Wordless Wednesday - Icelandic Sunset

Near Keflavik, Iceland. Summer of 1973.Copyright © 1973/.. by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

Old Truck

On the edge of the meadow where the logging camp used to Lee and Tuffee check out the old truck.

Cycling Clothes for the Lycra-Averse

After reading yesterday's Minuteman Bikeway post, you may have been wondering: So what does a girl wear on a 22-mile ride on a fierce roadbike? I am glad you asked!

CYCLING CLOTHES:

I am not against athletic clothing when it comes to cycling as a sport. My problem is different, and I know that other women share it: My skin hates synthetic fibers, especially in the heat. Yes, the new synthetic materials are supposed to be feather-lite, super-wicking, fast-drying, ultra-comfort, and so on... But somehow my body just does not agree. If I attempt to wear anything synthetic, my skin goes haywire, and I immediately get this icky, sticky, "get-it-off-me!" feeling -- not to mention horrible rashes and irritations. Sadly, my skin is also sensitive to wool, even very thin, lightweight wool. I can wear wool as an outer layer, but not directly next to the skin.

As far as normally-available fibers go, this leaves me with cottons, linens and silks. Raw silk is the most comfortable of these, and has excellent natural wicking properties. Old-fashioned ski clothing used to be made of rough silk, but now these are super-expensive and hard to find. Cotton and linen are breathable, but not ideal for wicking. Still, if left with no other choice, it is possible to achieve wicking with cotton by wearing it in ultra-thin, gauze-like layers. Gauzy cotton clothing is currently in fashion, and I have taken full advantage of summer sales. The dress pictured in these photos is a good example.

This mini-dress consists of two layers of very thin, gauze-like cotton. I bought it in Europe, but I have seen many like it available in the US, from the Gap, Old Navy, H&M, and many other stores. The loose baby-doll style with large arm openings around the straps provides superb breatheability. Worn over a cotton sports-bra and cotton leggings (the leggings function as "bloomers" -- i.e. underwear and leggings in one), this sort of dress allows the breeze to circulate under the wide hem, through the arm openings, and in between the two gauzy layers, providing amazing ventilation. I had zero sweat stains during the 22 mile ride. It is crucial that this kind of dress be short and wide enough, so as not to get caught on the saddle when mounting and dismounting. Notice also the enormous pockets -- handy for storing hair elastics, mobile phone and camera. The leggings + sportsbra + gauze dress outfit, in several colour variants, is basically my cycling kit for longer, sporty rides.

CYCLING SHOES

Simple shoes -- the best bike shoes! I saw a heap of these on clearance at the UGG/Teva Outlet in Wrentham the other day. I remembered reading about these on BikeSkirt some time ago, and decided to give them a try. I wanted something athletic, but summery, that could be worn without socks. The Simples are great, because they have a thick, hard, shock absorbent sole that is extremely effective for pushing down on pedals. The natural canvas material makes them breathable and light in even the hottest weather, but the enclosed rubber toe is great for those times when your toe hits the pedal -- which can hurt like hell on a roadbike in open-toed sandals. I have worn Keds, Converse and Vans, and the Simples work better for me as bike shoes than either of those.

Cycling clothing for the lycra-averse (and the athletic-gear-averse) need not be impractical. I was completely comfortable cycling for 22 miles+ in this outfit and shoes, and could easily have gone for longer. At the same time, we were able to go straight from the trails to one of our favourite restaurants for a dinner out. Of course, everyone's experience is different, and what is comfortable for one person may not be for another. Experimentation and listening to your own needs is key.

Seeds!

My Renee's Garden seed order came in the mail the other day, and I am very happy with the seeds. The packets were larger and had more seeds than I thought, so that was great.

Here are the packets I bought online:

Swiss Chard 'Pot of Gold'
Arugula 'Italian'
Mesclun 'Paris Market Mix'
Radishes 'Petit Dejeuner'

The Best Morning Glory

I have been taking photos of my morning glories all summer. I keep taking the photos trying to get 'the best' photo I can of a morning glory. I have posted a lot of the photos I have taken which are the best ones. And I have thrown out many more that were awfull. I have decided I like taking the photos of the flowers from the back as much as from the front. In this one you can see a very tiny bug deep in the flower. For those that don't know morning glories blossoms only last one day and usually only a few hours. So every day there is a huge new bunch of blossoms to take photos of. It can be adicting.

