Bike Riding

Last year I became a bike riding enthusiast. I started by participating in the Group Health Yakima Ridges bike ride in April 2007 with my friend, Duana. It was a scenic 25 miles along the Yakima River. I did it with a mountain bike and no prior long distance bike riding experience.

Afterwards, Mike bought me a new hybrid bike and I began riding my bike to work whenever possible. Columbia City to South Lake Union isn't terrible, though getting over Capitol Hill took a few weeks to get used to. Still, the ride only took 30-45 minutes and was rather pleasant.

The season ended in September with the Group Health Wine Country Trek, which was a 60 mile bike ride through the Yakima wine country, from Yakima to Prosser, incorporating a few vineyards along the way for shopping, eating, and resting. It was fantastic! I rode with Duana again as well as her husband, Jason. It took 8-9 hours, but it was a beautiful day and the wine was good and the country was amazing.

Unfortunately, I haven't really touched my bike since September last year. But, I woke up this morning determined that today was going to be a bike riding day. Seattle does this fantastic thing every summer where they close Lake Washington Blvd to car traffic two weekend days per month, allowing bikes to own the road (http://www.seattle.gov/PARKS/Athletics/bikesatsun.htm). Coincidentally, today happened to be the Saturday in July that the road was closed to car traffic.

It's fun to see everybody spread across the entire street enjoying the day on their bikes. I think it's one of the things that makes Seattle feel so small town. Needless to say, I had a very enjoyable ride this afternoon.

This year I've signed up for only one bike riding event. The Vela Bella Bike Ride is a ladies only ride through the beautiful Wenatchee National Forest near Lake Wenatchee (http://www.athleteslounge.com/events/event.php?eventid=2264). It takes place in August and Duana will be my riding partner again. I've never really spent any time in the Wenatchee National Forest. I'm looking forward to seeing it.