For the love of a good bike

Way back in 1984 when I was still living in Quincy, Illinois I bought a Trek 420 touring bike from Swallows bike shop on (I think) 12th and York.  It is an amazing bike.  I have put thousands of miles on it over the years.  It was nothing for me to hop on and ride 100 miles with no next morning side effects.  I love this bike.  However, a few years ago Nancy and I went on a 75 mile ride and it just about killed me.  Hard to believe, but my body has changed a tiny bit (sarcasm) in the past 28 years.  The bike is still in fantastic shape but it just does not do it for me anymore.  I started trying out lots of different bikes but did not find one that really felt "right."  So the old bike did not feel good and no other bikes did either.  Until.....

My hero, let's call him Bob,  introduced me to this bike.  It is a 100% recycled bike.  The frame is a 1993 Cannondale mountain bike frame with a bunch of techweenie components.  Bob works at a local bike shop and sometimes gets spare parts from here and there.  This bike (the red one...the purple one belongs to Nancy) has reinvigorated my desire to ride.  Even though it was not made specifically for me (it was made for Bob's squeeze) it fits like nothing I have ever experienced.  I am totally in love.  I have been riding it to work and have been taking long rides after I get off, mostly up the South Hill.  I am excited about riding again.  I have been taking it on dirt and paved roads.  Since I have been riding it my knees have not been hurting at all.  It is pretty amazing.  I am so happy with it I just had to share.

Roll on Columbia, Roll on...

That song has been stuck in my head all day.  Today Walter and I went for a paddle on the Columbia River (now known in that location as Lake Roosevelt).  We put in at Hunters.  I had never been there before so it was all new to me.  I paddled about 10 miles.

I had been looking at the area on Google Earth and comparing it to my map.  What appeared to be beaches from space are in fact cliffs.  We went south from the Hunters campground and the only real place to get off the water as far as I paddled was private land.  It was a bit windy but not too bad but I always feel a bit uncomfortable with Walter in the boat if there is nowhere to get out if we end up swamping.  But it was all good. 

I had the camera in my dry bag for most of the time because of the wind and I did not want to get it wet.  This is looking back at where we turned around.  The foreground land on the right is Roger's Bar on the Colville Reservation.  It was amazing how few motor boats there were.  There were long stretches of time where I did not hear any at all.  We passed quite a few people fishing and they always get a kick out of the dog in the front of the canoe.

The only spot to really get out was a large bay about 1/4 mile from Hunters.  Up on the hill on the north side is this huge eagle.  I think it is made of wood.

On the other side of the bay is a big bear.  I did not see it when I paddled past so this picture was taken from across the bay.

My car and canoe just crack me up.

The views of the lake heading north from Hunters are incredible yet few places to pull off and take pictures.

After our paddle we headed up to Gifford and caught the ferry over to Inchelium.  The ferry is free and takes only five minutes to cross.

From Inchelium we headed across the reservation on Bridge Creek Road to Hwy 21 and the Sanpoil River valley.  The scenery is again stunning with deep valleys, mountains and rock faces.

This is a cool statue in the Sanpoil Campground.  He is holding a trout and he is made of metal.  I did not see a plaque with the name of the artist but it looks like the runners at Riverfront Park.

Then we caught the Keller ferry.  This section of the river has very few trees and is mostly sagebrush down to Grand Coulee Dam.

Walter and I were wanting some dinner so I stopped at the city parks in both Wilbur and Creston and both of them had big anti-dog signs.  Cottonwood Park in Davenport did not have any signs to we hung out there for about an hour before driving the rest of the way home.  Walter had his usual and I cooked up some dehydrated spaghetti that I made a few weeks ago.  Rice spaghetti noodles break up into tiny little chunks when you rehydrate them but they still tasted pretty good.  We pulled into the driveway just as the sun disappeared.  A long but good day.