Monthly Archives: March 2015

Easter Weekend Brevets

Time to take stock – we’ve had our initial 200 and 300 km ACP qualifying brevets.  These rides were well received but they visited roads and trails that we know too well.  It’s time to go farther afield to roads less traveled.  There will be no Tualco, Centennial or BGT on these routes.
In that spirit, we’re serving up the following ACP brevets this coming weekend (Easter):
We’ve designed the weekend so you can take a ferry over the day of the ride, or make a weekend of it if you want to ride both which is great training for PBP, or even the 600K. Come out for both and get yourself used to back to back riding with more sleep than the 600K schedule allows.

4/4 Second Chance 300K – 7:15 AM start
Hood Canal

Hood Canal

Heading out of Bremerton to the southwest over initially steep and then gentler hills, you’ll work your way down towards the nuclear towers of Elma, and then turn back north at the Brady Store, the first of only two controls.  From Skokomish, the route follows the rolling shoreline of the Hood Canal with watery views of the Kitsap Peninsula.  If the sky is clear, be sure to look to your left for views of the Olympic mountains, particularly near Dosewallips State Park. Just before Quilcene you’ll summit the ride’s highest point, Walker Pass, at ~768ft. The store in Quilcene closes at 8pm, from which time the control will be staffed. Then to the Hood Canal Bridge, through Port Gamble, and onto some quiet roads leading back to Bainbridge Island and the finish at the Island Country Hotel. The ride features ~8660 ft of climbing, mostly rolling.

4/5  Easter 200k – 8 AM start
Easter 200K

Riding into Port Townsend

This ride will take you from a location near the Bainbridge Ferry Terminal north and across the Agate Pass Bridge onto the Kitsap Peninsula.  From there you’ll head to the northernmost spit of the peninsula and visit the Point No Point lighthouse.  Then back south to go around Port Gamble, across the Hood Canal Bridge and onto the Olympic Peninsula.  From here, you’ll and north to Port Townsend along roads and trails.  After you’ve re-charged yourself in this charming town, it’s up and down a hill for some more lighthouse action at Fort Worden.  The trip back to Kitsap offers some new roads and some repeats.  Once across the Hood Canal Bridge you’ll head south to hug the coast around Poulsbo before returning to Bainbridge and the start.  Riders will have plenty of margin to catch a ferry home afterwards.  The ride features ~6500 ft of largely gentle climbing.

Dramatic Sky on the Easter 200K route

 


 

Pre-ride reports, final maps and cue sheets for these rides will be posted shortly.  As usual, we recommend that you pre-register and pre-pay for the ride.

 

Check the ferry schedules here:

 

 

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March Rando Recap

Rando season is in full effect for SIR starting with the 100K Spring Populaire on March 7th.

Carol and Ralph

Carol and Ralph Nussbaum’s 45th Anniversary at the Spring Populaire

130 riders finished the Spring Populaire under sunny skies. Zeek’s pizza was packed as riders poured in over a three hour period and the room was filled with laughter and conversation.  We had new riders (hope to see y’all again soon!) and many familiar faces.  Ralph and Carol Nussbaum celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary at the finish, bringing a beautiful (and delicious) cake to share.

Used Randos

“Garage sale. Used randos.” Photo by Mark Thomas

The “Escape From Seattle” 200K on March 14th started a bit more ominously, under stormy skies. Fortunately, the rain ended fairly early in the ride.  Gray skies persisted most of the day, with a break in the clouds revealing the Olympic Range to many riders on the inbound leg.  Jan Heine’s writeup is a great account of the ride.  Geoff Hazel shares his perspective with valuable Lessons Learned.  The finish at Mark and Jan Roberts’s house was delightful, with Jan’s home cooked chili and beer from the Llama’s Brewing Company, their son Sean’s tasty venture into craft brewing.

Climbing a steep pitch

Climbers. Photo by Fred Blasdel

The SIR 300 yesterday was perfect. All the reasons we ride=great friends, spectacular scenery, challenging hills and more hills ^^^, and outstanding volunteers.” – Jan Acuff

The Bahn Mi 300K was an excellent and challenging course out to anything-but-flat Camano Island. The sunny weather of the populaire returned for the afternoon along with the headwinds of the 200K. Best of both worlds? I think so. Big thanks to the volunteers staffing this one: Gary Prince for organizing, Charlie and Kathy White for running the lunch control out of their house, Wayne Methner for staffing the Camano Island State Park stop (at the bottom of a steep hill), and Vinny Muoneke at the finish.  There were others and I apologize for leaving you off the list! Let me know and I’ll update with names.  It takes a lot of volunteers to pull off a big ride like this (80+ riders) and we appreciate all of your work.

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