[TR] Paranoia Bike Ride at Night - 4/2/2010

[Josh Lewis]

Trip: Paranoia Bike Ride at Night -

 

Date: 4/2/2010

 

Trip Report:

On April 2, 2010 Friday that night I needed to do some research to bail my friend Mark out of Canada after going on a rock climbing trip. The bus system was a hassle to figure out, first I had to find legitament sources and then calculate the schedules due to cheap/ not very well designed websites on routes. Also because he was coming back on a Saturday that made the situation more complicated, the standard route back from Canada was unavailable.

 

It took many hours of research and figuring out, and making sure the plan was flawless. Fortunately on Mark's end it turned out alright. As for me when I was finally finished it was around 2:20 a.m. at night of April 3, 2010 Saturday. Now it was time to pack all my gear because I had a navigation class to catch at 7:30 a.m. I had no source of transportation to lake Roesiger and there was no bus service that went near by, and besides even if I took a bus to somewhere many miles off I would be late for certain!

 

The casual drama to my life was my thoughts. I checked my head lamp, no power which I guess I should have expected so I knew I would be biking in the dark some. I made a quick dash getting everything together, and even though I was leaving by 2:40 a.m. a voice in my head said "You'll never make it in time!", I ignored it and said "hope for the best, and if I'm late, it is what it is". My bike was (and still is) broken from a rusty chain so I ended up having to use my brothers small stunt bike.

 

In the night quiteness I carefully snuck out of the house, in a slight panic one of my grumpy brothers would catch me and force me not to make it. The bike made a noise every time the wheel moved so I had to lift it making as little noise as possible. Michael was ok with the trip, but I'm not sure if my other brother was. I go down my drive way in a hurry.

 

Biking down into Everett felt all to familiar, reminded me a quietness deal of when I biked to Columbia Peak, which I took a lot of the route I did then here. As I hiked in East Everett I would drive over tons of sticks in areas with little light, which was the start of me getting paranoid of things going wrong, I did not want some how for the tire to get popped, after all I had no spare and would be out of luck.

 

Once I got to highway 9 off of 128th st it was a fun ride going down the hill gaining much speed although breaking every now and then. It was so much nicer to have breaks going down this hill, although they were not the best breaks, but good enough. One advantage of it being night time was I did not have to deal with the construction zone I did before. If I could some how ride my bike on highway 2 from Everett that would have made some of the trip easier.

 

At the bottom of the hill there were no longer any street lights, just farms to my side and the road was almost pitch black, the white lines were one of the only sources of figuring out where I was going. The night had an awesome atmosphere, looking towards the city I could see much light pollution which gave the clouds a storm looking effect and wondered how nice it would be to see this view all the time from a farm.

 

After biking across the flat dark zone I then crossed the bridge, and no honking cars, nor semi trucks picking up dust and rocks in my face. The bike ride to North Snohomish was uneventful but fun. After crossing over the bridge of highway 2 I took the same road I went to the search and rescue place which was also very dark. It was around here that the paranoia of dogs started to build up,although still was not that bad.

 

I biked through a few windy roads until I came to the road that was the last main stretch, 9 more miles to go! As I biked through there were some hills and I crossed many houses. It reminded me an awful deal of Mansford (a city near Darrington) which is where I had the dog chase story of when I went to Prairie Mountain. Scarey memories, in a sense I've had a fear of dogs at night ever since, and the place almost felt haunted. I would look at the bushes to make sure there were no dogs, and look behind me an awful deal worried I might have one stalking me. As I went down a big hill I came up to another.

 

Here I heard dogs screaming loud almost like wolfs, it made the hair on the back of my head rise, I was terrified by this point and it had attracted other dogs to join in the barking. "Oh boy" were my thoughts, I did not want to go though another dog chase, especially up a big hill! At least on the Prairie Adventure we had headlamps and I was not alone and could see the glowing eyes of them as they silently waited in the bushes to ambush us, but now I would have no idea when they might strike. I was annoyed that the bike made a ton of clicking noises as I walked it up the steep hill, the noise making was almost unavoidable. I still heard more dog barking and screaming of dogs which almost seemed unreal, I first thought mabe I am imagining the screaming part, but then heard it again and again. I headed out of there without resting despite the fact that I was hungry, tired, and thirsty.

 

Once I got to the top of the hill I was able to bike away and got to a big down hill. The sky light started to get a faint dark blue which excited me, atleast if a dog came after me I would be able to faintly make them out. I attempted to take a night photo but it did not turn out. As I got closer to the lake road I started to become quite exausted from all the biking, the lack of sleep, and from gaining 7,000 feet of elevation gain with 18.4 miles 36 hours before this trip.

 

As I biked along South Lake Roesiger road, one of the guys from the navigation class passed me, and it kinda made me crack up that the guy who gets out at 2 a.m. in the morning bikes all the way and still ends up later than those who might have started around 6:45 a.m. The last few miles were tough, I would have to take rests and felt like falling alseep on the side of the road, even gradual slopes up the road became very difficult and I would have to walk the bike.

 

 

 

Eventually I got to the last road which was about a mile long, Fortunately to my amazement it was almost all down hill! Cars kept passing me by as I came up to the camp which is were we met for the navigation class. I had no sleep so I knew that I had only foughten half the battle, although Fortunately the class itself was easier than the approach. As for the class the only time I slept (I knew this would happen) was during lecures because of all the sitting and talking. Once we got to hands on stuff like going outside and navigating it became less tiresome on me. Unfortunately there was no heating at the place and I only brought limited clothes so I ended up shivering a lot, very glad I brought my gloves. We went through the whole navigating through woods and baring thing. I was relieved at the end of the class that someone offered me a ride home. Was very nice of them. Once again its interesting where life will make new adventures even for something as simple as getting to a class. I wonder what life will throw at me next?

[MarkMcJizzy]

 

It took many hours of research and figuring out, and making sure the plan was flawless

 

Sounds like it worked perfectly

[Josh Lewis]

Sounds like it worked perfectly

 

Well for the most part, the research was complicated because of the traveling the border issue, Mark ended up using a diffrent plan although using some of my plan, and then had his parents pick him up for the rest.

[pinner]

Dude, what the hell does any of this mean? Why did he need "bailing out of Canada"? How were you going to do this on a bike? Why in the middle of the night? Where were you? Where's Lake Rothlisberger? How is a lake assaulting young women in the back of the ladies' room? Why did you never get to Canada? Why does your class start so early? Why did that guy pass you and not pick you up? Is it because you tell stories in the car that make no sense? Why am I writing this? What the hell are those pictures of? Anything? Do I see a random red thing in one? What is it? A bird? A plane? Mark in Canada?

 

.... wait a minute... think I figured it out... so the Canada thing was just to explain why you had to figure all this out really late (although I'm still confused), and the biking in the middle of the night was because it was your only way to get to the class from wherever you live (or were)? ... that was really hard... anyway, glad you made it!

[Pete_H]

Josh, you the man!

[Josh Lewis]

I started late at night to try to make it to the mountaineers navigation course in time.

[marc_leclerc]

Haha... sorry Mark was stuck in Canada with me! I am partly to blame for the epicness of this trip. As without me, Mark would not have been in Canada and Josh would not have had to stay up late figuring out his return! Awesome story!

[Josh Lewis]

Marc, it was worth it. No matter what I would have been tired, would have had to get up early anyways. Although a few extra hours of sleep would have been nice.