Quote of the day:  “The best adventures are those that push you to the limits of your comfort zone and challenge you to become a better version of yourself” – Unknown

I left my West Seattle WarmShowers host about 9:30 this morning and all was going well…..until…..it didn’t.  I passed the Boeing plant, which I thought was pretty cool, and decided to stop at the high end shopping center across the street to take a break and eat a snack. I say high end because I couldn’t afford to shop there AND they had a Swedish OB GYN clinic. What even is that?  I mean is it just for Swedes or can anybody play?  Do Swedes have different parts than the rest of us?  Or maybe different STDs?  Anyway, I was just cruising around looking for a nice bench to sit on when BOOOOOM CLANK CLANK CLANK…..my 29 inch tubeless tire parted itself from its rim!!!!   Music time—-“ That’s the sound of the tire blowing off the rim, oh oh my”.  Did you just sing it?   It made such a loud bang the security cop drive right over thinking it was  gun fire.  This is my first time going tubeless and I swear I did it properly. So I unloaded all my gear, flipped the bike, cleaned up the mess from all the exploded sealant,  and proceeded to put a tube in the tire. I inspected everything well and found nothing wrong with the tire bead or the rim ( other than scratches from the wheel hitting the black top). I bought super light tubes to use that are really like those little fake tires they give you these days for your car, you know the ones that you can’t drive too fast on and don’t last long. That’s like these light weight tubes. Just for emergencies to get you home. After reloading my gear and finally eating my snack I found a nearby bike shop and asked them to take a look and see if they could find any defects. The guys at Go Huck Yourself were great. Not finding any defects they put in a real tube and sold me another just in case. I’m not sure I trust this tire now but with the tube pressing against the bead it should be good to go.

After this I had a pretty uneventful ride through some beautiful forrests. The trees here are huge and covered in thick green moss, like a jungle. I guess it IS a rain Forrest, so jungle like. Ferns of all kinds everywhere and gigantic ancient rhododendrons you just can’t believe.  I took a couple of wrong turns here and there but nothing major. Sometimes it is tough seeing where the gps wants you to go as the surroundings don’t seem to match the map. 

When I planned this route I looked at most of the  roads I would be on using Google so I could zoom in or use street view to get an idea of what traffic and road conditions would be like.  That really helped as more than once while trying to get my bearings I would recognize a landmark I had seen in Google.  At one point, leaving Preston I had planed to get off the road and use a hiking trail that zig zagged uphill leading to a rail trail.  A sign at the bottom said Road Closed Ahead. I looked at the map and the only other option would be to backtrack adding another 5-10 miles, so like any idiot  I trudged on. The switch backs on this hill were so steep I could barely walk up them. I figured this was the reason for the road closed sign. By NO.  I soon came to a trestle over a very steep gorge with not only a closed sign but a chain link fence blocking both ends. Deterred?  Nope. Not me!. I inspected the bridge with all my years of engineering knowledge and found it safe. After all it was built for trains and I was no train. I was able to carry all my gear around the blockade and shuttle things to the other side. Then came muscling the bike over. It was tough but I made it.  

The trail at that point was pretty flat and I happily carried on following my planned route when I came to an intersection with a road. My map note said to leave the trail and take the road but it was a dead end down the way some. And looking at the trail map it too was a dead end. I had previously mapped out a route using hiking paths so i again proceeded undeterred  as planned. Only these were no ordinary hiking paths. These were 15-20 percent grades on rocky single track passing down and over 3 steams and around a thousand switch backs. After at least 2 sweaty miles and a hundred stops to catch my breath I finally entered the community of Snoqualmie Ridge. You would think while planning this foolish route the name would have given me a hint as to the terrain!  But no. Didn’t even occur to me. 
So instead of arriving at my next WarmShowers hosts home at my expected 5 pm, I arrived at around 8.  Craig and Shelly were most generous to open their home to me and even had a meal saved for me.  Not to mention the hot high pressure shower and use of the washer and dryer. Craig set me straight on my upcoming route and gave  some options should I get bored with trail riding and want a change of scenery. 

Oh, I’m supposed to be adding pics. Well honestly this first day was a hitch and I didn’t take many, but here you go…..

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I have others on my camera so I might add them later.