My first perm with SIR

[Yogy Namara]

It started raining yesterday in Seattle area, and it's forecasted to persist for at least the next few days, but fret not, I got a last chance ride in with the fine folks of SIR prior to all this precipitation! I was going to write a lengthy introspective report about the experience, but I'm feeling a bit lazy so I'll keep it short and sweet instead.

[ REGISTRATION/PERMINATOR ]

SIR does perms quite a bit differently than I think pretty much any other RUSA region: officially, all the perms are owned by one person! Registration is also done through https://perminator.org, which is an incredible perm registration system. Getting my foot in the door was somewhat of a minor hassle, I'm not going to lie -- I had to ride my bike to Fedex to print and sign the annual waiver which a person had to approve -- but then perm registration all year long is a breeze. It only took me a few minutes between registering for a perm online and receiving the brevet card in the e-mail! For this particular ride, I joined a prior arrangement that was publicly listed on the site, and I did it on less than 12h notice!

It's such a quick and painless process, and you don't have to ask around if anyone's riding a perm that weekend that you can join, or feel left out when a secret arrangement was made and you didn't get invited, etc. Just go to the site and start clicking around, join a prior arrangement or make your own, and voila! (And don't worry, if you're the hush-hush type, you can still arrange a private ride just for you and your buddies!).

(I'd imagine that you can probably use the system for fleches/darts too, so orphans don't have to beg for someone to adopt them, or deal with the rejection when no one inevitably does, etc. They can just click around the site, make a public team or join an existing one, and they're all set!).

Currently the Perminator serves only the Northwest, so if you're ever interested in doing a perm in the region, do yourself a favor and sign up online, sign the annual waiver old school ink-on-paper style, send them a scan or a photo, and give them a few days to approve it. Once that's done, you can instantly register to ride as many perms as you want!!

[ ROUTE ]

The route for this particular ride is the Hood Canal Loop 2.0, a reversible point-to-point 200k, and we arranged to do it in the CCW direction from Bainbridge Island to Bremerton (straight line distance: ~7 miles). From Seattle, you'd take a ferry to the start (<$10), and a ferry back from the finish ($0, yep, 100% free somehow or another). Commentary on ridewithgps says that "On a clear day, this is one of the most beautiful routes we have", and that this 2.0 version is "a vast improvement over the original route" by substituting back roads over major highways (and I made it an even better v2.1 by substituting gravel over US 101, more on that later).

The Hood Canal itself is not even a canal (it's all very confusing, I know, but that's what happens when you move to a new place, I guess...). No, it's actually a fjord, and there aren't very many of those around, so that's already kind of special. Add the fact that its spanning bridge is the third longest floating bridge in the world (and you all know I have a thing for bridges), and it connects to the Olympic Peninsula (which I heard is a pretty darn awesome place), well, no wonder that they specifically picked this route to entertain their guest of honor! (no-no-no, not me, I'm referring to a visiting randonneur from the east coast, more on that later).

Thus far I had only been riding throwaway non-RUSA routes, haphazardly exploring random destinations guided primarily by Google Maps and Strava Global Heatmap, just drawing lines on ridewithgps that I don't even strictly follow, so this perm was the real deal in that it's actually a thoughtfully crafted long distance cycling route, and in its second iteration no less! I had also been riding by myself so far, and I kind of missed the camaraderie of randonneurs, and yes, I actually kind of miss SFR already, especially when every little thing I see reminds me of what I've left behind (more on that later), so I was really looking forward to a wonderful day of riding with SIR!

[ START ]

My day started early at 3:30am. I was on the road by 4am heading to Mercer Island, where a fellow randonneur offered a carpool to Seattle. I got to the pick-up spot without incident, meaning I got there early, so I decided to just keep on riding since it's only a few more miles to Seattle. My timing was serendipitous because I ran into three other riders just as I got there, and I was able to simply copycat their ferry check-in/boarding procedure, which involved scanning the bar code from a self-printed ticket purchased online, being the first ones in ahead of all the cars, and securing the bike on a hand rail with a naval rope that you tie into knots (no bike racks, unfortunately, not even velcro straps or hooked bungee cords).

A little chit chat on the ferry uncovered a minor hick-up due to the reversible nature of the route: "We're going to Bremerton, right?" / "Well, we're riding our bikes to Bremerton, but right now this ferry is going to Bainbridge..." / "Oh, my, I printed the wrong route sheet....".

