Lake Washington Loop – 4/20/13

Similar to last week, the dark clouds loomed over us for the entire ride. The threat of rain was with us throughout the ride but the rain never came until after we were done. It was good to see all the friendly faces show up ready to ride regardless of the weather. It was actually a pretty chilly start for us in the morning as we headed out from Sunset Elementary. As we headed around the east side of Lake Sammamish, we saw numerous riders including several large groups (15-20) going in the opposite direction; I believe they were from the local Cascade Club. Traffic on the Sammamish River trail was quite light possibly due to the weather and time of day which was a blessing. As we rounded the top of Lake Washington we encountered a stiff head wind from the south which slowed us down a bit and took whatever pep we had left in our legs up to that point. Our only extended stop was at the Starbucks in Leschi. If you haven’t been there lately, it’s become quite popular amongst the biking community, finding a parking space for your bike especially for a tandem is becoming difficult. From there, Steve and Jon decided to head back across I-90 as the rest of the group continued around the south end of Lake Washington. While heading south on Rainer Ave, there was a large funeral procession line of cars heading north which cause the south bound lane to pull over and stop including bikers, never seen that before. As we got to the eastside closer towards the end of our ride, a number of us started tracking the number of miles hoping that we’ll hit 65 miles. Last week’s ride of 59.25 miles after having advertised it as 60 miles didn’t go over too well with the crowd last Saturday. Luckily for me, having advertised this week’s ride as 65 miles, we actually recorded 65.08 miles. Great job everyone!

 

 

Distance:	65.08 mi
Time:	4:39:27
Avg Pace:	4:18 min/mi
Avg Speed:	14.0 mph
Elevation Gain:	1,611 ft
Calories:	3,668 C
Avg Temperature:	48.2 °F