Bicycle the RSVP

OK, so there were 200 two days ago. I post today, only 200. Well, guess what. They’re all gone.

If we’re doing it, we better get our act in gear!

RSVP 2007

SUMMARY
Mileage: 183 miles
Terrain: Some hills – road elevation profile may be viewed here
Weather: Saturday: mid-60s to lower 70s, partly cloudy; Sunday: low 60s to mid 70s, overcast.

DETAILS
This was our third time doing the Ride Seattle-Vancouver and Party (RSVP), the second time on the tandem. Since we signed up for the ride so very many months ago, and we came back from Japan relatively shortly before the ride, I admit that we did not nail down many of the logistics to the ride until just before it happened.

The real preparations for the ride began on Thursday, the day before. We had previously arranged for a tandem team from the tandem mailing list (Richard and Nance) to spend the night at our house, along with my friend Lynne and her tandem partner, Jason. I got home early from work, and David and I launched into frantic house cleaning and other related chores.

Because both tandem teams were from Portland and knew each other
previously, all four ended up driving up together and arrived in the late afternoon. They came with homemade bread, salad, and desserts for everyone. After I fed everyone dinner, including these delights, we did our last minute packing for the next day.

We got up around 5:00 AM. I made a full breakfast of pastries, fruit salad, eggs, and smoked meat products. By 6:10 or we were completely packed up and backing out of the driveway.

We got to the start at about 6:40. David and I hit the trail around 7:00, figuring that we’d see the other teams along the way. We did a brief potty stop at Wilmot Park in Woodinville and then resumed the course.

David and I have done the portion of the ride from Woodinville to Snohomish together many times, so this section was quite familiar to us. At the beginning of this section, just out of Woodinville, is the longest steady elevation gain of the ride, which we handled without difficulty.

At Snohomish (mile 27), we decided to stop for another potty break and snacks. At the Lake Stevens rest stop (mile 37) we ran into my former and existing co-workers Nona and Carol. I ate a couple of bananas while David had more substantial ride food.

At Arlington (at mile 54), we had sandwiches and chocolate malts at the Blue Bird Café. The place’s patrons were pretty evenly divided between cyclists and locals. You could tell who were the cyclists: they were in lyrca. You could tell who were the locals: they were fat. The food there’s OK, but maybe next year we’ll go to the new Italian place next door. Then I went to the health food store across the street to buy some dried mangos as a digestible and nutritious on-board snack.

We stopped at a store at Lake McMurray (mile 65) not buying anything, just rehydrating. Then we probably lingered too long at the Mt. Vernon rest stop (mile 77), eating and loafing. We then rode across the flat agricultural lands of the Skagit Valley. We took a slight detour from the published route to avoid a section of chip seal. This better routing, coupled with a tailwind, made this part of the ride smooth sailing compared to last year’s slog.

We reached Bow (mile 90), and next to the shuttered general store, sucked down some goos in anticipation of Chuckanut Drive and the last section of the day’s ride.

We then did the upsy-downsies of Chuckanut Drive. Chuckanut is considered to be one of the most scenic roads in the state, and again was quite beautiful. When we don’t have bikes or cars in the way, our tandem can use momentum from the previous drop to make it up the upcoming climb.

When we finally reached Bellingham, at about mile 104, we did a brief stop at an eye clinic/optometry shop to get my glasses repaired. The stem was loose. The hours of the shop were nearly done, and the only person there was the doctor from the clinic. He cheerfully man-handled the frames with a set of pliers while gossiping about other eye doctors in our area. He said he got another month out of the frames for me – I need to remember to get the glasses replaced.

We remounted the bike and came on to the Western Washington University campus. We were staying at the dorms again, but at some residences not quite so high up on the hill as last year, which was nice. After getting our luggage and taking showers, it was time to think about dinner.

We had talked with Richard about rendez-vousing with them on our cell phones, but we planned to go to the Italian restaurant we went to the year before. However, as David studied our dinner options, he got increasingly sold on going to a brewery/bistro downtown. We took the bus there, and ended up meeting Richard and Anne there after all. We had a nice time
hanging out with them, and they very graciously paid for our dinners.

When we were done, we took the bus back to the dorms, where we promptly collapsed into bed. By 8:15 I was asleep.

The next morning we loaded up, and then rode up the hill to the
university’s campus cafeteria. The breakfast is all-you-can-eat. I had a bowl of oatmeal, French toast, tea and OJ, an excellent cycling breakfast. The price was right, and as a fussy tea drinker, I like being able to make my own tea.