"Oh, this is going to be fun...", I thought...

[ RIDE ]

Photo above taken by Geoff Hazel at the bakery in Bainbridge Island, the start control. I think this was around the time that I said that instead of mailing my card and receipts to the designated person after the ride, I would just ride my bike to the address and drop it in the mail box, since it's sort of on my way home. Then I realized that the said designated person was in that table sitting right next to me, and laughs were heartily had. Like me, he was also wearing just one ankle band; he had lost the other one "somewhere between Edinburgh and London". I'm sure mine was stolen by the dang dog (no, not that one, the other one).

Photo above taken by George Swain, a visiting randonneur from the east coast, the guest of honor for the ride, and for whom the perm was arranged in the first place. I was riding together with the majority of the group for the first ~50 miles. I suppose that means that I must've done something right (or they must've done something wrong, I'm not sure, I guess it could go either way). 

Photo above taken by me somewhere on the Olympic National Forest Road #2620/Rocky Brook. This was a "safety detour" (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) that replaced 6 downhill miles on the busy US 101 with 12 car-free dirt miles and +2100 ft of bonus climbing. It also took me 2 hours, and I was already behind the group due to a flat tire, so I was riding alone for the rest of the ride (which was perfectly fine by me, I had always been primarily a solo perm rider).

Photo above taken by me at a gas station in the control town of Hoodsport. There were two half-full big jugs of water, a sight that nearly brought tears to my eyes. I never actually confirmed this, but I assumed the others had left them there for me. I guess "rando charity" is not just an SFR exclusive tradition!

[ FINISH ]

I eventually arrived at the finish in Bremerton about an hour before the next ferry. My check-in procedure didn't go as smoothly this time, and after being rejected several times at the booth for being too early, I ended up being the last one to board behind all the cars.

Promises were made of the most spectacular view of Seattle from the sun deck, but (i) it was getting dark, (ii) Seattle wouldn't be in the line of sight until much later during this 1h ferry ride, and (iii) the lack of sleep finally caught up to me and I passed out at my table.

I was abruptly woken up by one of the last passengers exiting the ferry who took pity on me and decided not to just leave me sleeping on my table. I must've been in the middle of a REM cycle, because for the next 5 minutes I was in a deep state of confusional arousal (which isn't half as sexy as it sounds, trust me on that). I quickly gathered my belongings and followed the other passengers exit via the walkway, before remembering that I had a bike with me. I turned around and walked down the stairs to the empty car deck... and I meant empty. There were no cars, not a single other person... and there was no bike on the hand railings.

"Huh... I guess someone stole my bike..."

If I wasn't in such a state of sleep-deprived stupor, I would've panicked, but thankfully as sluggish as my logical problem solving was, my emotion was simply dead in its tracks. I then double-checked to make sure that my bleary eyes weren't deceiving me. Nope, my bike's not there. But wait, could it be... behind me? Sure enough, I turned around and there it was, way on the other end of the ferry, still roped to the railing.

It's a double-ended ferry, you see. Cars go in one end, and they drive through and come out the other end, and the ferry doesn't have to turn around. I was the last one in, so my bike was parked at the back of the ferry, and I had walked my way to the front when I was checking out the sun deck for the view, hence why the bike was then behind me. (It all makes perfect sense when you lay it down straight like that, but remember the key words: confusional arousal!).

I smiled, picked up my bike and casually walked out of the ferry. Once on the sidewalk, I reattached all my lights, emptied out my bulging pockets of valuables which then got loaded onto the bike bags, and then slowly strolled along the piers and thought about how much it reminded me of SF's Embarcadero.

Instead of retracing my way home via Mercer Island, I decided to complete the (sub)loop around Lake Washington by riding north onto the Burke-Gilman Trail. And that's when I saw this sign.

I smiled. There's even a Fremont here too. Like I said, every little thing here reminds me of what I've left behind... but they also offer promises of new possibilities.... so maybe I'd be alright after all...

*BEEP* the Garmin protested angrily. It said that I was going off-course. "But I'm still on the BGT...", I counter-protested. Oh, yeah. I had planned it to route me to the designated SIR perm post-processor's house. I smiled. "Not now..., I'll just mail it in..."

