Friday Route Recon

Mr Blaine and I spent the morning going over the "meat" of the Midnight Century course that he's devised for this year. The "meat" is from where the route crosses Highway 27 and pops you out in Spangle.

There's ample dirt road. Lots of washboard. Hard steep dirt climbs. One particularly tight, twisty washboardy dirt road descent, and a closed road section. It's a closed summer road. So when it was open it was rough. Now that it's closed and forgotten, it's pretty rough.

David rode his single-speed 29'er with no problems. I rode my blue RB-T with 32mm Pasalas. It worked ok, but I'm probably going to end up riding a fat-tired road bike with a more volume in the tires. Aside from this middle section, which is difficult, the other hard part about this route will be water. Basically, the route goes out to Liberty Lake on the trail, comes back through Saltese Flats, across 27, to Spangle, almost to Cheney, then into Spokane via the Fish Lake trail.

So, the "meat" section, between Liberty Lake and Spangle -- roughly 50 miles -- has no services where you can refill your water. I need tons of water, so I'll probably be bringing my camel pack in addition to my water bottles. I'll fill the camel pack in Liberty Lake.

Spangle (about 70 miles into the ride) does have services, but they all open at 6 AM. So if you're fast, you may miss out on the services. I won't have that problem. By the time I get to Spangle, I may sit down for breakfast at the Harvester, which -- like the convenience store -- opens at 6 AM on Sunday morning.

If you're interested: the ride leaves the Elk restaurant at midnight on Saturday, August 23rd. No fees, no swag, no support.

Swap

Speaking of no fees -- the "just show up and sell/buy bike stuff" swap is up at the parking lot in front of Harrington Insurance company on 29th and Regal. Sunday (this Sunday!) morning from 8-11.