The Seat Cluster: a Starburst of Lugwork

One of my favourite parts of a bicycle frame's anatomy is what's called the "seat cluster" - the joint where the seat tube, the top tube, and the rear stays of the bicycle meet. If done nicely, the seat cluster can look like a beautiful starburst of lugwork, and that is what I love about it. On the picture above is the very classic seat cluster on the Waja trackbike I rode in Vienna earlier this summer.

A similarly classic seat cluster on the Rivendell Sam Hillborne.

[image via Franklyn W]

And another example from an Ebisu bicycle. You can see how the individuality of the cut of the lugwork interacts with the colour of the paint to create subtle variations in form and shade. The stay caps (those narrow diagonal pieces that taper to meet the main lug) can be rounded or pointy, flat or concave, stubby or elongated.



[image viacycleczar]

They can even wrap all the way around the main seat lug, like on this Toei bicycle, so that the pointy tips meet. This is called a "wrap around seat cluster" design.





The stay caps also make for a good surface to embellish with an engraving of the manufacturer's name, like on this vintage Trek 610.



[image via Dancing Weapon]

Or with hand-painted flourishes, like on this Bob Jackson.



[image via Royal H.]

They can also be carved, if so desired, like on this early Royal H. frame.



[image via ribalrid]

While I prefer classic seat clusters, there are also many designs that deviate into all sorts of creative directions. On this Bates B.A.R. bicycle, the seat stay caps look like sharpened pencils and meet the main lug at the bottom.



[image via somervillain]

On this vintage Trek 560, the seat cluster is one big lug, and the seat stays are held by lugged sockets at the back.



[image via Kevin Saunders]

And then there are seat clusters where the stays connect to the tube directly, below the lug, like on this Formigli frame. (My understanding is that both this and the method used by Trek above is done to create tighter clearances?)



[image via Royal H.]

A similar approach to "fastback stays" by Royal H., with the seat stays attached at the rear.



When it comes to lugwork, there is no shortage of details to get obsessed about, and the topic can provide hours of impassioned discussion to those who feel strongly about one design over another. Crazy? Maybe so, but also beautiful... like the seat cluster on my Royal H. frame that will (hopefully very soon now) emerge as a fully built bicycle.

Dressguards and Chaincase: Do You Need Them?

Sometimes I get emails where ladies send me pictures of their bicycle and ask whether I think "it would look better" with dress guards and/or a chaincase. Ladies... You do realise that these things are not there for the looks, right? Although a set of dress guards and a chaincasedo lend a certain charm to a bicycle, aesthetics are not their primary purpose. So let me explain why I put them on my bikes, and then you can decide for yourself whether you need them or not.



The purpose of dress guards is to stop fluttery, loose clothing from flying into the spokes of your rear wheel and either getting ruined or causing an accident.The main determinant of whether you need dressguards is whether you wearthe sort of clothing that requires their protection - for instance: flared skirts, dresses, long coats, or flowing tunics. Once you have had something get stuck in your rear spokes or have seen it happen to someone else, you know that the possibility is real and that it can even cause injury. Personally,I will not ride a bicycle without dress guards if an article of clothing I am wearing is long enough to reach the rear spokes. And since much of my everyday clothing is in that category, it is a good idea for me to install dress guards on any bike I plan to use for transportation.



I have also been asked what kind of dressguards are better: netted or solid. There are probably differing opinions on this, but in my experience it does not matter. My vintage Raleigh(above) is fitted with very minimal dressguards that are basically just stretchy cords fanning out from the rear dropouts. For me, this has been sufficient; the cords - closely spaced - provide a perfectly functional barrier.The obvious advantage to dress guards that are woven, is that they are lighter (and usually more attractive) than plastic ones. The disadvantage is that they can be more expensive and more difficult to clean.



