Thursday, July 31, 2008

two last rides


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Seeing that the time draws near for departure, it is only natural that some loose ends be tied up.  One of them was to get in a farewell ride with as many of the mad cows that remain.  Norm and I rode on Wednesday, early in the morning.  I was quite impressed with my own riding- I hadn't used the bike in a couple of months.  Many of the other riders have new positions at work, and we've lost our critical mass when a couple of people moved away.  Anyway, I managed to stay on the bike the whole time, albiet pretty slow at times.  Especially cool was clearing Fred & John's, a twisty trail with a couple of sections of moon dust.  We finished up in about an hour and a half.

There was apperantly some confusion as to when the ride was going to be, so a follow up ride on Thursday was required for some of the other riders.  We had really hoped that the weather would stay comfortable, in the 80's.  Not today, it was a hot day, in the low 90's, so we rode under the beating sun.  Still did pretty well, but was ready to call it quits after two loops.

It was really nice to get a little more riding in, and I am currently reconsidering my biking situation out in New York.  We'll see.

Monday, July 21, 2008

oh noes! The Starbucks is closing!

The Starbucks I frequented during my April trip to Syracuse is closing!  It's a good thing I won't be staying at that hotel nearby when I move out there in a month.

Final Fly Fishing in Washington


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This is where Corey and I went fishing one last time before I take off for grad school.  We both really like the place marked "Iron Horse Park Access", it was very scenic, the flow was slower, and it was very wadable.  I would definitely come back here.

Pretty much everything below the Cle Elum River was very hard to wade in.  We spent some time near a park, marked "South Cle Elum", had two very hairy wades (out and back), but that was were the fish were.  I caught one nice 9-10" cutthroat trout in a pool at the west end of the light blue track (zoom way in!).

We also stopped at Teanaway River, where there is a nice pool with some smaller fish.  The river was very low by this date, so There wasn't much fishing to be done.  It really reminded me of the first stream I fished on: Canyon Creek.  The stream bed was the same kind of large river rocks and the water was pure-clear.

There were no more fishing places, but we looked at a couple of the other spots.  Stopped at Umtanum bridge, but the river was very high.  Also at the last corner.  In the upper canyon, between Cle Elum and Ellensburg, we looked near Swak Creek, and at the Thorp Bridge.  But again, too high.  No where to wade.  At this rate, a boat is in our future.

While at Teanaway River, we rested and smoked a cigar each, CAO Brazilia.  The cigar man had made it sound like I wouldn't enjoy this smoke, but I found it to be very pleasant.  Not too heavy or strong.  So, I don't know what he was talking about.

To sum up, a very nice drive with some fishing.  The Iron Horse Park area has a denser forest feel, and will be on our repeat list.  Driving the Yakima Canyon is always a beautiful experience.  The craggy rocks and golden hillsides (nice way to describe "dessert") are very easy on the eyes.  Those stones are heart warming to me, and since I wasn't driving I really got to take a good look.