To the Peak!

Our latest training adventure was to cycle up Mary's
Peak on Saturday! The trip included 2-3 miles of
climbing until we reached the turn off for the base of
the peak. At that point, we started over nine miles
of uphill climbing until we reached the top. Both of
us were thankful for shade on the road, and the two
waterfalls on the side of the road along the way. We
were able to stop and splash water on our faces and
arms to cool off a little. The trip was beautiful!
For the last couple of miles we could look through the
trees and see the blue sky over the valley. The view
at the top was wonderful...cool and windy but
wonderful. We meant to bring our camera, but forgot
it at the house, so unfortunately, we have no photos
to share of this trip.

The ride going back home was a blast! We are glad
our brakes worked! Our top speed down the Peak was
about 45mph...contrasting to our 2-5 mph up the Peak.
Then we rode all the way up the hill where my parents
live. Although, not as steep as the Peak, the hill
is a major challenge on a tandem! When we pulled
into the driveway we felt we had had reached a new
level in our training.

A little about Mary's Peak:
* Mary's Peak was originally called Chintimini by the
Native Americans. it was renamed by the early
settlers Mary's Peak along with the Mary's River most
likely after Saint Mary.

* Mary's Peak is the highest Peak in the Oregon
Coastal Range north of Coquille. (Over 4,000 feet!)

* Mary's Peak offers several opportunities for
recreation. For more information on Mary's Peak:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marys_Peak

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Bike blog for August

Hi Everyone,

This email is in lieu of doing a formal blog. Many
people wanted us to blog our bike trip, but we don't
write enough to maintain a blog regularly.

We did just celebrate our first anniversary and"
biking" was the theme. I gave Randy safety vests for
biking and he is giving me a new saddle (seat) for the
bike. Before you think this funny, I must tell you
that the seat that came with the bike was a nice seat
but made for petite women. Since I have never been
petite, it just wasn't super comfortable. We have
biked about 1000 miles in training and it was time to
try out a larger saddle. Last night we rode about 30
miles on a new saddle and it was better! Yeah!

The other great adventure we have had this week was
riding over a table knife in the bike path. Yes, I
mean the casual silverware from someone's table.
Anyway, we were booking along and Randy didn't see it
in time to avoid it and "BAM!". TALK ABOUT AN
EXPLOSION UNDER YOUR SEAT! Needless to say there was
a three inch incision though both our tire and tube.
Since we were a couple of miles from a bike shop, we
replaced the tube with our spare and used up the CO2
canister blowing it up and BAM! There went the
spare! So, I started praying and getting ready to
jog to bike shop where I had my truck parked. At
that time, a man in a van stopped to give us a ride!
Yeah! He was a tandem rider and could tell by the
turned over bike, that we were having some issues.
He gave us a ride back to the shop where we found a
new tire and tube and put the bike back in the truck
to drive home.

Some things we have learned this training season:
!. Seats do matter!
2. Tires do matter---Some tires drag and feel like
pedaling concrete. Our new tire is going to be moved
to Randy's mountain bike and we are going to go with a
narrower tire.
3. Inspiration movies are fun to watch--Most of
these were produced in the 70s-80s. Our favorite is
BREAKING AWAY. The main character pretends he is
Italian and listens to opera! To get pumped up for a
ride we will put on Rocinni (Think music from Bugs
Bunny) like the character from this movie.
4. Back seat driving isn't backseat driving unless on
a tandem.
5. Squeezing the handlebars helps relieve the urge to
backseat drive.
6. Sometimes it is better to close eyes and pray
(from the backseat!)
7. Every road from our house leads to a "hill" at
some point. There are no true flats nearby.
8. Tandem bikes are better than convertible cars!
The wind really goes through your hair!
9. When the chain breaks or wraps around itself,
this is a bad thing. Carry a cell phone and some
money for when this happens. We have been blessed to
have only had this happen near a bike shop or Randy
was able to fix it.
10. Bananas are the best fruit ever made!

Hope all is well with you.

Have a great rest of August!

-Julie and Randy

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