Heard it From the Grape Vine

Here is a photo of our grape crop. After three years of watering and weeding, the grape vine finally decided to make some grapes. They have seeds inside, the skin is bitter, and the pulp is chewy. But the juice we squeeze out of them is delicious.

Body Builder Muscle

While gleaning through my finish line photos for the post below, I spotted this close-up of some quadriceps crossing the finish line. It's not a very good photo, but wouldn't you agree that there was some serious time spent building up that muscle? Like maybe 700 miles of cycling in the month of May?

Confident Smile

The comments from last week focused on Lief's expression while crossing the triathlon finish line. As a multi-hour observer of the contestants crossing the finish line, I can attest to the label of "confident" in Lief's case. These photos prove my case, beginning in the upper left, as he was starting out on the three mile run. The remaining photos increase in size as he approached the finish line.

Nearly all of the other contestants, other than Tom and Tony, came across looking totally exhausted. Also to be noted is that these three athletes were sprinting across the finish line at triple the speed of the other contestants.

Kirkland Tri-IT Triathlon

They arrived in Kirkland last Sunday morning before the worms were awake. They waited, in their swimming suits, for more than two hours before they were allowed to start. One of the worms actually crawled across Tom's foot which was probably numb with cold, while they waited to start.

When the three intrepid adventurers finally started, they were at the rear of the pack. They finished the swimming portion in the first third of their group. The photo shows the orange buoy they had to swim around in that 65 degree, cold lake water. A second buoy is out of the photo to the left, about 100 yards away from the first. So they swam about 1/4 of a mile, then rode their bicycles for 12 miles, then jogged for 3 miles.

They probably could have done the full triathlon, judging by the confident smiles on their faces as they crossed the finish line. They finished the course in less than two hours.

Little Girl Visitors

Yesterday we had some little girl visitors from out of town and they had fun playing with the girls who live here.




They climbed the trees in the front yard. They threw rocks into the river. They tumbled around inside a big box.


At the end of the day, we said "good bye" and all the little girls went home.




This morning we heard the whimpering of a little dog. We found our door stop Scottie dog had been tied to the leg of a chair and left that way all night. Poor little Scottie!

Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel Adventure

Poor Lief! He worked until 2:00 AM the night before our tunnel ride, fabricating some ingenious fenders and mud flaps for his bike. I had told him about the mud I encountered on my scouting trip (see the "Trip Report" posting below) the previous weekend. Please don't tell him, but I quietly inspected his bike after the ride and discovered no mud on his bike. My bike still had dried mud on it from the previous week. I guess our 7 mph speed did not generate enough centrifugal force to spin the mud off the tires like my previous reckless ride at 20+ mph did.

But check out the excellent workmanship on those fenders: strips of blue plastic cut from an old recycling bin, plastic coat hangers for fender struts, and an old license plate for a front fender. All of that held together with zip ties and plastic tape.

This ride was much more fun than the previous week, in spite of the fact that Grumpy let me ride all the way through the tunnel with my sunglasses on. I didn't realize that he knew about it until I read his blog description of the event. I had a terrible time seeing, even with my variable-brightness headlight turned all the way up. I couldn't see anybody else's light beams at all, and remember asking Lief if he even had his lights turned on. Happily, the visibility was much better without my sunglasses on the return trip.



The wind inside the tunnel was very cold, and there was water dripping from the ceiling, but the weather outside at the other end was delightfully warm. The view was wonderful, overlooking the Snoqualmie River valley.



The meadow around the picnic table was resplendent with flowers. I believe these pink ones are a variety of thistle. We had a civilized lunch at a picnic table, then explored the area. We found a lizard that escaped over the edge of the steep slope, so there are no photos of him.



We played with two jumping spiders, and took several photos of this black one with red decorations. I was unable to find it in my field guide. It was large for a jumping spider, enough to cover the entire tip of my finger.



Next, we found a black Garter Snake with yellow stripes. The poor thing was terribly frightened when I picked it up. It tried desperately to get away, and all the thrashing about frightened Abby too. The snake settled down and Abby was able to caress the soft scales on the snake's belly. I could feel the muscles along the length of the body contracting in sequence as it struggled to get free of my grip. When I put it down gently, it scurried quickly under a rock and disappeared.



Back inside the tunnel, we struggled to take photos in the darkness. The strobe flash causes some eerie effects, such as intense reflections coming from our bicycle gear, and stopping the motion of the waterfall coming out of the tunnel wall. This scene is a realistic representation of the visibility. You can see the tunnel entrance in the distance, with the bikes illuminated in the foreground and Lief in the near background. Beyond Lief there is only a shadowy hint or silhouette of Grumpy and Abby.



In the opposite direction it was extremely dark. This photo is also a good representation of our visibility. The tunnel wall is barely visible, the people and bikes are within the limit of light, and above and beyond them is total darkness. The far end of the tunnel, two miles away, is visible as a spec of light. Note that Grumpy's gloves were carefully placed in a position where they could not be forgotten. The white specs of light at the bottom and right side of the photo are water droplets falling from the wall and ceiling.



