Still some fierce winds blowing here.  I will have to get a photo of the willow tree across the street.  It toppled over last night! 

On the other hand, the birds have been visiting the feeder.  They were unable to fly much of yesterday.

Today was just too windy to do much of anything outdoors…numerous power outages, and I will have been lucky to post this in between the electricity being off and on…

I have been roaming the countryside the last few days, but not seen a single thing of interest!

 Well, nothing except for this:

This is a Russula species.  You are better than I if you can identify it.

Yesterday I went to the country, and rode on some timberland.

The dawn of the day, it was foggy, too.

I got some glorious photos of mushrooms:

Shaggy Manes

which turn into Inky Caps!

Puffballs

Absolutely gorgeous, but will kill you! Fly Agaric. I thought these had lace on them when I first saw them.

This is what the countryside looks like:

Once the fog burned off it was a sunny day, blue skies!

After a foggy start to the day, the sun broke through and shone brightly.  Off I went down to Big Soos Creek, where I was anticipating simply enjoying the usual quiet ride.

 But wait!  What is that I hear?  A thunk, thunk, thunk…I think it’s a Pileated Woodpecker.  I stopped, and got off my bike.  Yes, sounds like a Pileated.  I walked toward the sound, and then saw the tree shaking with each ‘thunk’.  Where was the woodpecker?  Ah, there it is!  If you look very carefully, there’s a bird in that photo!

follow the arrow up this trunk……….^ .

 As if that was not enough excitement for the day, I also finally spotted the elusive Wooly Bear caterpiller.

The moth from this caterpiller is not very exciting to look at, but the caterpiller is quite interesting.

This morning I cruised over to the town of Bellevue to see a man about a bike.  Specifically, a 1972 Gitane Racer, with 24″ wheels.  This is a tiny bike!  In other words, it would fit me perfectly.

 I was disappointed when I discovered that the paint was in terrible shape, the tyres would need to be replaced, there was no front brake, the wheels were steel rim (useless in Puget Sound’s rainy weather and hills).  Oh, and no handlebar tape, either.  Did I mention that the brake pad on the rear brake would need to be replaced?  Oh well…there’s always another bike!

I wound up riding home on my Nishiki Prestige.  Not much of interest along the way, but I did get a nice photo of the Coal Creek Parkway railbridge.  It’s meant to evoke the Cascade Mountains.

Tomorrow looks to be a good day for more mushroom hunting!

Today I gave my Raleigh mixte to a friend who needed a mixte.  It was just a tad too large for me, and I did not feel entirely comfortable riding it.  But she is a few inches taller than I, and it should be perfect for her.

 Nevertheless, I was sad to see my mixte go.  Sometimes I think that my bikes are the only thing that keep me from going mad from stress.  This morning I had to drive the car for the first time in several months.  Although I had not lost my driving skills, I found myself wanting to go down roads which I knew would only be logical if I were on the bike.  That is, the roads led to nowhere for a car, but a bike would be able to continue on a paved side path.

But back to my story.  After I gave my mixte to my friend, I decided to walk for a while.  Naturally, I took photos.  The weather here has been perfect for mushrooms, so there were a few to photograph:

 Back:

This is a bolete–note the lack of gills. Boletes are easily identified because of their ’spongy’ appearance.

As I was walking alongside the Boeing factory, there was interesting Boeing stuff:

I have no idea what this building is for. I will ask my friend about this one.

A plane segment.

This is supposed to be a leaping salmon, but I call it a shark.

Decaying wooden pilings in the Duwamish River

The Duwamish is an industrial river at this point.

I’m going to work on mushroom identification, but if anyone out there has any idea what I’ve got, I’d love to hear from you.

I am certainly making my way around the south end of King County!  I left work this morning ill-prepared for the dark and the rain, but managed to make my way home nonetheless.

 
This is now my third photo at this spot–it’s actually the same view as this one:

I cautiously made my way down Southcenter Boulevard, and got onto the Interurban Trail. From there I decided to go a different way, and turned left onto a road which used to go into Longacres Race Track. I finally found out why there was so much traffic heading down this road early in the morning–it’s a temporary train depot! The road also happens to head to one of Boeing’s larger offices. I noticed that there appeared to be a path through some wooded areas, and took the path.

A pond! With waterfowl! And a Spotted Towhee calling, too. It had started to rain quite heavily by this point, and from here on out I did not get a single good photo. However, a man walked by me as I was just getting back on the bike (from admiring the pond) and told me how to avoid some of the car traffic ahead. I took his advice, and discovered that the Boeing property wound around through a kind of greenbelt. I emerged finally onto Lind Avenue, where I stumbled across the Springbrook Wetland and Habitat Mitigation bank. Hurrah! This is a spot where Great Blue Herons hunt for food. It was too dark to take photos, so I will have to return during daylight hours to show everyone what this 130 acre project looks like.

I went for a bit of neighbourhood exploring today, this time to a park known as Clark Lake.  This park is a rather large 124 acres in size, so I only skimmed the barest edge of the park.  Definitely a return trip is in order.

So, just scratching the surface, I heard hundreds of frogs.  Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees were bee-bee-beeing everywhere.  I heard a Northern Flicker calling, and a Hairy Woodpecker, too.  A few ducks, mostly mallards, floated in the small linking ponds.  I even saw some dragonflies!

