Three Ladies, One Bicycle

I came across this scene in my favourite park in Vienna, the Augarten. Did not really know what to make of it, but it looked so iconic that I just could not resist a clandestine snap:

The three young women were resting against the wall - eyes closed, smiling, faces turned up towards the sun. The bicycle seemed to be "with them" rather than belonging to one of them, almost like a fourth person. Intriguing...

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge

I've been counting down the days for something exciting-my dear friend Barb and her husband John coming to camp with us. We met them at the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge and wandered around for a short time. A very short time compared to how long we probably both would have stayed because the mosquitoes were out in killer force even with bug spray on. It is a beautiful refuge from what we did see and we saw a few birds while there.

Refuge Facts

• Established: May 17, 1937.
  
  


• Size: 5,834 acres (land), 25,700 acres (Proclamation Boundary Waters).
  
  


• Located on the north end of Hatteras Island, a coastal barrier island and part of a chain of islands known as the Outer Banks.
  
  


• Approximately 13 miles long (north to south) and ranges from a quarter mile to 1 mile wide (from east to west).
  
  


• Location: 10 miles south of Nags Head, North Carolina on NC 12.
  
  


• Administered by Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge as a part of complex; Alligator River Manager supervises the Mackay Island, Currituck, and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Managers.
  
  


• The Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is complete.

Natural History

• Area was historically used for market waterfowl hunting, commercial fishing, farming, and
  
  livestock operations.
  
  


• Refuge is comprised of ocean beach, dunes, upland, fresh and brackish water ponds, salt flats, and salt marsh.


• Bird list boasts more than 365 species; wildlife list has 25 species of mammals, 24 species of reptiles, and 5 species (low number due to salt environment) of amphibians.
  
  


• Concentrations of ducks, geese, swans, wading birds, shore birds, raptors, neotropical migrants are seasonally abundant on refuge.
  
  


• Refuge has 1,000 acres of manageable waterfowl impoundments.
  
  


• Several shorebird nesting areas and wading bird rookeries are located on the refuge.
  
  


• Endangered and threatened species include: peregrine falcons, loggerhead sea turtles, and piping plovers.

Refuge Objectives

• Provide nesting, resting, and wintering habitat for migratory birds, including the greater snow geese and other migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, raptors, and neotropical migrants.
  
  


• Provide habitat and protection for endangered and threatened species.
  
  


• Provide opportunities for public enjoyment of wildlife and wildlands resources. Public use programs focus on interpretation, environmental education, wildlife observation, wildlife photography, and fishing.

Feel Like Crying

A road ride on a cold day. Wind in my face. Gasping for air.




Descending as the sun begins to set, there is nothing but speed, forest, and a faint golden glow on my face. This golden glow loves me, and it loves all the other riders on the road.



A feeling comes over me and it's the feeling of knowing infinity. At this moment, I could fade into the forest or ride off into the sun. My physical sense of self and bike grows weak. We are too light to be real; we dissipate.




I am high on endorphins. I know this.This is not a special moment. This is not meaningful. I must get ahold of myself.




But my chest is full.And the tears come.






It doesn't feel like crying. More like an emotional mix up. I laugh at myself as the chill hits my wet face. I need to cut this out. It's not that serious. It's not that beautiful. I am not pedaling that hard.






Could it be fear, rather than the pain of physical effort that I am converting into these intense waves of emotion? Am I too proud to experience fear, so I sublimate it into ...what exactly?




No no no. Thinking won't help here. Just go with it. Let it happen. People will understand. Or they will think the tears are from the wind.




This is what roadcycling does to me. No, I don't get it either.

Jasmine

Jasmine shows off the scar from her recent operation.

After talking to a bunch of people at the recent north Alabama soapmakers meeting, I realized that about 20% of the attendees owned Great Pyrenees dogs.

At first I thought that was kind of strange, statistically speaking.

Then I realized -

Lots of them have dairy goats.

People with dairy goats tend to make soap - they've got to do something with all that milk, so they make milk soap.

People with goats also tend to have LGDs (Livestock Guardian Dogs).

So while it wasn't particularly statistically significant, it was fun comparing stories about Pyrs... loveable stubborn things that they are.

I haven't had a dog in a long time. Actually not at all, in my adult life. But it's been fun. Aggravating at times, but fun.

(No, we don't have goats... not yet anyway.)

