I Remember This Being Easier

Saturday morning we decided to ride our bicycles around Lake Washington. Desi did this last year and found the ride to be really nice, though she got stung by a bee along West Lake Sammamish and was caught in a freak downpour during the last quarter of the 55 mile ride. Still, she recommended the ride highly and said it would be relatively easy, especially after all our experience on organized rides thus far this year.

The ride turned out to be the most difficult of all rides so far this year, including both the challenging Portland ride in February and the Camano Climb from earlier this month. The difficulty was mostly due to the fact that we weren't prepared for the distance combined with the heat (it reached around 80 degrees) so we didn't have enough water. Additionally, perhaps we've begun to rely too heavily upon supported rides and their conveniences because we didn't have rest stops planned and we hadn't eaten before departing the house at 11AM, perhaps expecting to find free food randomly provided along the route.

The elevation gain was probably equivalent to the Camano Climb ride. The first half of the ride, from Columbia City along the Burke-Gilman Trail to Woodinville, was flat and fantastic. It winds along Lake Washington and connects to the Sammamish River Trail, bringing us to the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery (below, our first rest stop) without traffic or difficulty. But, the second half, from Woodinville along Lake Sammamish and across Lake Washington via I-90, was disastrous! Almost all uphill along West Lake Sammamish, a very busy road and with no designated rest stops. We ran out of water along this part and the only park we found was private property with an entrance fee.

In the pictures below you see us resting on a small patch of grass on the side of West Lake Sammamish (where Desi has depleted both water supplies and is very near tears), at a rest stop on Mercer Island, and overlooking I-90 (the bike trail is on the left). Once we got back onto the trail, along I-90, we were still out of water and Desi had almost given up totally. We finally found a place to fill up our water bottles in Bellevue, with approximately 10 miles left before home.

We got home around 4:30PM. We're both amazed that we did the ride but Desi is perplexed regarding the increased difficulty this time around. She's in better shape this year, with more miles under her belt, so she doesn't understand the difference between how easy she remembers the ride from last year and the ride she barely survived yesterday. She's absolutely stunned by the difficulty and yet we'll most likely do the ride a few more times this year because it is such a lovely ride. But, next time, we'll plan for a hard, unsupported ride to help alleviate any of the self-induced difficulties we encountered this time around.