Mishaps and more

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
I'm now parking at the Connolly center (1/2 mile from the office); thus when I bring my bike to work, I ride to the office. In a rush to get out the door and make it to Tokul East by 6:00pm, I left my helmet in my office. I didn't realize I didn't have my helmet until I was suited up and ready to ride. I was really early (no traffic) so I called Ann to see if they could bring an extra helmet. They graciously drove back to Turtle Bob's house and got me a helmet. It only cost them 15 minutes. Thus, they got to Tokul East about 6:15pm and we started riding at 6:30pm. I was acutely aware that sunset was at 7:33pm (I looked it up on the i-phone...since I had so much extra time to hangout). We got about 2/3 of the way to last frontier at 7:15pm. I told Ann I didn't think we could make it down last frontier before we ran out of light. I had a headlight with me but no one had mount on their helmet or bike. So we decided to take an exit trail back to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail and leave Last Frontier for another day. As we entered the exit trail, we all realized there was barely enough light in the woods to see the trail. I followed Ann, and she graciously led the way down many drops! It was a fun descent but definitely challenging due to the lack of light. We made it to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail at 7:36pm. We were out for 1 hour and rode for 45 minutes. 35 minutes was climbing. It was a fun ride, and if left me feeling really good.