Pashley, Speed, Hipster Bag

In my review of the Pashley Princess, I mentioned weight and lack of "agility" as counterpoints to her positive features. One thing I did not discuss was speed. Many assume that heavy "Dutch"-style bicycles cannot go fast and are not appropriate for long distance travel. I assumed this myself, and initially did not take Eustacia on super-long trail rides the way I did my roadbike Marianne.

But when put to the test, Eustacia came through with flying colours. We took the Pashleys on the Minuteman Trail, where we had previously only gone on our roadbikes. Pashleys are fast if you only give them a chance! They are slow to accelerate, but once they get going, they pick up speed better than I ever imagined, and roll oh so smoothly while doing it. We were absolutely flying on these bikes, and to our amazement, we made about the same time as on the roadbikes. I attribute this to the fact that going fast on the roadbike feels scary and dangerous, so I tend to self-regulate my speed, especially limiting it on downhills. The Princess, however, feels safe and stable even going downhill at 30mph, so I don't feel the need to slow down.

Gaining a better understanding of the gearing has also helped tremendously. And of course, a broken-in saddle plays a big role in comfort level (I know that Sigrid of My Hyggelig has reported pain from the rivets in her Pashley's saddle when riding long distance, but I have not had this problem). I am very happy with how this bicycle handles speed and distance, and have no hesitation taking Eustacia on half-day trail rides - basket and all. Longer rides than that I have not tried yet on any of my bikes.

The bag I am wearing... After Anna's post on Cyling is Good for You, I broke down and bought a Chrome for carrying my laptop. Given their hipster status, I think it's pretty funny to wear one of these bags while riding a heavy steel lady's bicycle with a coasterbrake. But I just don't feel comfortable keeping my laptop in a pannier and the Chrome provides the best support and the safest closure of all the bags I've tried. The one I bought is the Mini Metro, all-black. It fits my 15" MacBook Pro and anything else I might want to carry in it for the day. I am thinking of covering up the logo and maybe personalising it a bit.

West Quoddy Head Lighthouse

Wednesday, September 19th - - The weather forecast for today was rain and gusty winds. In anticipation, I had gotten the laptop charged up yesterday and had plenty of 'work' to keep me occupied until the storm was over. It began sometime in the early morning hours. Alternating between a drizzle and a downpour. The wind whipped through the campsite and I wondered if I should have taken the tent down last night. But it held up throughout the day. The rain eased up in early afternoon and had stopped by 2 p.m. but it was still very cloudy.



I ventured out and visited the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse on the eastern-most point in the United States. It is reportedly one of the most photographed lighthouses, explained perhaps by the fact that it is easily accessible, unlike many that are located on offshore islands.

Metate Arch, Devil's Garden

After our hike in Little Wild Horse Canyon we headed through Capitol Reef National Park then south toward the town of Escalante. We stopped at the BLM visitor center in Escalante and picked up a few maps for the area where we were planning to go over the next few days. We also filled up our two 7-gallon water containers and inquired about where we were allowed to camp once we were in the interior of the monument. Once our questions were answered and we were stocked up on necessary supplies we headed for Hole in the Rock Road. Our first hike was only about 10 miles down the dirt surface of the road, which was also near "Devil's Garden", an "Outstanding Geologic Area" according to the sign marking the turn-off to Devil's Garden. We found a place to camp near the garden then hiked down to check out the sandstone formations that make up this unique location.





































Devil's Garden certainly is an outstanding area, with interesting sandstone "hoodoos" everywhere you look. There are also a couple of arches, the most interesting of which is "Metate Arch". As arches go it's not a very big one, but it is beautiful. I photographed Jessica standing under the arch to provide a sense of scale. After wandering amongst the hoodoos until just after sunset, we then hiked back up to our camp to wait for our friend Roger, who was the best man in our wedding and would be joining us for tomorrow's hike to Zebra and Tunnel slot canyons.

Dressed Up and Ready to Go

Marianne's new handlebars are now wrapped, twined and shellacked. You can see that the bars do not look quite so wide and wing-like once they have been wrapped.

The hand position is similar to a classic mountain bike position - but achieved more elegantly. I feel that I have a lot more control with these bars than I did with the drops, and now cycling in traffic on this bicycle is no longer an issue - even though I am not any more upright now than I was when I had my hands on top of the drop bars. This must mean that the fear I previously had of riding the bike in traffic had more to do with balancing and braking than with being hunched over.

