October 7th, 2009 | 
Author: Well, you can tell that the weather is changing. It’s still sunny enough, blue sky with white puffy clouds, but if you’re going to spend more than a couple minutes on your bike you’ll know soon enough that it’s time for under-armour and balaclavas (or something for your neck)
Today I met up with a new friend of mine, I met a few weeks ago at a business networking group called (Keiran’s List Coffee Club).
We’ve been talking about going for a ride for a couple weeks and today our schedules aligned so we decided to make a go of it.
Randy is from Colorado and hasn’t been around on too many roads, so it was up to me to play a little tour guide. High speed sight seeing is my specialty. You’d be amazed at how slowly Mt Ranier moves even when you’re….uh…moving, if you know what I mean.
We met up just off Hwy 18 and Black Diamond. Randy showed up on his Buell (I forgot to ask the model, but it looks 1125-ish). Twin rumble, with some seriously boss wheels. Looks like a race bike converted for street use. Sucker rumbles. I thought my bike was off cuz I could never hear it.
Anyway…
Our route started off along Green Valley, but this time the bridge is open so we were able to jam past the park since no longer a detour. It adds a few twists, which you really gotta slow down for, jimminie-crickets.
The only part of the ride that is typically….less desirable is from Enumclaw through Buckley. You end up on the one road in and out, so it’s always pretty loaded with traffic. But, after paying pennance we were back on the good roads (between Buckley heading to the back side of Orting. If you can avoid log trucks (we were not able to get around this one today) the road can be quite fun.
Once down in the valley, we were able to pass everything at will and well, we did. After kicking along we made the left turn onto Orville and ran away from Orting toward Kapowsin. I love this section as you have great tree lined roads, river and lake and a number of fun corners to play with, not to mention a couple of straight sections of road to enjoy.
I love tucking my head down behind the windscreen so low that the wind noise dissapears. Everything gets a little surreal at that point; it’s a little spooky feeling.
Sorry, I’ll stay on task.
We popped out on Meridian (not sure the hwy designation) and I took us straight to Eatonville for lunch. Brunos is a nice place. Maybe not the kind of food you’d hurt another person over, but it sure fits nicely into a day on the bike, or hiking or whatever you might be doing that far away from your responsibilities.
After some good conversation, I found out Randy had not been to “the Twisties” on Mt Hwy, so I knew what was next.
The key of course is making sure you aren’t stuck behind anyone, so even if you have to pull over for a couple minutes to make sure, it’s time well spent. Today we didn’t need to and just hammered past some dude (what are people thinking, like they have a chance to keep us from passing them).
The weather was perfect and pavement even better. This was, by far, my best time through. I didn’t hit the bottom maybe as fast as I could, but for the most part the trip through was without any point of panic.
After going through, we turned around came back through and I took us back to Orting as quickly as possible so that Randy could actually get some work done in the afternoon.
All in all, one of the best days on my bike.
Posted in Bike/Riding