A different view of the same pond:

This creek flows into the above pond:

Even though it rained yesterday, this creek was dry! I don’t understand that, and will have to return to study the reason for it.

The local volunteers have been busy building paths.  There’s apparently also plans for a boardwalk. 

A snowberry bush.

This is how my day started…

Sometimes it’s nice being up at the crack of dawn.

 We started off Sunday morning fairly early, around 7.00 am.  The Kitsap Peninsula can be reached two different ways–one, by taking a ferry from Edmonds, and arriving in Kingston, or by driving by way of Tacoma, and going across the Tacoma Narrows bridge.

The Tacoma Narrows bridge(s) has an interesting history.  The current older version is a replacement for the infamous ‘Galloping Gertie’, which has an absolutely fascinating history:

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

Not only is the article a great read, but the footage of the bridge is mesmerizing.  The bridge known as the ‘Current Narrows Bridge’ is not nearly as exciting as Gertie when riding in a car, but a bike ride across is still an interesting experience, as the winds at this spot are generally quite fierce.  The pedestrian walkway on the ‘Current Narrows Bridge’ is probably only about 36 inches across–getting the walker or bicyclist rather close to the action!  The towers rise over 500 feet, but I could not determine how far above the water surface the main deck of the bridge is.  Let’s just say it’s WAAAY up in the air.

There is now a new bridge, known as the ‘2007 Narrows Bridge’.  There is a toll charge on this bridge.  The new bridge was deliberately built to closely resemble the Current Narrows Bridge, and was built in the same spot as Galloping Gertie.  Galloping Gertie’s remain are still in the Narrows, and are now also “one of the world’s largest man-made reefs.” The sunken remains of Galloping Gertie were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 to protect her from salvagers.

On the way to Kingston we went by some nice mudflats, where we spotted two mature Bald Eagles sitting on the mudflats, probably waiting to waylay some unsuspecting gull into giving up food.  Lots of ducks on the water, and it’s time to start thinking about doing some bird watching on the coast this winter.

At any rate, yesterday morning I started off with high hopes for the Kitsap Color Classic.  This ride, the last of the season for the Cascade Bicycle Club, had quite a few loops to choose from.  I wound up riding the Hansville loop (25 miles) and attempted the Poulsbo/Port Gamble loop (36 miles).

The start, at the Kitsap Bank in Kingston (no, that’s not me in the photo!).

Yours truly is getting her Nishiki Prestige out of the vehicle (I’m in the turquoise blue windbreaker).  You’d think that that rainbow, plus my bib number of 711 would have meant a great day…

Photo taken in Hansville, at the top of the Hansville leg. Looking across at Whidby Island. Some really nice hills here, with perfect temperatures.  The skies were cloudy, but it was not raining at this point.

This leg featured a killer hill about two or three miles from this point.  This is where I realised that this was not going to be a really good day for me, as I overheated going up one of the hills, and managed to trigger a migraine.  Nevertheless, I was enjoying myself, and hoped that I would work my way out of it (well, just because that never happens doesn’t mean I can’t hope).

I finished the Hansville leg feeling not too great, but still determined to get at least a few more miles in.  On the other hand, it had started to rain, and this perked me up no end!  So I decided to set off on the Poulsbo/Port Gamble loop.  This loop featured rolling hills, but with some sections of the ride getting rather close to traffic passing at 50 mph.  However, it also went through Port Gamble, a beautiful little town which is much used for Civil War re-enactments here.

Even got some nice colourful leaves in there!  Note that there is NO SHOULDER on the road!

There did not seem to be many people riding on this loop, at least at the time I was out there.  The rain had gotten steadily stronger, which did not bother me at all (in fact, it was doing a great job of helping relieve my migraine), but it seemed to be discouraging quite a few riders.  I heard quite a few along the side of the road discussing whether or not to turn back.  As I never saw those riders again, I assume that they did, in fact, return.

I did not get many photos of Big Valley Road, because by that time it was just too wet for me to get the camera out.  I reached Poulsbo, and decided that my migraine was not going to go away, and called my husband on the mobile to come fetch me.

Fortunately, there was everything I needed to make me feel better!  Shelter (the gazebo at Liberty Bay Park), a nice sag stop (that is, a shelter set up by the bicycle club, and meant to provide water and some quick nourishment to riders, and also provide mechanical support, and a way to transport cyclists who, for whatever reason, would be unable to finish the ride), and WCs with flush toilets.

[for those who don't like stories about needles, don't read this bit!]

I did have to give myself a shot before continuing to head home.  Still, I was alert enough to take this photo of the old and new Narrows Bridges.  The old Narrows Bridge, on the left of the photo, was the replacement bridge for the infamous Galloping Gertie.

Still raining…

We got home and I took to bed. It took about three hours before my migraine finally subsided.  Ouch!

It was a great ride, even so. I managed to do 44 miles (what I had planned for the day, actually) before I decided that I was becoming a danger to myself.  Nice varied loops, great sag coverage.  I’m looking forward to doing this one again next year!

I was a bit disappointed that the route loops did not take us as close to water as I thought they might have–although I could have stopped at Hood Canal bridge to get some photos of the Canal.  It was raining quite hard at that point, though, and I was getting quite worried about my migraine not going away.  Next time…