RCC Hood Canal 200K

Great ride! - Left me seriously tired in fact.

The RCC group headed off for a 200k ride around Hood Canal. Wonderful ride, starts by catching the first ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island where we ride off and across the Island, Up to Port Gamble, Hood Canal Bridge then Quilcene arriving after 80miles and a climb over Mt. Walker at Hoodsport for lunch. Then on around to Union, Belfair and finally the Bremerton Ferry back home. Route Here

The ride was organized by the unstoppable RCC social Director "Buck-a-mile Sneed" and his wife "Lovey" They always do a great job putting the ride together and keeping everyone heading more or less in the right direction. The phrase herding cats often comes in to mind.... This year Greg has a line of rides on his the RCC calendar leading up to hopefully a successful RAMROD for some of us... (I do have a ticket to ride RAMROD this year but I am still keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to get enough training time in!)

Now I have not gotten any serious bike time in this year so I was not up for the whole 200k - I called up my tandem buddy Max and she signed on for a 100k of the ride. Since the plan was for some of us to share driving duties this worked out very well. I signed up to drive the ascent and unfortunately also the descent of Walker Pass (fairs fair - if you climb it you should get to descend it also....) plus I figured at Hoodsport we could take over driving duties for the rest of the trip that would give us right around 100K - In fact the odometer was just over 100K at 68 miles when we put the bike on the car in Hoodsport.

The trip was a great success - We felt great and thanks in part to Max's never ending cheerfulness and her willingness to push an undertrained captain around the course I had a wonderful ride! I was ready to get off the bike at Hoodsport as I was feeling the lack of time on the bike. She of course would probably have been ready for some more. I had no major mechanicals to worry over although the bike is overdue for some shop time. We did hit a raised plate hard at the Hood Canal bridge which I believe caused a few spokes to loosen on the rear wheel - Max heard a strange noise from the rear wheel after we got off 104 and where headed for Quilcene. She insisted that we look at the wheel before going down any more screaming descents.... I had a spoke wrench and tightened up the loose spokes. The wheel was fine otherwise.

At Hoodsport we had a fine lunch and then as we were now in charge of the SAG vehicle we made a stop at the Hoodsport Winery where we bought 7 bottles of wine! Then on to Union where Max bought a great T-shirt for her brother and a latte for me. We then headed up to catch the group who where making great time. We normally catch the 5:30 ferry at Bremerton but they managed to get in in time to catch the 4:15!

RIP

Sad weekend in the saltwater box.... I feel it is probably my fault but I am not really sure what happened. Friday I changed about a gallon of the water (this is a nano tank - 10 gallons) at the same time I topped off with some freshwater that was a very weak kalkwasser mix. Checked the salinity, tidied up a bit and left the tank a bit stirred up and murky but nothing abnormal.
The next morning my spotted prawn goby was out of his hole dead and the cleaner shrimp was not looking well. (I lost him two days later.)
I don't know what the deal was - The saltwater I used was aged and the right salinity and temp I am suspicious of the kalkwasser mix I mix it very very weak but I am worried that it causes too much of a PH change in a nano tank.
I still feel badly about the whole deal plus my pistol shrimp is now alone.
These guys are not new to the tank, the tank has been up and running for quite a while.
All a big bummer.
I did add an HOB filter with some carbon right after finding the goby but the cleaner shrimp never did recover.
Sometimes this hobby is really irritating!

Grook of the Day: A Word to the Wise

A WORD TO THE WISE
Let the world pass in its time-ridden race;
never get caught in its snare.
Remember, the only acceptable case
for being in any particular place
is having no business there.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: Grook on Long-Winded Authors

GROOK ON LONG-WINDED AUTHORS
Long-winded writers I abhor,
and glib, prolific chatters;
give me the ones who tear and gnaw
their hair and pens to tatters:
who find their writing such a chore
they only write what matters.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: Out of Time

OUT OF TIME
A holiday thought.
My old clock used to tell the time
and subdivide diurnity;
but now it's lost both hands and chime
and only tells eternity.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: The Cure for Exhaustion

THE CURE FOR EXHAUSTION
Sometimes, exhausted
with toil and endeavour,
I wish I could sleep
for ever and ever;
but then this reflection
my longing allays:
I shall be doing it
one of these days.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: Meeting the Eye

Meeting the Eye
You'll probably find
that it suits vour book
to be a bit cleverer
than you look.
Observe that the easiest
method by far
is to look a bit stupider
than you are.
-Piet Hein