This last photo was a surprise to us all. It is a five second time-exposure that reveals 50 yards or more of the tunnel, including the walls and ceiling. The higher-resolution version even shows the reflectors mounted on the tunnel walls. Our shadows on the floor extend farther than the lights from our flashlights could illuminate. The only light source for this photo was coming from the tunnel entrance behind us.

During the return trip, I decided to sprint ahead so I could see what our group looked like from a distance, and so they could see what I looked like. Without sunglasses, and with my headlight on bright, I was able to see far enough to go 24 mph, but suddenly discovered a group of three or four individuals walking in the opposite direction, without any lights at all. I apologized to them for riding so fast, but they said it didn't bother them. They explained that their flashlight batteries had expired, but they were OK walking along in the darkness. Since I had skidded to a near stop, I decided to look back at our group. They were barely visible, as specs of light from their headlights and flashlights. The tunnel entrance far behind them was brighter than their lights.

We noted lots of pencil-thin extensions, like icicles or stalactites, hanging from the ceiling. We were not sure what they were, because the ceiling was so far away we were unable to examine them closely. They may have been a fungus growing in the dripping water. In order to illuminate them, I had to pick up the front of my bike and shine my headlight on them.

Poor Grumpy suffered from directional and balance disorientation due to the darkness. He wobbled on the bike and even ran into the wall more than once, ending the trip with a bloody knuckle. Although I noticed the effect myself, I'm not sure why he was affected more profoundly. He had only a head-mounted light source, so I wonder if that amplified the problem. My thinking is that peripheral vision is extremely important as cues for confirming the sense of balance. When a head-mounted light source is used, the peripheral cues are eliminated by darkness. My previous experience in this tunnel, four years ago, was without any light source at all. My friend Ray and I ventured only about 100 yards into the tunnel before disorientation overcame our senses and we turned around to go back out.

My final note about the tunnel environment is the echo. Although the echo was fun, it caused a garbling of sound such that a conversation could only be understandable over a short distance.

Abby told Grumpy that she wants to go through there again. I'm delighted to know that she enjoyed the trip, was not in the least bit frightened by it, and I will also look forward to doing it again.

Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel, Trip Report

Today I scouted the route through the Snoqualmie Pass tunnel, from the Iron Horse trailhead at Twin Falls to the Hyak ski area and back.

The Iron Horse Park trail has been improved since my last trip to the tunnel entrance, four years ago. There are cyclone fence railings and finer crushed rock replacing the coarse gravel on the trestles. I didn't have to walk my bike across any of them. There are several outhouses and picnic tables along the way.

Note: The tunnel is closed from November 1 until May 1 each winter.

The distance along the gravel path was 14 miles from Twin Falls to the tunnel entrance, 2.2 miles in the tunnel, and one mile from the east end of the tunnel to the lake view on the other side of Hyak.

The railroad grade is a gradual but tedious uphill going eastbound to the tunnel entrance. On the east side the trail seemed level. Inside the tunnel the trail descends slightly in the eastbound direction, so it is easier going eastbound than westbound.

There is absolutely NO LIGHT inside the tunnel, so artificial lighting is a requirement. Since I made this trip alone, I brought four lights and used only two at a time. There were so many people in the tunnel that I could have easily piggybacked onto any passing group going my direction. The tunnel floor is hard-packed mud, with water dripping constantly, especially near the tunnel ends. There were no obstacles or holes, although a sign warns of the potential for falling rock. The east end of the tunnel is not visible while going eastbound until it is within 1/2 mile, because the path turns about 20 degrees to the south for the last 50 yards. The west end of the tunnel is visible as a faint point of light as soon as your eyes become adjusted to the darkness.

I was not spooked at all by the darkness. It was very much like commuting to work without street lights on dark winter mornings. It was very cold inside the tunnel, so remember to bring warm clothing. My bike fenders and frame are now coated with a thin layer of mud from the tunnel, so fenders are nice too.

My return trip was also tedious in spite of the downhill grade. The gravel, along with a 10-15 MPH headwind, slowed down my pace to 14-20 MPH. (I could have done 24 MPH on pavement with no wind on that grade.) Vibration from the roadway caused my hands, arms, feet, and butt to go numb. My total mileage was only 34.7, but I have felt better after riding 100 miles on paved roads.

My average speed for the whole trip was 12.3 MPH, with 9.9 MPH on the outbound leg. Total time was about 3.5 hours on the bike, with 1:20 in the car. (The car went 73 miles.) We should allow at least 5 hours for this trip.

Here are some optional trips:

Starting Point	Mileage	Time Estimate
Twin Falls	35 miles	5 hours
Rattlesnake Lake	40 miles	6.5 hours
Hyak (riding slowly)	5 miles	3 hours

Biking, the beach, an Airplane

Yesterday we rode our bikes along the lake shore. We stopped to enjoy a pebble beach.

An airplane landed in the water and taxied over to stop at our beach.P'Nut got a chance to see a Piper Super Cub up close, and even talk to the people who were flying it.