Rhody Bike Tour

Couldn't have asked for a better day to ride our bikes. Sunshine! Particularly with the cold wet winter spring we've had and are still having. So we headed north to Port Townsend and made the most of it.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 61.34 miles Elevation Gain: 3,336 feet Average Moving Speed: 14.99 mph

Not 200 yards after we started riding we started going up hill. Not that steep, but climbing nonetheless, and relatively continuous. This boy is used to a nice 10 to 20 minute warm-up before taxing his muscles. Truth be told I think it was made worse by my pride. Can't let all the whippersnappers pass me on this hill! But eventually I warmed up and all was well. The sunshine on my back helped considerably in the warm-up process.

RIDE DATA:

This was our first non-local ride of the season. It has the distinction of being the farthest north we've ever ridden, which is illustrated nicely on our Map of All Rides.

It is beautiful country up there. The snow-capped Olympic Mountains were majestic. The valleys and farmland were a joy to ride through. And of course lots of scenery with shoreline and Puget Sound in the background. Didn't bring the camera so you'll have to take my word for it!

The route was nice, but we aren't fond of the sort of high traffic roads they had us on for much of the ride. There was plenty of shoulder room on said roads, but the heavy volume and high speed of traffic was not particularly enjoyable. Thankfully there were also significant stretches along back roads that we thoroughly enjoyed.

The ride seemed more difficult than we were both expecting. At the time I was thinking that all the climbs seemed like they were more gradual than our normal TTT training ride. It seemed like we were always climbing. But after looking at the elevation profile it doesn't really look like that, so I'm thinking the headwind we experienced for the first 20 miles or so probably felt like a climb and sapped some of our leg strength. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. Who knows.

The ride ended with a stretch of dirt trail along the sound. It was odd to ride our skinny tire road bikes on a dirt trail like that, but it was packed hard enough that it ended up being no problem. Glad it didn't rain just for this stretch if nothing else!

Many of these fundraiser bike rides serve a meal after the ride as part of the package. This one had a vendor on site but you had to pay extra for the sandwiches. It was worth it though. They were the "Best Ever Salmon Sandwiches" and the $7 price tag seemed quite reasonable after scarfing it down. Seemed a tad small, but that probably had more to do with the ride than the size of the sandwich (i.e. they were not small sandwiches!).

All in all, a very worthwhile trip. And perhaps the heavy traffic was due to one of the most beautiful days of the year, so folks got out and made the most of it. That's what we did!

RIDE MAP IN GOOGLE EARTH:

Maps showing all rides: 2011 Rides • 2010 Rides • 2009 Rides • All Rides