Moving on to chaincases, their purpose is two-fold: (1) to prevent the bottoms of your trousers from being caught in the chain, and (2) to keep the chain clean from street grime, especially in bad weather. Since I seldom wear long trousers, the first function is not that important to me. So while I do appreciate that the chaincase keeps my chain nice and clean, this accessory is not as crucial for me as dress guards, because it is a maintenance feature rather than a safety feature. I can still ride a bike without a chaincase for transportation.



Furthermore, while I have found dress guards to be effective in preventing clothing from getting stuck in the spokes, I have not found chaincases to be entirely effective on those rare occasions when I do wear trousers. A couple of times, the bottoms of my trousers have actually gotten stuck on the chaincase itself, which has only increased my bias for skirts once I started cycling. Don't get me wrong, I still love a nice, elegant chaincase. But I admit that this feature does not hold as much functional purpose for me as do dress guards.



Dress guards and chaincases are not affectations, but necessary accessories for transportation in everyday clothing. As the popularity of "city bikes" rises, I hope that more American bicycle shops will realise this, and start carrying these useful items.

It's Still There!

What's still there, you ask? The residence of John Brubaker, my 3rd great grandfather, that's what! Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful fall day here in northeast Indiana and I couldn't resist taking advantage of it. After running some errands, it was about 2:30 in the afternoon by the time I got to Huntington County. A few minutes later I was in the area where I thought the house should be, and there it was! It didn't quite look the same as in the image from the atlas, but I was pretty sure it was the right house. I pulled off to the side of the road and took a couple of pictures. The sun was in the "wrong" position for a really good shot, but it does show some of the details. The house is some distance from the road. Thank goodness for zoom lenses!

Comparing the two images, the first thing I noticed was that the pitch of the roof is steeper in the old image (artistic license perhaps?), several of the chimney's have been removed, and the brick exterior has been painted. The porch has been extended to the full depth of the offset and a sloped roof replaces the railed deck. There is only one entrance off of the porch into the house. The door going into the south facing section has been removed. The second window above the porch was actually a door. It too has been removed as has the "front" door (the empty space below the 3rd upstairs window). Modern insulated windows have replaced the originals, and the decorative thing-a-ma-jigs above the windows are gone.

Cropped portion of the picture used in the 1876 atlas, shown in a previous post.

Looking southeast, showing the room that was added onto the southwest corner of the house and some of the out-buildings.

After taking the pictures, I did something that I've never done before. I saw a car in the driveway so I drove up to the house. I was greeted by a very friendly black lab and a small golden haired retriever-mix. They didn't bark or make a sound, which I thought was odd. Anyway, I petted them for a minute and then went onto the porch and knocked on the door. No answer. I peeked around behind the house thinking perhaps someone was outside, but there wasn't anybody there. Went back on the porch and knocked on the door again. Still no answer. Waited a few minutes, knocked again. No answer. So I left. As I was driving down the lane out to the road, the school bus pulled up and dropped off several children. After speaking with them for a few seconds, I turned around and went back to the house, where their mother was waiting on the porch!

She hadn't heard me knocking on the door. She was very nice and friendly. I showed her a copy of the picture of John's house and she confirmed that it was the same house. She said that she was told that the house had been built in the early 1850s. She and her husband purchased the house eight years ago from a couple that had bought it about 1970. She didn't know who they had purchased it from.

After a few minutes of chatting on the porch she invited me inside. The walls are solid brick, at least 12" thick. It's hard to see from the pictures above, but the house is really two rectangular "sections" that are offset by the depth of the porch. So the back, or south facing section, is only as long as the north facing section. We didn't go down into the basement but I didn't think to ask whether it was a full or partial basement or whether its walls were stone or brick.

There are two fairly large rooms on each floor of the front section. There is just one large room in the back section on each floor but the enclosed stairway is also on that side of the house. At the top of the stairs there is a large landing area that has been converted into a closet and a hallway. I was surprised by the height of the rooms upstairs as they have 8' ceilings. I was expecting them not to be as high as those downstairs. There are no fireplaces left in the house.

The only change to the original footprint of the house is the addition of a room at the back, southwest corner, downstairs. It is actually two small rooms. One is being used as the laundry room and back entrance and the other is a galley-type kitchen.

