Mabton - Prosser - Patterson - Crow Butte State Park - Alderdale - Mabton
93 mi
100’ climbing
10:00 ride time

We chose this route because (1) neither of us had been to this part of the state, (2) it’s drier than Western Washington this time of year, (3) it’s pretty desserted so you can put your head down and ride without too many distractions and with few cars. This plan would have turned out great except for one unknown factor — the wind. South-Central Washington is extremely dry and void of trees or any other feature that we’re used to in Western Washington to block the wind.

The ride started in Mabton and made a right turn at Prosser up a 750’ climb to the plateau above. That’s when the cross-winds really kicked in, without anything blocking the wind for more than 10 miles — because we could see that far — we rode like this all day. Except for the occassional fallen onion on the side of the road (Walla Walla would be a safe bet), there was little stimulation aside from the wind pushing us all over the road.

Finally we arrived at the gates of Columbia Crest winery and a downhill to the Colombia River. It was another 15 miles up the highway in decreasing winds to Crow Butte State Park where we arrived after dark.

Sunday’s ride was much better. We chose county roads that ascended up a nice river valley onto the plateau, then a 20-mile false-flat as we crept up. There was more agriculture — vineyards and orchards, although the vines looked pretty anorexic this time of year; it’s amazing that they will grow into something edible within 6 months. Except for Alderdale, which consisted of a few farm buildings, we didn’t pass through a town all day. There was an amazing amount of trash on the side of the road, which made me wonder Where are people getting all of this Bud Light?

Trieste to Opatia
53 km
16 km/h
1200 m climbed
4:34 riding time

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100 miles in 2 days
12 hours in the saddle
7000’ of climbing

Susana and I did a fully-loaded camp-over on Whidbey Island this weekend. Satuday morning we caught the ferry to Clinton and started out through the southwestern part of the island on roads I’ve never been on. The side roads were sparsley trafficked but there is development like crazy going on there. It will soon be just as crowded as the mainland.

We made it to Fort Casey be 5pm and scouted out the area to find a lot of trashy RVs occupying the campground.. we made a decision to head on to Ft. Ebey just 10 miles up the highway, some of it on the busier higway 20. Fortunately we found a bike trail that runs alongside the highway and took that to our camp site in the human-powered part of the park, completely unoccupied and on a nice pond.

Susana and I purchased our touring bikes this weekend. I had considered using my 10-year old Bruce Gordon BLT, but didn’t want to worry about its hard life on every bump — the corrosion from riding winters in the salty roads of the midwest catching up to it, the abuse of years of small tours and enduring a car accident. All of this would be on my mind as we rode through remote parts of Greece. So we’ll each have a new bike on this trip.

We opted for Co-Motion Americanos, which we’ve been thinking about for a long time. Co-Motions are hand-built in Eugene, Oregon, and after talking to the founders at the Bike Expo last weekend, and answering every question I could think up, it sealed the deal. Whereas my relatively new Look bike is built for speed, these bikes are built for pulling stumps and working hard. The rear wheels are slightly wider tandem wheels, 145mm versus the standard 135mm. Becuase they are tandem wheels, they are symetrical and thus stronger. All spoke breakage on previous trips has been on the drive-side of regular dished wheels, so hopefully we can put wheel worries behind us. The concern I had was the lesser availability of replacement parts for tandem-sized hubs on the road, but the theory goes that you won’t need replacements on the road with these wheels.

The standard component package is excellent — XTR derailleurs, DT-Swiss hubs, Velocity rims, Race Face 24/34/46 crank, 11-32 XTR cassette, 700c x 37mm Continential Top Touring tires that let you look up from the road… you just roll right over everything. I’ll put my new Brooks saddle on mine and outfit both bikes with STI shifting (we plan on bringing barcons as spares, at only 200g more), and replacing the V-brakes with Avid Shorty cantilevers. Fabian at Ti Cycles recommended against this, but I’ve only used cantilevers in the past on touring bikes and have had plenty of stopping power. Plus we’ll need the short-pull cantilevers to work with STI. Other disadvantages of V-brakes on touring bikes: greater chance of uncontrolled skidding and higher pad wear because of the higher mechanical advantage, not to mention the lesser availability of pads on the road.