On May 28th at 8am, 7 riders (Susan, Scott, Pam, Matt, Stephen, Benjamin, and Liam) departed Woodinville for a 77mi and 3585ft ride to Snohomish and beyond.  In Snohomish, we made an obligatory stop (I mean, mandatory!) at the Pie Company for coffee and pastries.  Afterwards we were off to Sultan for lunch.  After some debate we decided on the Sultan Bakery and I am glad we did.  It is a great little place.  Very busy.  Good food.  Excellent employees and service.  Then we were off to Maltby for ice cream!  After desert we were back on the bikes and returned to the start.  

It was a great day for riding.  Low traffic.  Perfect weather.  Great company.

Caught by the train in Sultan before Ben Howard road:

At the end:

Liam has to get his face in here too:

The COGS motto is "Riding for fun, friends, and adventure".  It was looking like this ride was going to be an adventure because the leader (ie, Liam) got in over his head with this route.  Luckily for Liam, Susan and Scott and Richard signed up on the last day before the ride.  They kept Liam on track and no one got lost.

On May 7th at 9am, 6 riders (Susan, Scott, Richard, Pam, Mike, Liam) departed Woodinville for Snohomish to have lunch at the Pie Company.  The weather was great.  The company was better.  After lunch, we made our way to Monroe and then back to Woodinville.  It was a fun ride.

Lunch at Snohomish Pie Company:

   

Here is the ride on RWGPS: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/120364084

Perfect spring weather and plentiful wildflowers greeted us in Wenatchee for COGS' first ever (?) mountain biking event.  On Tuesday Steve, Mike and Becky pedaled up Horse Lake Road to the summit of the Lightning Trail to enjoy the view of Wenatchee and the Columbia River.  Descent routes included Apricot Crisp, Glacier View and Bert's Trail back down to Horse Lake Road.  We met for a social dinner at Pybus Market that afternoon.  On Wednesday we started from the upper trailhead at Horse Lake Reserve and ascended together as far as the Homestead Trail, which Steve and Becky took back to the trailhead.  Mike took the Lightning and Sage Hills Main trails back to town.  Noriko, who is not a mountain biker, rode the Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail.  On Thursday, Mike went to explore the trail system at Squilchuck State Park.

Steve enjoys the view from the Lightning Trail

Field of balsam, lupine and phlox at Apricot Crisp

Nine of us (Bob, Arnie, Gus, Denny, Mike, Noriko, Tom, Richard and Antoine) had sunny and warm weather for this epic day long ride that included four ferry rides. Five of us managed to complete the full route; with one rider taking the fast ferry to Seattle from Bremerton, two riders taking a short cut for the final few miles (and beating us to the ferry by just enough for five of us watch them sail away on an earlier ferry to Seattle), and one rider taking public transit for the final 15 miles from Paulsbo.  Let's just say that this route is challenging, as advertised!

April 29, Sean and I had a spectacular ride up the North Cascades Highway before it opened for cars. We enjoyed the clear skies, warm weather and no traffic as we pedaled from the gate at the Ross Lake Overlook to the end of the plowed road, just short of Rainy Pass. Round trip the ride measured 29 miles with 2,275 feet of climbing. We brought extra clothes for the descent, but they weren’t needed on this warm day.

This is a fantastic ride that would be great schedule as a short-notice club ride. There might even be one more weekend this year to ride this road without cars. WSDOT clears the snow from Monday to Thursday, leaving the road available for recreation from Friday to Sunday. To repeat this ride in the future, we will have to monitor WSDOT's updates and hope for good weather.

April 29th, 2023

Pam, Noriko, Louise, Elizabeth, Richard, Mike, and Liam headed North from Magnuson Park to Woodinville for a coffee at Sidekick Coffee located at NE 173rd St & 135th Ave NE. We enjoyed our coffee and took our time. Liam did a great job keeping to the posted ride... but, then everyone passed him so we had to pick up the pace just a little. After coffee, we headed South to Kirkland for lunch at PCC. Liam enjoyed his lunch. I think the others did too. After lunch we were off to get back to the start. Noriko, Louise, and Mike headed home at the UW Triangle. The rest of us headed back to Magnuson Park. Liam forgot to turn his GPS off. The last 8 miles or so recorded are car miles. I tried to remove them. No luck.  Here's the Ride-with-GPS link to our trip -  https://ridewithgps.com/trips/119488341

Near the end we took this picture:

It gets dark early, but that doesn't stop our rides. Last night, five COGS riders showed up for a beautiful ride 20 mile ride on nearly empty streets under a nearly full moon.