From a utilitarian standpoint, the best thing about the new set-up are the brakes. The new Shimano levers have made them the best functioning brakes I have on any of my bicycles. I cycled all around town and on some trails yesterday, and the experience of riding this bike has been completely transformed for the better. I am so thankful to Open Bicycle in Somerville, Mass. for the wonderful job they did on this. They did not just replace parts, but worked with me to "troubleshoot" and design the new set-up based on the problems I was having with the old one. Those guys know what they are doing.

In the Distance

Jan and Jim's yard would be a great nature watchers place. There is lots of wildlife there. Birds of all kinds, rodents, squirrels, coyotes, and of course deer. They knew that there were a couple of does that were perment residents of their property, and they had fawns. I had stepped out one evening and was rewarded by the sight of one of the does and her twin fawns. I attempted to get pictures and I did, sort of. It was one of those times you really wish your small digital camera, which seems to take really good pictures, isn't as good as it could be, and that it had a better telephoto lens on it. I could see the deer but couldn't seem to get a photo where they showed up any better than this picture shows them. My next camera will probably have a better lens for distance shots.

The Case of the Disappearing Bike Lanes

One challenge to expect when cycling in the winter, is that bicycle lanes tend to "disappear" - either under snow banks, or under cars that take overthe bike lane when snow covers their parking spots.

The pictures here are of Day 3 after our latest snow fall, and the plows have been working continuously. Still, the snow banks cover a good three feet or more of the the righthand side of the road in both directions.



For those who live in areas with well-developed cycling infrastructure, this change can be especially difficult: Accustomed to traveling almost exclusively via bike lanes, having to now cycle directly with car traffic can be a bewildering experience. That is one reason I think it is important to get comfortable with "vehicular cycling" even if it does not seem like you need it. Once the snow arrives, there is no way to tell what part of your journey will have the familiar bike lanes available and what part will dump you directly into the traffic lane.

While side streets are quieter than main roads, the drawback is that they are not plowed as thoroughly. Here you can see that even the narrow space in the middle of the street is covered with a layer of snow. The car and the cyclist ahead must carefully navigate around each other in sharing this space, ideally at low speeds.



In addition to the limited space, there is also a greater number of obstacles in the road than usual: There are newly formed pot holes, which are not infrequently iced over, and also just chunks of snow and ice strewn all over. Cycling can feel like a technical trial, where the cyclist is forced to do a little dance to avoid ice chunks on one side and potholes on the other - all while remaining keenly aware of the presence of cars behind them.



I am not one to sensationalize the supposed dangers of cycling. But when the roads start to look like this, I think it is important to be aware of the potential pitfalls. All the things you took for granted earlier - from the texture of the asphalt, to the way your bike handles, to the availability of bike lanes, no longer hold true.



When the weather is like this, all you can do really is know what to expect - and use your judgment to determine whether you can handle it. While the presence of bike lanes is not particularly important to me, the loose chunks of hard snow and ice are what deters me from cycling just now. It's too stressful to navigate around them while dodging cars, so I will wait it out. The Co-Habitant, on the other hand, is delighted to ride in these conditions. To each their own!

"Queensland - The Steep State" The Crux Magazine story

Featuring the Phil Box photo that went to number one in the U.S. for 3 months on rockclimbing.com

Click on the story to enlarge and read.





The Rock! mag story







Poster that appeared in Crux 4



Photo: Neil Montieth





"Call of Duty" 28 Coolum Cave The very long and very steep "Call of Duty" is an extension of the original Gareth Llewellyn line "Weapon of Choice".





Photo: Antoine Mousette

Bryant Peak ..

This is more a document of my failure than a trip report. I had the goal of heading up Bryant Peak from what I believe to be the standard route today. (The gully to the east and take SE Ridge to the top.) I should have known things would not go well when I viewed Mount Rainier from the I90 bridge and realized I had left the camera at home. Oh well. I continued to Alpental.

I arrived to find only one other vehicle in the parking lot. My guess is they were headed to Chair. I loaded up and headed up the trail and noticed there was what appeared to be two sets of bare boot prints heading up the trail. The groomed section was less icy than last week, and when I left the groomed area, that was less icy as well. I was making good time. In thirty minutes I had arrived at the turn to head up to the hanging valley. This is where I started to realize the foolishness of my decision not to bring floatation.

