This morning I woke up to a cloudy and chilly morning. Over night a thick marine layer had come on shore and was still hanging around. When I looked at the thermometer the outside temperature was 51 degrees. So Joe and I decided to wait until noon to begin our ride. We were hoping that the sun would burn through by then and begin to warm things up. But noon came and still no sun. Not wanting to waste the day or let a little marine layer get in our way of a ride we decided to drive into the city of Orting and start our ride from the city's park. We arrived at the park a little past twelve and unloaded our bikes from the truck. We were almost ready to go except for the fact that Joe and I were having a difficult time deciding whether or not to wear our jackets. It was still quite chilly but we also knew that once we began to cycle we would warm quickly. And the weather report did say clearing in the afternoon with full sunshine. After much debate we decided not to wear the jackets. And 5 minutes into our ride we were both quite happy with our decision.
After 7 1/2 miles of a gradual climb out of the Orting valley to South Prarie we reached the "climb"! A 2 mile hill with a 6 percent grade. We ascended the hill on new pavement. The work crews had been busy these past two weeks. The road was so very smooth, every cyclists dream road. Oh the descent back down would be sweet!
After the climb we were about 2 miles from the town of Buckley. The ride from the top of the hill into Buckley is beautiful and it has very little traffic. Once we arrived in Buckley we rode around the perimeter of the town and then headed back down the big hill to South Prarie and then to Orting. Total mileage for this route is almost 29 miles. Exactly it's 28.87 but I always round up.
Oh I almost forgot, on our way back this guy on a bike passed us and Joe decided he just couldn't allow this. So the last 4 miles of our ride Joe, me, and this guy were in a sort of three person Tour de France. We were the sprinters racing towards the finish. Happy to say Joe and I won! We passed this guy and left him in our dust. We put a lot of distance between us too. Joe was happy. He gets like this occasionally and it actually was fun. I guess Joe was feeling pretty good on our ride today. I felt pretty good too. It was a good ride. Oh and the sun did come out. Finally about 1/3 of the way through our ride it started to burn those marine cloud layers away. We finished with full sunshine!
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