Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring Ride

I had a personal day today and I picked a great day for it! Sunny, warm, and beautiful. I got a wonderful 40 mile bike ride in. Started straight from my home and did my Bonney Lake/Sumner/Orting/South Prairie/Buckley/Bonney Lake Loop!

I dropped down into Sumner from Bonney Lake on a 3 mile fast downhill WOW! I love coming down that hill. I hit 40 mph. In Sumner the daffodil fields were full of gorgeous beautiful daffodils. This weekend would have been a perfect one for the annual Daffodil Classic Bike Ride but it's not for another month. April 18th. By then all these daffodils will be gone. We have been getting unseasonable warm weather all winter long. No complaints from me! I took all of these photos with my cell phone camera. Not the best quality.



After enjoying the daffodils I continued on towards Orting. From Orting you have fantastic views of Mt. Rainier.

From Orting I head towards South Prairie. On the way I follow the Carbon River. I saw a lot of wild life today. Bald eagles over the river, mallards, and some domestic ones too. Horses, cows, sheep, and buffalo.
From South Prairie the climbing begins. Remember that hill I zoomed down at the start into the valley? Well now it was time to climb up out of the valley into Buckely. It was a long winding climb but it felt good. From Buckley I got onto Old Buckley highway which took me past farmland, fields and pastures, and some gorgeous homes.
40 miles later I was back home!

Tomorrow I begin my local bike club's training series. Tomorrow will be the first ride of the 16 week long series. 43 miles working up to our last ride on July 3rd of 168 miles with 9,000 feet of climbing. It's to get cyclist in my area ready for the big summer rides.