All in all, I must say, it was a very nice day!

Snow time...

Quite a bit of snow has fallen over the past week leaving plenty at Paradise (a solid 2 feet). As you can see in this John Piastuck image, skiers and boarders (32 ants by my count) are "chomping at the bit" to climb Panorama Point for early season turns... This is looking to be a very promising ski season folks. The question is, will it hold; will it continue?

The Washington State Climatologists have something to say about our weather. They just published an interesting report about our 2007 summer temperatures. It points to data that says we're still experiencing a warmer than normal trend (0.01 to be exact for Aug). I also found that they are willing to post an "Outlook" for the fall and winter. Check it out, but don't look for any clarity as it doesn't really predict anything substantial or exciting: "The Climate Prediction Center's 3-month outlook for November-December-January is for equal chances of above, below, or normal temperatures for Washington..."

Whatever the case, we're off to good start and the ants on Pan Point are seemingly stoked. With them are a few climbers who are hoping to find the summit this week. Perhaps they'll successfully weave through the upper mountain crevasses and visit Columbia Crest during this weather window.

If you are planning to climb this fall, here are few safety, registration and camping tips:

• Expect crevasses: Though it's been snowing quite a bit this Sept/Oct, be prepared for lightly covered crevasses on the mountain.
• Avalanche: Yes, slides have killed climbers in the fall on Mount Rainier and it could easily happen again. It doesn't take much to knock a team into a terrain trap (crevasse, cliff, hole) or bury someone. This is especially the case if the wind is blowing which could contribute to large snow deposits.
• Poor weather: Ok, this is a constant on Rainier, but fall is definitely the time when storms linger longer than expected and climbers regret their "fast and light" plans. Be prepared to sit out inclement weather and expect heavy wet snow.

You can register in Longmire at the museum, or self register (i.e. honor system) at Paradise on the front porch of the Jackson Visitor Center. Most teams will select the Camp Muir Public Shelter for high camp accommodations. Over the past few years, that hut has been very accessible... But you should still bring a shovel to dig out the door and always clean up after you leave. On nice/busy weekends, bring your ear plugs (snoring, running stoves, chatter) and expect to breath stove exhaust in the hut.

Waxwing and Mountain Ash Berries

With the cold weather hanging on for another night, I figured I would get up early and drive to Grand Marais to photograph the steam behind the lighthouse. What I wasn't figuring on were the thousands of Waxwings that were hanging out in the various trees in the Grand Marais campground. I found one area where all the Mountain Ash berries had blown off the trees and down onto the ground. I watched as hundreds of Waxwings hopped around amongst the berries, choking them down just as fast as they could pick them up. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to isolate this one bird against the backdrop of berries. It is my favorite shot of the morning.

Hello dear

Slow game cam week, but a busy week for me. (More about that later.)

As of last weekend, most of the new Cuddeback pictures were fuzzy rear-view shots of raccoons and rabbits. This deer photo is not the model of sharpness either, but it's the best one of the lot. She's coming up out of the creek at 9:30 in the bright daylight... if I'd been looking out of the window I'd have seen her.

-----

The first Hooded Mergansers of the season arrived this week. We've already had several of the other winter birds for a while... Cedar Waxwings, White-throated Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Kinglets (Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned), Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Song Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, etc.

Not many of them sing in the winter -- Song Sparrows are a nice exception. If we're lucky we might hear a Winter Wren now and then. It's one of my favorite birdsongs, but I don't hear it often. The Winter Wren also has one of my favorite latin names: Troglodytes troglodytes! My old birdwatching teacher called them feathered meatballs because of their small size. I'd say, feathered meatballs on speed. (Listen to their song to see what I mean.)

I found one dead in the yard last week and almost cried. He was so small. Ten paperclips would have balanced him on a scale.

Adjusting to the Velo Timezone

This is the first time when my stay in Austria involved cycling from beginning to end - without relying on public transport for any reason. And a curious thing has been happening: everywhere I go, I am always early!