I got home, ate a big dinner, and then passed out on the carpet next to the dog (no, not that one, the other one).

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

In a totally unprecedented move, I've now done perms with the fine folks of SIR for two weekends in a row! (I know, right?). In between, I also did 2 solo perms with the Perminator, in which I discovered (among other things) that through a limit-testing series of trials-and-errors (because that's what randonneurs do) that the minimum advance notice for the system is currently set at 20 minutes.

Yesterday, however, I learned of yet another cool trick you can pull off with the Perminator. Four riders (me included) from last weekend's ride returned to the Olympic Peninsula for another camarederious 200k, and we were to be joined by a fifth, who unfortunately missed the first Bainbridge ferry from Seattle. Thus, to accommodate for his late arrival (because we wouldn't want him to miss out on this very special occasion -- more on that later), instead of starting at 7:30am as we had originally arranged, we simply rescheduled it to start at 8:45am.

It was all done so casually (for better or worse): we just calculated what the new starting time should be based on the ferry schedule, then everyone just went on their phones to hit "Edit" on their registrations, and voila, perm rescheduling was all done in 2 minutes or less!

I don't think you can pull this off were it not for the Perminator! With humans, just getting the initial arrangement done sometimes must take days, maybe even weeks in advance for some owners, some of whom put in the extraordinary effort of mailing a comprehensive package of reading materials with paid registrations, along with a non-reusable perm card that already has all the control dates and times filled in. Common sense dictates that most perm owners probably wouldn't tolerate a 7am Saturday morning last minute phone call to postpone a perm by 1h15m (Can you imagine? *shudder*), but with the Perminator, it's only several taps away on your phone's touchscreen!

The extra time at the bakery gave the sun a chance to warm things up, which was also what we did by exchanging personal tales of randonneuring. The topics went far and wide, which included (as it often does) stories of diarrhea ("Your sphincter is amazing!" was one conclusion, which I agree with now that I've had the time to ponder).

A moment of flattery happened when I was asked for my RUSA# right there on the table, so that my record could be immediately examined. It felt like what I'd imagine a woman feels when she is asked for her phone number at a bar, but I'm not 100% sure, I don't go to bars (and I'm not a woman).

Soon enough our group was complete, and we embarked on Bainbridge-Port Townsend 2.0. Some highlights included double-crossing the Canal Hood Bridge, visiting two different lighthouses, riding on crunchy gravel roads and fun twisty dirt miles on the Olympic Discovery Trail, having my mind boggled by the strange names for the even stranger places around here (e.g. Point No Point, Useless Bay, and seen earlier on my 18 miles ride to Seattle: Park Lake Forest (or some other permutation of those same three words)).  The whole group rode together from start to finish, which was not only great because of the various conversations we were having, but also because as a non-local first timer, the others were eager to play the role as my personal tour guides ("Welcome to [insert town name]!", "You're going to love this!" here and there, etc.).

As a bonus, the late start and relaxed touring pace added up to a 13h ride with a few hours of riding after sunset. Apparently we missed out on some great views had there been daylight, but I didn't mind: I LOVE RIDING AT NIGHT! Especially as a group! (Which is why I'm excited that SFR is bringing back the Davis night time 230k!!).

The single most glorious moment of the day, however, happened at mile 94 on Larson Lake Rd, where one of us officially had gone Mondial. Pictures were taken (by yours truly), predictable jokes were made about the celebration being premature (by yours truly), and this was then followed by the exhilaration of a descent on the quiet foresty road, so much so that everyone failed to stop at the info control part way through the descent (but fret not: the route designer is Mr. Mondial himself, and he already had the answer all along!).

(Speaking of pictures, apologies for their absence in this ride report. I took a few throughout the day, and even shot a beautiful video of us boarding onto the ferry on our way back, but my phone finally died, so I'm not sure if/when I can recover them. And don't worry, the Mondial pictures were also taken by at least 2 other phones! Look out for those when they're posted on Facebook, assuming you know where to look).

The ride ended with a nice group dinner at a Mexican restaurant/bar. An offer was made to drive me home afterward, but I negotiated a free dinner instead, and choose to ride out the 20 additional miles, because "I really like riding my bike!". Let's just hope that I can continue to do that once winter comes.

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

My phone came back from the dead (it was never actually dead, just the charging cable is), so here are a couple of pics and a short video as promised.