Last week the snowshoes were great. But I incorrectly assumed that with more traffic up there and subsequent freeze/thaw cycles that I would be fine without any floatation. I was very sadly wrong. When I first left the trail it was not so bad and I was sinking in ankle depth. As I headed up I tried to stay on downhill ski tracks or faint boot tracks. It didn't make much difference. Soon every step was calf deep. By the time I was near the top I got some breaks by following a previous boot track. This track ran out and I was now going knee deep on most steps, with occasional steps going thigh deep. I persevered. I told myself it would get better once the angle eased in the bowl. This may have been the only thing I was right about. It did ease, and I picked up another boot path where I enjoyed respite from the post hole nightmare. Of course this had to end as the path went to the head of the bowl and I needed to head toward the gully that would start my climb.

The snow was deep mash potatoes. I picked a line and headed up. Being a lower angle, it was nicer than coming up from Source Lake, but I was expending energy at high rate just to move ahead. I finally came to a stop to put my pack down and investigate the slopes. There were plenty of wet slides that look like they probably happened the day before. I also saw some sloughing and heard rockfall periodically. I put my pack down and attempted to hike up into the shaded slope to dig a pit. I moved about 40m uphill (about halfway to the shadow) and it took me more than five minutes! I stood there with the gully in front of me and realized it would have to wait for another day. I figure in the conditions the snow was in, it would have taken me about two more hours to summit, and I just wasn't interested in that wallow. As it was, it took me an hour and a half from leaving the trail to reach my high point.

So I turned around and gathered my pack and plunge stepped down to the trail. While significantly easier (it took me less than 25 minutes to descend what took me 1.5 hours to ascend.) The plunge stepping was still somewhat difficult even if it did take less energy. I was sinking knee or thigh deep on every step. When I got home I read this trip report where they had snow shoes and still were sinking calf deep. The snow was actually skiable and if I had brought floatation I think things may have turned out different. Although I could not have used it during the technical portion of the climb and that would have still been a wallow.

Blue dot marks my high point.

After the Heat Wave

With July's heat wave becoming a memory, we look forward to cooler temps on the upper mountain. Freezing levels have dropped back down to ~12,000 feet. Check out the Route Conditions on your intended climb for updated reports.

Miss Mercian: Then and Now

One of the things I was very much looking forward to on my trip to New York last week, was visiting Justine of Midlife Cycling. Justine is a fascinating, generous and knowledgable person and we have lots to talk about outside the world of bicycles. But more pertinently to this blog, Justine is known for her small, exquisite collection of Mercians. And so I happily found myself in Astoria, Queens, in an apartment that was eerily similar to my own in its proportion of total living space to the space devoted to bikes. Nothing wrong with that at all.






When I firstwrote about Justine and her Mercianstwo years ago, she had three of them - all custom made and painted the same stunning shade of "flip-flop purple green" (more on this later). One of these is a geared roadbike, the second is a fixed gear, and the third a Miss Mercian step-through. Subsequently, Justine unexpectedly acquired a fourth Mercian secondhand - an earlier Miss Mercian model, from an era when the design was still a classic mixte with twin lateral stays. Knowing this, I was looking forward to seeing the two generations of Miss Mercians side by side, and excited when Justine offered me to test ride both bicycles and compare my impressions. While her diamond frame bikes are too big for me, the lower step-over of the Miss Mercian frames enables me to try them.






Through the quiet streets of Astoria, we rode to the Socrates Sculpture Park to photograph the bicycles along the East River. The park is small, but very pleasant, with a cobblestone path along the water and views of Roosevelt Island and passing boats in background. It was a cold and windy morning, but at least the sun was out, bathing the bicycles in a golden light.





This is Justine's current production Miss Mercian, named Helene. My understanding is that Mercian switched to this frame style for their Miss Mercian model, because they only use Reynolds tubing and Reynolds stopped making the tubes suitable for classic mixtes a few years ago. I will be honest that I am not a fan of "angled step-through" frames. But the lugwork, the colour scheme, and Justine's very personal build make this bicycle rather charming.






One of my photographic goals for this bicycle was to capture the flip flop purple green finish in action. The beauty of this colour is hard to describe, but basically it's as it sounds: Under some lighting conditions it looks purple, under others it looks green. Seeing the colours change takes my breath away. Above I captured it in a very purple state, though usually it looks like a much more subdued silverfish lilac.





And here you can see what happens when the colour flips to green.






Neat, huh?






Flip-flopping in the sunlight! I love this colour and might have used it for my own bike were it not so distinctly Justinish in my mind. It is certainly one of the most unique paint finishes available.