After breakfast, we zipped along the relatively flat farm land to Lynden (mile 15). I know lots of people who hold off until Lynden for breakfast at the famous “Dutch Mother’s” located there, but I personally can not imagine going that far on an empty stomach. In Lynden, we met up with another tandem team on a purple tandem with a blue fade. The stoker asked, “Are you Claire?” because someone asked her that same question, knowing our bike has a similar paint job.

The border crossing was uneventful. We got up the steepest hill on the ride, “the Wall” (10% grade) pretty handily. At Fort Langley (mile 39), we had a short wait for the ferry (last year it took 90 minutes) and then went to the new rest stop on the other side of the river at a farmers’ market. This worked a bit better from last year’s stop before the ferry, where the whole stop and then ferry ride took a couple of hours to complete.

We then just whizzed out of town and into the countryside. There isn’t much of a shoulder on some of the rural farm roads we were riding on, and sometimes it was a little dicey passing other bikes and dealing with larger farm vehicles.

At Fort Moody Rocky Point Park (mile 61) we had our final rest stop. It wasn’t as late as last year. We bought ice cream cones at the park, and they gave us a discount because we were in the ride, which was nice. The Burnet Highway climb shortly thereafter was even easier than the previous year’s effort. It helped that it wasn’t hot, and we knew what to expect.

Then we were riding on official bike routes through Burnaby and Vancouver. We now really know this route, so we could anticipate the cross-traffic and hilliness. We got grouped with other people on the ride. Even if we rode at different paces, we would all meet up at the traffic lights.

This year, due to construction, the official route at the end took us through Gas Town. I think this was an improvement to taking us along the waterfront. I don’t think David has ever been to Gas Town, so it was a novelty to him to go through this neighborhood.

After a few harrowing blocks up hill through downtown, we were at the event hotel, about an hour earlier than last year. The bike corral at the hotel was much better organized than previously, and we much more easily parked our bike.

Then it was up to the party. We got to our luggage to at least change out of bike shoes and dump the helmet. As usual, we split the beer and the burger between us. Half a beer and half a burger is more of a wee snack than a meal.

We found our hotel, took showers, and walked to the restaurant where we had dinner with Lynne and Jason. Just as Richard and Nance kindly treated us to dinner the night before in Bellingham, Lynn and Jason picked up the tab for us in Vancouver. David and I toddled around on Robson Street after
dinner, and then went back to our hotel and to bed.

The next morning we loaded our bikes on the truck and ourselves on to the bus. It really started to rain, and we were grateful that we were not riding in the weather, and that the previous couple of days had been dry.

We had an interminable 3 hour wait at the border, while they processed several buses of Asian tourists ahead of us. One group walked off of the bus, walked to the border, and caught a cab to Bellingham, rather than deal with that craziness. Last year we just sailed right through! Maybe next year we’ll take the train, instead. It was pretty hellacious just to sit there, not moving, for so long.

Overall, this ride was pretty easy for us. I don’t know why the rides get easier and easier every year, even if we do less and less training for them. We just seemed to sail along, and even if we had sore heinies at the end of the ride, we seemed to otherwise hold up pretty well over the miles.

They’re almost sold out notice went up TODAY!

Online registration is open now. Last year I tried to register in May and missed out. I need to sit down and plan what I’m doing this summer/fall, so many fun things to do!

Also note that RSVP has been scheduled to occur the third weekend of August, occurring after Ride Around Washington (RAW), which is now August 5-10, 2007.

The first weekend of August is B.C. Day, a three-day weekend. This, and the culmination of the Celebration of Lights led to hotel occupancy in Vancouver approaching 100%. Many hotels have been imposing a two-day minimum stay.

Online registration begins January 1, 2007.

If your intention is to do this ride, early registration for the ride (as well as early hotel reservations) will make your life way easier. Once you’ve registered, reserved hotels and arranged return transportation, all you have to worry about is training!

A friend of mine participated in this event last year. He was so excited about it that now I want to try as well…

This was my first big event ride, which I did in 2005. I rode RSVP again in 2006. Day 1 is very challenging, ending with the beautiful climb up Chuckanut Drive. I feel I will skip this ride in 2007 to pursue other ride events.

It’s sold out already :(

http://www.cascade.org/eandr/rsvp/index.cfm