Saturday Ride Report: Washougal River

My first ride after the pox was lifted from the house of Hooten and it was triumphant. This was a beautiful ride up the Washougal River Road, which is a steady climb as you ride upstream, then you haul ass back down. I was doing a slow but steady 12-13 miles an hour out and around 17-19 on the way back. The road follows the river most of the way so you're always making these turns and seeming beautiful scenes of the river. There were several moments when I'd round a bend and come upon some gorgeous view, throw my hands up and say out loud "Oh hell yes!"

I was out the door early and on the bike by 7:30 which I think was why I had almost no traffic the whole ride out and not much on the way back. It's also pretty remote, so the further up the river you get, especially when it's way too cold to hit the dozens of swimming holes, the less people you find. It was a chilly ride, but one of the better training rides so far this spring, as far as the weather goes.

A couple of funny-ish moments: I pulled into a little store to grab some energy drink and some old dude looked at my bike and said "How many hamburgers per hour is it to ride that thing?" I smiled and told him I don't know, I don't eat hamburgers. He said "Oh, well, whatever you eat then." He wandered off before I was done calculating how much tofu equals one mile of biking.

Another moment: I found a little rock embedded in my rear tire as I was starting the ride. I figured I could make it out and back and be fine. I'd been planning on new tires here soon anyway, these have close to 2,000 miles on them so I want to change them out before the big ride. So I do the ride, drive home, and Michelle has to go to work so she wants to ride my bike. I go out to get it for her and find the rear tire is flat. Somehow I made it through the whole ride and only when I was done did the tire finally die on me. Woo!

Roundtrip this was a 36 miler, which was a good distance to test out my general well being after the flu. It felt good the whole time and I could definitely have gone further. Which I will tomorrow.