But all right, there is more to this bike than its paint colour. Like Justine's other custom Mercians, the frame is lugged and made of Reynolds 631 tubing.





Helene is set up with Porteur handlebars, inverse brake levers, bar-end shifters adapted as "thumbies," side pull brakes, pedals with classic toe cages, hammered fenders, rear rack, a Brooks saddle and a

Carradice saddlebag.





Justine rides this bicycle in her regular clothing - skirt, heels, the whole deal - and it is her fast, responsive commuter. The geometry, which Justine specified, is pretty tight and aggressive, and she likes it this way. For her this is an upright, but maneuverable and go-fast bike.






Justine lowered the saddle for me and switched out the pedals to platforms, so that I could comfortably ride the bike around the unfamiliar-to-me area. When I rode this bicycle, the geometry - not the frame style, but the angles and proportions - struck me as an exaggerated version of my Royal H. mixte. My positioning on the bike was very similar as well. Unfortunately the angled step-through frame and I did not get along when it came to mounting and dismounting the bike: I found the top tube too high for me to comfortably climb over and kept banging my knee. I was also a little uncomfortable with the amount of toe overlap, and between this and the high top tube I felt oddly trapped by the frame, as if everything was too tightly spaced. Of course this says more about the difference between my and Justine's geometry preferences than anything else, but I was a little nervous on this bike as I followed her up the winding bridge ramp to Roosevelt Island. I did not want to crash the bike or to knock it over while attempting to dismount. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened and we had a nice ride with scenic water views. As we rode, I noticed that the frame flexed for me a bit more than I would have liked, which is odd because Justine describes it as stiff. The subjectivity of this sort of thing is amazing.






Stranger still, is that Justine describes her older Miss Mercian as more flexible than the current model, whereas I found it to be stiffer. How can this be? Are we simply associating different sensations with the terms stiff and flexible? It's a mystery.




The day did not warm up despite the sunshine, and even though I had donned every single pair of stockings I'd brought with me to New York (three pairs!) I was uncomfortably cold. Between this and having to be across town by early afternoon, our ride was not very long. Still, I feel that I got a fair sense of the difference between the two bicycles - although since both of these are custom bikes made for specific people, I am not sure how generalisable my impressions are to Miss Mercians at large.






Overall, I felt more comfortable on the older (1994) Miss Mercian - with its longer wheelbase, lower stand-over and greater toe clearance. I also preferred this bicycle's ride quality and handling, which to me felt a bit cushier and more stable. None of this necessarily has to do with the styles of the two frames; it is more about geometry really. Still, I lamented that Mercian no longer makes the classic twin stay mixte - it was oh so elegant.






Justine's 1994 Miss Mercian is named Vera, and the original owner ordered the frame in English Racing Green with gold lug outlines.






The Reynolds 531 frame was built for cantilever brakes, and eyelets for fenders and front and rear racks.





The cable routing is kind of interesting, integrating nicely with the twin lateral stays,





then "climbing" up the seat tube. I have never seen this kind of routing on a mixte before, but I think it works well.





One of the cool things Justine has got on this bicycle, is this green and gold crankset with built-in chain guard. I have never seen one like it before, and it certainly makes the bicycle stand out as her unique creation.





I tried the MKS Lambda pedals for the first time and liked them a lot, even though I did not think I would. They are grippy, and not as sharp as MKS touring pedals.






Justine set up the older Miss Mercian similarly to the newer one, but with a front rack in addition to the rear, a single instead of a double chainring, North Road handlebars instead of the Porteurs, and flat pedals. This bicycle is a little more upright and relaxed, and set up to carry more weight than its sportier room-mate.





Justine has been riding bicycles for decades as a messenger, racer, cyclotourist, commuter - you name it. And she has owned an untold number of bikes over this time (I believe the estimate she gave me was 60?... but no, that can't be right!) This makes it all the more fascinating, that all of her current bikes are from the same manufacturer. Is it the Reynolds 631 tubing Mercian uses that she finds so agreeable? The way they put together frames? Do their notions of optimal geometry agree with her own? Whatever the answer, Justine seems to know what she wants and she is happy with her choices.





Of course I am trying to convince her now that she also needs to add this bike to her Mercian collection, then let me test ride it extensively. Fingers crossed!



For the entire picture set, please see here. And I thank Justine profusely for allowing me to try her beautiful bikes!