Here are four of us who made the first ferry at the start control bakery.

Some of you were miffed at the sight of my helmet on the table in a previous picture, for it is a filthy contaminant on an otherwise hygienic dining surface. Well, here's THREE helmets on the table, so you can get super duper miffed!!

(Note the large triangle on the back of the farthest helmet. I'm pretty sure it's a DIY reflectivity mod on the Gyro Air Attack. You can sort of see it in action in the video below.)

A panorama somewhere in the middle of the Hood Canal Bridge. Note the large saddle back on the Moulton. It's probably the largest bag-to-bike ratio I've ever seen firsthand (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Here's a short compilation video that shows (i) a long straight section on the multi-use Olympic Discovery Trail, (ii) the Mondial moment, and (iii) ferry boarding back to Seattle (I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, but for now this still gives me goosebumps, not that that means anything).

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

Sorry, forgot to add link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFsN4eTtsTY

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

I did my third group perm yesterday, the Ride Around Mt. Rainier perm (basically a no-frills version of RAMROD). Too lazy to write a report, sorry, but here's a short video (expect the usual inappropriate soundtrack and bastardization of time and space).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bn7BPEmKug

Yogy

[Vlad Luskin]

The latest I saw was that closure was extended to september 22. Does anyone know whether the road is open now?

Thanks.

[Susie Bump]

I am told that it is fully open by a cycle comrade who lives on Palomares. 

Susie

On Sat, Sep 30, 2017 at 4:46 PM, Vlad Luskin <waldo...@gmail.com> wrote:

The latest I saw was that closure was extended to september 22. Does anyone know whether the road is open now?

Thanks.

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[Yogy Namara]

I did my fourth group perm with SIR yesterday, back to Mt. Rainier, starting/finishing in Mercer Island, visiting the Carbon River, a region that offers a "a unique ecosystem within the park: an inland temperate rainforest". It's also, among other things, the site of the absolutely gorgeous Fairfax Bridge, one of only two 3-hinged lattice arches in Washington!

The original plan was to schedule it early enough so I can reuse the 7-day pass purchased last week for reentry, but further conversation revealed that (A) there is no fee to visit this part of the national park (!!), and (B) other people were actually interested in joining me (!!!), schedule permitting.

One of those people happened to be a person in charge of route maintenance for SIR perms, and he proposed that we do some off-route bonus miles, to research for potential future revision of the route. I'm a free-router by default, so of course this did not bother me in the slightest, and in fact I had already proposed to do some off-route bonus miles of my own! You see, the official route makes riders turn around at the info control where the pavement ends, but the road (now effectively a trail after an epic flood) actually goes 5 miles farther to a campground, beyond which bikes are prohibited.

NOTHING IRKS ME MORE THAN A PREMATURE U-TURN ON A DEAD-END ROAD!! The way I see it, the essential question in randonneuring is: "Could I have ridden farther?". There isn't always a clear yes/no answer to this question, but if I were to ride for miles on a dead-end road only to turn around some measurable distance shy of the terminus, then I obviously COULD have ridden farther and did NOT ride far enough!!!

In fact, for this ride I had originally planned to go even further up the river to visit it's birthplace, by adding the 3-mile one-way hike to see the Carbon Glacier! Glaciers are special enough as they are, but this one was even more so because in the US outside of Alaska, it is the longest, thickest, and most voluminous! And it's at the lowest elevation, to boot!!

Of course, reality check kicks in and I eventually realized that (A) the out-and-back hike would take 3h, and (B) it's a pretty hardcore hike, so that plan was scrapped and I only rode to the campground, which turned out to be a very nice destination, serene and beautiful, with many bikes parked at the kindly provided racks! (plural!) No pictures, unfortunately, because I think my phone actually died for real this time, but there is this one taken halfway up the trail:

(Fun fact #1: I believe this was the first time my Keen water sandals were legitimately used to walk on a riverbed!)

(Fun fact #2: That's actually a bag of Chex Mix inside my SFR vest, for extra insulation. It's like a wool jersey but better because you can eat it when you're done.)

Anyway, after all the bonus miles plus a couple of flat tires, we ended up finishing with minutes to spare. A wonderful route, not the least of which because it concretely asks, "How far can you go?". Apparently the Carbon River region of Mt. Rainier is usually open all winter long, so perhaps I can add a bit of hiking on a not-so-distant future attempt.

