Ed Vanderpol
My favorite "little ride" around here is up to Cultus Lake. Cultus Lake is a gem of a provincial park and gets very busy and well used come summertime. From our house it's about 45 - 50 klm round trip, depending on the route. (close to 30 mi). The last 5 or so klm to the lake is all up or down. It reminds me of our last week in 2008, cycling in Pennsylvania. We were either going up a hill or down a hill, there was nothing flat there. But the ups and downs were relatively short. Nothing went on forever as some of the climbs over the Cascade Mountain passes seemed to.
Well, that brings me to Ed Vanderpol from Oregon. Ed was also on the 2008 Sea to Sea trip and it was Day 2, the hardest day of the trip with serious mountain climbing over Stephens Pass in Washington. As we're cycling up a steep part, there comes Ed zipping down the other way. What?! Then he'd cycle up again, passing other cyclists grinding it up the road, and then zip down again. He did this about three times. Kind of like skiing down a hill, taking the chair lift up and doing it over and over. Except there's no chair lift here. Later I asked him why he'd do such a thing to which he replied "it's fun going downhill". Ed was a super cyclist. Another super cyclist in 2008 was Eritia Smit. She passed Fred and I one time so we tried to keep up with her and lasted about 1/4 mile, probably less. No, for sure it was less.
One thing for sure about a Sea to Sea trip, there will be all kinds of cyclists along.
I stopped at the bike shop a week or so ago because my back tire was rubbing a bit and seemed out of true. They pointed out to me that the rim was shot. So here's a shot of my shot rim. I ordered a new one and I'm going to the bike shop today to get it replaced. Just in time, thankfully.
