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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 11:54 am 
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So yesterday, I left SoCal bound to Seattle for a few weeks of work and if I got lucky, a little bit of play. Of course there is a mountain bike involved. I decided that the 6.6 would make this trip with me. It is the first time I have flown with this bike and I was a little surprised when I went to put it into my handy dandy bike box. It did not fit! Being a long wheelbased bike both the bottom of the fork and back of the rear triangle were pushed against the ends of the box and flaring it out a little. This was not the way I wantws to travel with this thing. After many permutations, I finally had to take the fork out of the frame and lay it next to the down tube.

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After this the rest of the box packing when smooth. Now there was absolutely no way to keep this bike and box under 50 pounds and avoid the overweight charge. So I put a bunch of other stuff in there as well to get my money's worth.

The flight went as planned and I was surprised to see awesome weather in Seattle. Sunny and in the upper 60s, low 70s. Freaking killer. From the airport I went right to the job site, and did all my start day stuff: Check-in with folks, chase down equipment that was shipped here, smooze and talk up with the folks I will be working with the for the next three weeks, yada yada yada.... Several times when I was walking between buildings I was thinking this is too awesome of a day in Seattle to be working. Surprising enough, before I knew it all of the stuff I needed to do and pretty much everything I could get done that day, was done.

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I get back to my hotel and looking out the window I could not help but think, man the sun is mighty high in the sky for this time of day. Then it dawned on me, the further north you are in summer the longer the days are. Cool, I might just have enough time to squeak in a ride. So off I went to whip the bike back together. Before long, the big was built back up and I was rolling away from the hotel towards a perspective trail I had got some e411 on a few months back.

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Well what do you know, there was a trail after all and I was surprised that it was not at all bad. While on the short side, it was still dirt. Dirt that I had not planned on being on today. After riding this trail, I decided to poke around the various neighborhood streets.

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I was once again surprised when I managed to find a few neighborhood trails that meandered through the woods between the various streets and neighborhoods. It was nothing you would want to drive but it was an incredible spring day full of sunshine, blooming flowers, green woods and I was on singletrack. What a killer surprise.

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When I got back to the hotel room there was still some daylight left in the day. I was once again surprised when it did not get dark until around eight. You gotta love the northern lattitudes heading into summer. This was a mighty fine start to this trip.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:07 pm 
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Sounds like a good time to me. :thumbsup:


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:11 pm 
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Why is there an open condom wrapper on your desk?

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:35 pm 
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Sweet Bill. Coincidentally, I had 5 Seattlites staying with me here over the weekend.

You probably have your schedule filled with rides to do, but if you've got time the trails around Anacortes north of Seattle are awesome. Three adjacent open space areas offer miles of killer trails that you couldn't do in one day if you tried - even though they're packed into a relatively small area. I've always heard Bellingham offers insane riding, but haven't made it there. Closer to Seattle: Skookum Flats is good stuff.

Looking forward the pics of you hucking the Colonnade gaps.

[youtube]<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QhFMfiUHUkg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QhFMfiUHUkg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>[/youtube]


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:40 pm 
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Bill,
To hell with Seattle...
Rent a car and drive to Whistler and the North Shore!
You are toooooo close. 8)
You know you want it!

No, actually they are still running the snow sports there. Boooo!
Snow alert: Sunny skies again today with 24cm of fresh snow in the last week.


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Last edited by Mudd on Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:51 pm 
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Seattle is beautiful when it is sunny. Have fun.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:17 pm 
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mikuteit wrote:
.....if you've got time the trails around Anacortes north of Seattle are awesome.


That place is already on my to do list. I'm looking forward to it. My ankle is a little weak still from my ATT fun last week so I may save colonade for next week.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:26 am 
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Aquaholic wrote:
Why is there an open condom wrapper on your desk?


Oh Shiat :lol:

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:56 am 
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MTBBill wrote:
mikuteit wrote:
.....if you've got time the trails around Anacortes north of Seattle are awesome.


That place is already on my to do list. I'm looking forward to it. My ankle is a little weak still from my ATT fun last week so I may save colonade for next week.


Cool. The trails form a pretty complex web, and the uses are split between hikers, bikers, horses and motorcycles - though it's rare to see anyone besides a few hikers near the trailheads. It's really helpful to get some maps, as the trail intersections can pop up every quarter mile at times. There's a bike shop right off the main drag as you enter Anacortes that sells some very good maps, but I think they don't open until late morning.

Hopefully the good weather holds. This year's been rough for them with tons of rain and rare snow all the way down to the water. Here's a shot of Anacortes in December:
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