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

I did my fifth group perm with SIR yesterday, a 106k partial loop of Lake Washington with some Mercer Island thrown in for good measure. It was a very last minute decision: I just browsed all the public registrations on Perminator, and joined a group that was starting the ride just 5 miles away. Plus there were some familiar names too, including the designated SIR perm post-processor, thus presenting me with an opportunity to hand-deliver my perm cards (plural!) instead of dropping them off at his house!

But of course I had to print those cards first, and since I had been itching for a night ride (or any kind of ride, really, since it had been raining for days), I embarked on a personal mission to Lynnwood, where there's a Fedex printing center that is open 24h that is reachable via the Interurban Trail. (The only other 24h Fedex is in downtown Bellevue, but I didn't want to be on the road on a Friday night where there could potentially be drunk drivers abound. Or maybe not, I don't know what the drinking culture is like around here).

It was a very nice night ride, serene with heavy fog blanket (no pictures, sorry, my phone is dead for sure), but the spontaneous nature of the ride meant that I had forgotten to check how cold it was going to be! By the time I got to Fedex, my fingers were both numb and painful! Fortunately, all those machines running 24h meant that they were warm to the touch! I mean, I'd much rather caress a warm mug of steaming hot cocoa than grope a giant printing/scanning/copying robot, but beggars can't be choosers! (Ask me which part of the machine is the warmest! (The answer may surprise you!)).

I had originally planned for a slightly longer ride, but the cold meant that I had to cut it short, so I just abandoned the trail and went straight home afterward on the road, drunk drivers be damned! For whatever it's worth, the average temperature for the 40 mile ride, as logged by Garmin and reported by Strava, was 35°F.

The upside of this decision was that I got to actually get some sleep before starting the 100k! The downside, however, is that I woke up late, since I had no alarm clock (did I mention that my phone is dead?), so when I finally got to the start, the group had already left 20m prior.

The chase was on, so I rode as hard as I could and by mile 18 I managed to crash... A TANDEM PARTY!!! There was not just one but two tandems in the group! It was slipstream galore, as you might expect, and the rest of the miles rolled on by easy, no sweat!!

It was at a regroup point at the top of the subsequent hill that I was introduced as "an enthusiastic transplant" from SFR,  which is probably the nicest thing that anyone has ever said about me (though I guess you can say the same thing about a pesky parasite, now that I think about it more/too much...).

At the mid/turn-around point in Renton, I joined the group at the dining table at a Mexican restaurant, where I ate a bag of Chex-Mix while watching others eat some of the largest portions I've ever seen served anywhere. (Nothing against Mexican, I just wanted to do the whole ride without spending a single dime, just like I did on the 200k last week. And I would've succeeded again this time too, if not for the $1 spent at the start control due to my tardiness!).

The lunch stop splintered the group, which was understandable because of the forementioned HUGE portions, but we were eventually reunited in Mercer Island (where I first saw those really cool IceAlert reflectors!) and rode to the finish together.  We then spent 45m in Starbucks discussing various topics, such as RUSA's recent adoption of e-PoP and what changes (if any) may be forthcoming, and the upcoming SIR annual meeting/road cleanup party.

And no, "road cleanup" is not a euphemism! SIR is literally going to pick up and bag any thrash they find along a stretch of a road they had adopted! What a wonderful program! I've seen these signs all over the place, but only then did I understand how it works!

Now here's a neat idea: maybe SFR can adopt a road too! I mean, as far as I know, about the only place on earth that SFR owns is a brick that was paid for. (Well, we also had that mouse door for a much-too-short while...). I mean, if the KKK and the American Nazi Party can do it, I'm sure SFR can too, right? Right!!

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

Another week, so you know what that means! Yep, just hours ago I finished my sixth group perm with SIR... and what a group it was! There were 20 starters, with only one DNF (premeditated), which sets a new record for a SIR group perm in 2017. Among us were past, present and perhaps even future RUSA board members! (no-no-no, not me, I'm talking about a visiting randonneur and candidate in the current 2018 RUSA Election, voting deadline November 15).

