Lap of the Lake

The Seattle International Randonneurs (SIR) has this nifty tool linked from their website called "The Perminator," You can go there to peruse a list of all of their routes, or enter criteria for the route you want -- between 100 and 120 kilometers long with less than 2,000 feet of climbing for example -- and see either a list of a map view of the routes that comply with your requirements. From the list you can open a link to the route on RideWithGPS.com to see if it appeals to you. And when you find one that you like, you click another link and register.

There's also an option from the Perminator to view who is riding what, so long as they made their registration public. If you have the flexibility, you can join a public registration.

I've been looking at this page for the past few months, just in case somebody was doing a route on a date and time that worked for me. So far, that hasn't worked out and I keep riding by myself, but it has given me the chance to see which routes are more popular.

Route 1005 -- the Lake Washington-Lake Sammamish Loop -- shows up on the list a lot. So, with some space on my schedule Wednesday afternoon and the weather being almost perfect, I went out and did that.

This route has two variants, with one starting in Issaquah and another in Lake Forest Park. Although both were probably equidistant from our house, I opted for Lake Forest Park for what is really the ultimate reason:

Chocolate.

You see, there's this great store at the little mall there called Chocolate Man, and they have a chocolate-coated caramel that has habanero in it. To some that will sound yucky, but if you're the adventurous type you gotta try it.

So I arrived early enough to eat a quick sandwich at Great Harvest Bread Company next door, and then had one caramel before hitting the Burke-Gilman Trail. I cruised quickly south with a light tailwind through the University and across the bridge at Montlake, then climbed up through Interlaken Park before enjoying some city cycling down to the first control at Stumptown Coffee.

Since it was warm and the middle of the afternoon, I did not get a coffee but instead scarfed a croissant. Then I climbed east, descending back to Lake Washington.

The early commuters had not yet hit the road, so the Lake Washington Loop was fairly devoid of cars. The light wind was still out of the north, and I zipped past Seward Park.

Soon, I was in Renton looking for the information control at the airport.

Just past here I got a bonus mile by following the GPS track, which takes you onto Boeing property. A security officer very nicely corrected my mistake, and I managed to navigate Renton relatively unscathed from there. After another information control, the route took me onto a closed road that seemed to have snow.

This is actually some kind of white fluffy pollen prevalent here. There's enough of it floating around that you have to remember to breath through your nose or risk a massive coughing fit.

Eventually, I hit another road that I had seen riding with the Alki Velo Club a few weeks ago -- May Valley Road. The commuter traffic was in full force by then, so although it is a great cycling road when it is not chock-a-block with cars, right then it was not a great cycling road.

Eventually, May Valley Road ended at Issaquah-Hobart Road. Turning north here, traffic was lighter since apparently everyone who works in Renton lives in Mirrormont or somewhere further southeast. I've done this road a few times, too, and it has a good shoulder for much of the way, and an even better bike lane for the rest of the way in to Issaquah.

By this point in the ride I had managed to do something that I had not done in a while: Drain two bottles. So I was very pleased to stop for a bit and refill my bottles at the convenience store control, as well as eat half a bag of chips and down a big can of Arnold Palmer mix (tea and lemonade). Then I continued north out of town, dodging cars around I-90, and finally finding "the other lake."

I had ridden this road before, too, on the first permanent that I did in Seattle. Today was much nicer, with the wind calming a bit so that I could maintain a fast pace all the way past Sammamish and to Redmond, where I got on the Sammamish River Trail.

The trail was full of folks out having fun, but I was still able to bend the 15-mph speed limit there a bit. Right after the trail turned back into the Burke-Gilman, a cyclist in a skin suit passed me doing 22 mph, and I jumped on his wheel for a mile. When he realized that I was there, he took the pace up a bit. I stuck with him for another mile -- just to show him that I could -- and then backed off and rolled gently into Lake Forest Park for my reward.

Chocolate.