last crossed Puget Sound, so I thought this world be the perfect opportunity!
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My first century in quite a while, and it wasn't even intentional!
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I managed to forget my phone on this ride, but that didn't stop me from having a great time!
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Not quite to Barlow Pass, but definitely a beautiful ride!
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After getting sunburned on my previous long ride, my partner pushed the idea of sunscreen and I listened this time.
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Another nice ride, this time through farmland!
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An easy ride on a beautiful day.
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This was the first ride with my new René Herse crankset, with 42/26 rings and an 11-34t cassette. I definitely preferred the gear range with this setup.
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A very rewarding 100km ride because of all of the climbing.
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Finishing up what I would've done in "Sumner Out and Back" if I'd been feeling better.
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Tried to do 85 miles after not only not having ridden for a while, but with a major change to my bike fit. My saddle's been too low for a very long time, which built up my hamstrings but weakened my quads. With my saddle where it is now, my quads were finally called into action, but they tired out too quickly. I ended up doing only 63 miles.
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A little spin down the Kitsap Peninsula.
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The first metric century I've done since my bike fit and corrected pedaling technique. I started off pretty tired after the previous day's ride back from the usual Christmas visit, when I pushed myself really hard, but still managed this time.
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Retraining my legs after a bike fit.
A couple weeks or so before this ride, I had a bike fit done on my Crust Romanceur. Pedaling felt really strange, but the bike fitter said I'd have to change my pedaling technique, which previously consisted of driving my heels down and trying to reach all the way down to the bottom of the pedal stroke. This ride started the journey of changing to a proper spin.
This was also my first ride with TRP Hylex hydraulic brakes, which I switched to after my previous TRP Spyre cable disc brakes would completely lose their adjustment after a week. The issue with the latter is that I'd worn through the threadlocker that held the adjustment screw's positions, and braking over time would slowly back my brake pads out each time until pulling the brake levers all the way to the handlebars wouldn't fully apply the brakes.
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