The route was a 100k mostly flat loop, one that I've actually done solo before. Back then I got a surprise rain, mercifully timed since the Tiger Mountain Country Store was nearby and I was able to take shelter and wait it out (and still finished under time limit). Today I was also worried about rain, which was sort of in the forecast, but luckily we didn't get a single drop. That said, it had been raining all week, so some of the roads were wet, which gave me the opportunity to test out my brand spanking new SKS P50 Longboard fenders. Verdict: bottom bracket and chainset still got dirty, which was to be expected since (unbeknownst to me at the time of order) the P50 is shorter in the front than the P45. On the plus side, I saw in my mirror that people seemed comfortable riding right behind me at times, so perhaps it's acceptable in the rear.

The celebratory finish was at a brewery, where I almost spent two hours hanging out with everyone. They asked and I confirmed that yes, I did this perm without spending a single dime, making it three in a row now. At some point we broke out and sang the happy birthday song, so presumably today is that person's birthday. Eventually my lack of sleep caught up to me and I had to leave, or else I'd pass out (something which I'll probably do as soon as I hit Send).

Oh, I got a replacement phone, so here's a photo I took at the finish.

Others in the group have more pictures in their social media.

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

No group ride with SIR this week, and yes I realize that this is still Sunday morning, but no I'm not even going to try to keep the streak going by joining a group at the last minute, because I'm all permed out from having just finished a solo 600k, for which I have no words to describe. Yes, seriously, there are no words, just pics and videos. Enjoy!

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

I compiled the materials into a hopefully more watchable 6m36s video. Still no words to describe it, unless you count screenshots of private e-mails.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOE22PiMnEI

Enjoy!

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

Yesterday I finally did another group perm (#7). It was the inaugural ride of "SIR's first route across the 520 bridge!", decidedly scheduled on the long anticipated opening day, ridden in the reverse direction for timing. It was a decently sized group for a week day ride, with an extra dose of undocumented camaraderie if you count other SIR members who just hung out and/or rode along with us.

It was a gorgeous day, in spite of the fact that temperature was in the 30's all day. I got to revisit the city of Snohomish, a commonly used control location, partly owing to the presence of a bakery In fact, that's how I got there the first time, during a solo ride of a permanent aptly named Baked Goods 100, except that I rebelliously did that ride with only AriZona teas on my receipts, on purpose. I wasn't expecting to have any baked goods this time either, since this was meant to be another "Not a Single Dime Spent" kind of ride for me, but as luck would have it, they had free samples of Christmas stollen, which I took advantage of, repeatedly. Little did I know at the time that this would only be the first of many free food opportunities all day.

Conveniently for me, the route goes by within 2 miles of my house, at about 2/3rd of the way in, just before a receipt control, so I was able to temporarily detach from the group to ride home and give my dog a quick early afternoon lawn break, to then catch up with the rest of the group just as they left Starbucks.

By the time we got to the bridge, it had been officially open for just over an hour, and yet the counter was already reporting over 1,000 users. The local bike club had organized a simultaneous 2-way rides from opposing ends of the bridge. An electric bike rental booth was set up to serve a small minority of pedestrians, which answered the question regarding their legal status on the trail. I expected to see numerous bike share bikes too, but did not notice any. People were festively decorated for the season, the mountain was out, sunset was glowing gold. We couldn't have asked for a better ending to the ride.

And yet a better ending was had, at least personally for me. At the brewery/food truck finish, I was kindly offered a third of a burrito, which I appreciatively consumed. The chef sent out a complimentary bowl of nachos to our table for some reason, so I made sure that it did not go to waste. I even made myself a glass of apple cider from an instant mix packet I got at the refueling booth/rest stop at the bridge.

So the Feed Yogy Cause lives on, which is good news for me, because it is a worthy cause.

Stay tune for another group perm ride on Friday, one that I personally arranged to coincide with SIR's Winter Solstice night ride. The perm version is shifted 2h early, to start closer to where I (and some other people) live. A sacrilegious act in a different context, maybe, but with snow and below freezing temperatures in the forecast, it may end up being the smarter thing to do (second to not riding at all).

Yogy

[Yogy Namara]

Quick addendum:

Here's a ride report from a different perspective:

https://northwest.motion.social/2017/12/21/sr-520-trail-opening-day/

WARNING: it includes photographic evidence of yours truly eating some free food.

Also, as luck would have it, our gathering on the bridge was captured by a passersby on video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23htYf-aKKg

Now *THAT*'s what I call electronic proof of passage!

Yogy