Almost Summer Velo News

Saturday's ride was my first this year to begin with me wearing a t-shirt.  I've ended up in a t-shirt on on one or two rides this year but on Saturday the weather made the choice easy.  Olympia's had a run of sunny dry weather for the past week with a forecast of more to come for the next few days.  Not only would a t-shirt suffice but I didn't even carry rain gear. This is classic Olympia spring weather with mixed clouds and open sky with lots of sunlight.  We don't get this kind of weather every year so when it happens, it's a gift.

My route was a familiar one:  Olympia-Woodland Trail to the Chehalis Western Trail where headed south.  First, though, I inspected the Pacific Avenue overpass.  The most notable change these days is the steady rise of the serpentine incline that lifts the trail up to the deck of the overpass from the south.
Lots of people out on this beautiful sunny day.  I get a view of Mount Rainier, still mantled in snow, brilliantly white.  More often than not I am riding through a shaded tunnel, feeling the cool breeze. 

I turn around at the Golden Spike monument commemorating the completion of the Chehalis Western Trail and return the way I came.  I'd planned  to head west and north from the Yelm Highway but that puts me in traffic and on a laid back day like today I don't want traffic so I just re-trace my outbound route on the trail. The day ends at 26.7 miles.  That gives me 516 for the year.