On July 10th, six COGS riders (Wayne, Gus, Mike, Alan, Liam and Pam) met for breakfast at the Hotel Oregon in McMinnville and then headed north on the West Side Road for eight miles, where we began climbing 1,700 feet up Turner Creek Road.  The climb was challenging with all of us carrying our camping gear and grinding uphill on gravel, but what a descent to Trask River awaited us on the other side!  This may have been when I broke a spoke on my rear wheel, which I didn’t discover until the next day.  Wayne had a tire puncture on the road to Trask River C.G as well.   These were the only mechanical mishaps any of us had for the rest of the tour. After setting up camp we all waded into the Trask River for a cold bath.  Wayne’s brother Larry brought us some beer, a perfect end to a really great day of cycling.  Total for day 1: 42 miles and 3,270 feet.On the second day we rode through Tillamook, stopping for groceries on the way and then rounding Cape Meares to Cape Lookout State Park, where the hiker biker camp was equipped with lockers with USB ports to charge up our electronics, a bike stand with tools and a tire pump, a hot shower, and an ocean beach- all for $8/night!  Total for the day: 35 miles and 1750 feet.Day 3 was the longest day, and the route up the Nestucca River Road from Beaver was spectacular, with little traffic and the wind at our backs we climbed 1800 feet alongside the Nestucca River for about 30 miles to the summit at McGuire Resevior (McMinnville's watershed), and descended on Panther Creek and NW Meadow Lake Roads.  One rider (this reporter) opted out of returning via busy West Side Road and instead chose to climb some more hills and grind some more gravel on Hill Road North back to McMinnville, where we spent the night at the Hotel Oregon before heading home the next day.  Total for the day (including Hill Road North): 66 miles and 4600 feet.

All agreed this was one of the best three day tours we'd ever done, if not the best.  Wayne Johnson planned and led us on a spectacular loop from McMinnville out to Cape Lookout and back, mostly on roads with little or no traffic and incredible scenery all the way.

Last night Wayne took 11 cyclists on 10 bikes on a wonderful loop around Magnolia and Queen Anne.  The sky was threatening to make us wet but we only saw a few drops post ride.

We started at Evanston Plaza in Fremont, which can be seen nicely in this google photo:  https://goo.gl/maps/si6mJ9VJyJqQcSBM7

Thanks, Wayne!

- Gus Jansson

Four COGS riders shrugged off the morning drizzle and departed from the Coleman Dock in time to catch the 9:10 ferry at Fauntleroy - 13 miles away via Alki.  We were on time, however the ferry was not.  That gave us some time to chat with an intrepid gentleman cyclist from Topeka, who had arrived at Seatac at 4:30 that morning and was on his way to San Diego.  Some of us were a bit jealous, and we provided tips on routes to the Oregon coast.  From Southworth we pedaled the 13.4 miles to enjoy lunch in Port Orchard with John's niece, a retired Navy captain who owns the Deep Draft Brewery in Gorst (https://deepdraftbrew.com).  We should plan a ride to sample some product, maybe on an overnighter ;-)

Gus, Arnie, Linda, John and Mike (aka Godzilla) lunching at "The Dock" in Port Orchard

The weather had changed from cloudy to partly sunny as we left Port Orchard aboard an electric passenger ferry across Sinclair Inlet.

Aboard the Kitsap Transit ferry across Sinclair Inlet- yes, there is a bike rack!

In Bremerton we stopped for a moment to pay our respects to the USNS Turner Joy - famed for involvement in the "Tonkin Gulf Incident."  We crossed over the bridge to Manette and enjoyed rolling terrain along the water through Illahee and Brownsville.

The little port of Brownsville on Port Orchard Inlet

Near Keyport, this reporter's beloved 1997 Rodriguez "Kermit" slipped a disk (cassette lock ring).  So that was the mysterious rattle I’d been hearing!  I had no tools with me to deal with it, but there was a bike shop six miles away in Paulsbo (Infinity Cyclery) where a young and very capable bicycle chiropractor was able to get Kermit up and running with minimal delay.

We stopped for some caffeinated rocket fuel at Hot Shots Java in Paulsbo, where two riders decided to take a shortcut (that turned out to be not-so-short) to the Bainbridge ferry and two riders were still feeling frisky enough to take on Baker Hill.

Gus and Mike opting to walk across the Agate Pass bridge on the narrow sidewalk

All four rejoined aboard the ferry back to Seattle.  It was a somewhat challenging 60 mile ride with some hilly, lovely riding between Bremerton and Bainbridge (the three ferry rides add another 15.6 miles).  Look for this ride to be reposted later this summer, as it is one of my very favorite local routes.