News Tribune Adventure writer and novice cyclist Craig Hill is training to ride the 202-mile Seattle-to-Portland Bicycle Classic in one day and discovering the local riding scene and the sport’s nuances along the way. In his blog, he explores ideal riding routes, events, relays tips from the experts and helps you figure out if you’ll need to shave your legs for your next big ride.
Guest blogger: Rick Beitelspacher teaches junior high English in the Puyallup School District. You can contact him at tshirtguys@comcast.net.
- All
- Gear (25)
- General (19)
- Mountain Biking (12)
- Rides (12)
- Riding Across America (5)
- Safety (9)
- South Sound Routes (14)
- The STP Project (37)
- Training tips (24)
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| << < | > >> | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
- October 2007 (1)
- September 2007 (1)
- July 2007 (15)
- June 2007 (24)
- May 2007 (25)
- April 2007 (18)
- More...
XML Feeds- benramm
- MrSinister
- Guest Users: 410
I learned two things today during a 34-mile ride on the Yelm-Tenino and Chehalis Western trails.
1. Riding in a group is much easier that riding by yourself. I was much more worn out after this less-than-two-hour ride than I was after a longer ride with the group on Saturday. Now I just have to work on my draftin technique. I still have a tough time keeping six inches behind the guy in front of me and catch myself regularly dropping back several bike lengths nulifying any advantage of riding in a pace line.
2. These Thurston County trails might be the best biking trails in the South Sound area. The 22-mile Western Chehalis trails links with the 14.5-mile Yelm-Tenino trails giving cyclists 73 miles of tree-lined trails along rivers and farm land and through small towns like Rainier. It's like the Foothills Trail - just twice as along. The only thing I didn't like about the trail (aside from having to drive all the way to Yelm) is the gates at each intersection. Getting through on a bike requires you to come to an almost complete stop. (But as annoying as it is, at least it's safe.)
