August 8, 2025
Found: Lost Lake!
The sun is back, the temperature is moderate, winds are reasonable. It looks like a perfect day to ride.
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There are more factors in the Do I Ride equation than just environvironmental conditons though - health, energy level, conflicts and so on can all override other considerations. Such is the case with me today, and I'm pretty much sitting this one out. Two things: first, I have an appointment at 10:30 for a blood draw, which I manage successfully this time. And second, I have an injury of sorts - a sharp pain on the inner side of my left elbow, not like anything I remember experiencing before. It just started being noticeable three or four days ago, but now it's painful enough that any sort of weight-bearing or twisting motion at all is seriously painful.
Reading up on it, its symptoms match well with 'golfer's elbow':
Golfer's elbow, also known as medial epicondylitis, is a condition causing pain and inflammation on the inner side of the elbow. It occurs due to overuse or injury to the tendons that flex the wrist and fingers, and attach to the medial epicondyle of the humerus bone (the inner bony prominence of the elbow).
This is apparently an injury that can affect bikers also - you don't have to be a golfer, and apparently it becomes more likely as you age. That fits my profile, but I wonder too if prednisone isn't a contributor here. In any case, the recommended treatment is to try anti-inflammatories and icing and give it a rest for a few days, so that's the plan.
After Misty the phlebotomist has had his/her way with me (an apparent trans individual, judged by matching physical appearance and the pronoun list posted on the opposite wall) I head down to the waterfront for second breakfast and a short, lazy cruise along the waterfront trail. I find the perfect destination for my coffee stop: Cafe Velo, a combination cafe and bike servicing shop. While I'm there I haul the bike out of the car and take it in for an evaluation because I'm starting to have difficulty shifting out of the middle chainring - not a problem now when I'm mostly riding the flats, but something I'll want to have remedied before long. I don't think another assault on Mount Lemmon this winter will be happening without my lowest chainring.
The mechanic checks the bike out immediately, pronounces that the chain rings are fine but the chain itself needs replacement - and of course there's the chance that I'll need a new cluster when the new chain is installed. He has a cluster in stock if one is needed and says I can just come in without an appointment and drop it off for the day at my convenience. Not today, but soon.
And then I take the bike outside, lean it unlocked against a bike rack, and ask a biker sitting at one of the outside tables to keep an eye on it while I go inside and place an order. He's glad to oblige but wonders if it's really necessary. "Who'd want to ride off with a Rodriguez, after all?", he asks. So he knows bikes, and says that there's another regular in town who also rides one.
An Americano and raspberry scone later, and I'm off to putter around the waterfront for the next half hour or so, and then head home to spend the afternoon sitting on the porch wondering if we'll be seeing that Stellar's jay today. No luck with that, but it's nice to be able to add a Douglas's squirrel to my growing Mammal gallery.
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1 week ago
If there's no one riding along behind shooting video of her there's no point in taking a bike ride, so Rachael leaves instead for an out and back hike to Lost Lake up in the Chuckanut Mountains. The mountains rise just south of Happy Valley, so this is hike she can take just by stepping out the front door - one of several to choose from, so I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of the Chuckanut Mountains in the weeks ahead. I'll have more to say about them and their geology in an upcoming post, but I'll stop here for now and turn the stage over to Rachael.
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I had a wonderful hike up to Lost Lake! On my way to the trail, I found some blackberry bushes with some ripe blackberries which I really enjoyed. Then I got to the trail. It's one of the best hiking trails I've been on with no one on it until I headed back and ran into a couple of women on large horses I had to get around without getting kicked and a few mountain bikers that were very courteous. I'll let the photos tell the story.
Today's ride: 3 miles (5 km)
Total: 478 miles (769 km)
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1 week ago
1 week ago