Dec 262019

Year Ending, Year Beginning

Year Ending, Year Beginning

As we count down to the end of the year and begin to turn toward the light and warmth, it’s a bit cliched to take stock of the year that’s passing and make plans for the year to come.

On the other hand, I haven’t made time to do that before now and it’s as good a time as any to remind myself of some of the geographies I’ve been meaning to bicycle, my #BikeIt list, and the kinds of bike challenges I find entertaining even if I don’t always participate.

I put together a 2019 list of bike challenges, which helps me review what I did and what I logged — not identical lists. I rode in January but never bothered to log my miles in the Icy Winter Commuting Challenge. In spring I successfully completed #30DaysOfBiking in April and the Washington Bikes #BikeEverywhere challenge in May, celebrating Bike to Work Day in Sequim thanks to some work-related travel.

Later in the year I rode to beverages for #Coffeeneuring in October-November, which nicely overlapped with November’s #RideInTheRain Challenge (although November was pretty dry and I rode on a lot of very nice days).

In my personal geographic challenge of bicycling in all 39 counties in Washington I have some work to do. I last added a county in 2018 — Island County on our bike tour. In 2019 I rode again through a number of counties I had already racked up and I’ve updated the post.

I need to make specific plans to ride in these counties sometime in the next couple of years: Adams, Asotin, Garfield, Grant, Klickitat, Lewis, Lincoln, Mason, Okanogan, Pacific, Skamania, and Wahkiakum. Any ideas?

A second Washington state geographic challenge: Ride on named trails. I didn’t manage to add any to the tally in 2019. A few are in the counties I need to visit so I have some vacations to plan, events to participate in, and the potential of getting to a few counties or trails in 2020 as we wrap up work on the state active transportation plan.

As for the #BikeIt list I put together I’ve done quite a few things on the list, and others were included because they might appeal to someone even if they’re not my thing. A few of these might align with those two lists above. Now if I rent a fatbike and ride it on the Discovery Trail in Pacific County….

Item #55 on my #BikeIt list: Do one of Washington’s famous major rides. When I originally wrote the post I listed long, physically challenging rides. I’ve updated it to add the Emerald Bike Ride, a much shorter and family-friendly ride in Seattle that provides access to otherwise off-limits motor vehicle infrastructure. I’ve registered for it every year since it launched and am planning to keep the streak going in 2020; I’ve already signed up.

If I do Ride the Willapa this year that will also give me another trail and Lewis County.

2018 Emerald Bike Ride

2017 Emerald Bike Ride

2016 Inaugural Emerald Bike Ride

What does 2020 hold?

OK, now I’m getting an idea for another list — put together the counties, trails and major event rides and come up with how many boxes I can check off with one ride. Although that’s yet another list I’d have to review at the end of 2020. Maybe stop adding to the to-do list and just do the to-doing/to-riding.
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  1. Pingback: Challenges: Bike Challenges to Try in 2020 - Bike Style Life

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