I am a moderately punctual person, but definitely not someone who is obsessed with arriving "on the dot," let alone ahead of time. So why was this suddenly happening? Then it hit me: After living in Vienna on and off for 3 years now, I've developed an internal "estimator" of how long it will take me to get to any given location in the city - based on my experiences with the U-Bahn (subway) and trolley systems here. Even though I cycle now, my internal time estimator has not adjusted yet and still functions based on "public transport time" - making me always early, because it is actually faster to travel in Vienna by bicycle! To me this revelation was a "wow" moment because Vienna is such a large city. Sure, traveling by bicycle is more pleasant, but it never occurred to me that it is also faster. I can honestly say that my days here have been made less hectic by the time I've saved on commuting. I like being in the velo time zone!

The Great Arch, Pabbay, finally free

Donald King and myself, enjoying the boat ride back from Pabbay. The mugs were the boatman’s by the way.




June is often a time to get on a boat and go and find some amazing new sea cliff climbs to be done in the Hebrides. I’ve been lucky to have done more than my fair share over the past ten years. Yet they just keep coming! One place I’d never yet been was Pabbay. The obvious target was the Great Arch project.




The arch is of course the most striking and obvious challenge on the island. And like other lines of similar calibre such as the Longhope Route, it’s also going to be the hardest. Great! It was first tried by Cubby Cuthbertson and Lynn Hill while they were being filmed for a BBC TV programme in 1997. On that trip, the route didn’t go free although they did record it with a rest/aid point. With better weather and a bit more time, I’m sure they’d have done it. You don’t get a much stronger team that those two! Talking of strong teams, the next party to attempt it was Steve Mclure and Lucy Creamer a few years ago. Steve inspected the line on abseil and then made a great attempt to flash it, getting through the first crux. He fell in the roof, pulled back up to his highpoint on the rope and carried on to the end. He opted not to come back and make the free ascent. So, after all these years, it still needed doing. The projected grade I'd heard for the free ascent was E9 7a, but in the end E8 6c was more like it.











That is a roof that needs climbing.




I headed over with Donald King to see if we could do it. We had a good window of time to cope with the usual sea cliff problems of sea spray dampness and bad weather. So I was quite relaxed and excited about getting on it. On our first day I abseiled down the crux top pitch through the huge horizontal roof. It was totally damp with sea spray so all I could do that day was pull on and try a few individual moves in the roof on the GriGri and then do the first couple of wet pitches for something to do, abseiling off into the sea around midnight in fading light.




Next day I waited until the evening to even go on it in the hope the sea spray might dry out a bit more. It was fortunately drier when I arrived. I went down and played about a bit more on the abseil rope for an hour or so and had that feeling that maybe I ought to stop there and have a good go at the whole route the next day (and last before a big rainy front arrived).




On day three we were disappointed to find the dreaded sea spray hanging like a mist under the great arch. It was a roasting hot sunny day, but the route was dripping. All we could do was lie and sleep in the sun on the hot boulders at the base for four hours. Hard life eh?












Pitch 2.




However, sunbathing was not what I traveled all that way for. So at around tea time, almost without speaking, we got ourselves together and just started going upwards. Pitches 1 and 2 round the first pitch flew by in minutes. The big third pitch was a grunt with still wet holds lurking in the big roof, but it also went fairly smoothly for both Donald and myself. The infamous offwidth slot of pitch 4 was only a few metres in length, but my first experience of ‘scapular walking’. I have no idea if that is a climbing technique, but it worked. Pitch 5 was the most gloriously exposed and finely positioned 5a pitch I’ve ever climbed. It was so relaxing. A cool breeze began to blow as I started it, and became more and more noticeable as I shuffled across the brilliant incut flakes of gneiss, a huge roof below my feet, another looming directly overhead.












The roof of pitch 3 looming overhead. This pitch was about E5.





By the time I reached the belay below the crux 6^th pitch through the great arch, the breeze was chilling me, and I could see the colour of the gniess turning before my eyes from a that familiar flat grey of dampness to the crisp white of dryness; and friction. It’s been a wee while since I’ve had that great feeling of ‘now is the time to go for it’. Simultaneously feeling a little queasy in the stomach, and anxious to release the physical energy and adrenaline which is bursting to get out.






The next thing I knew I was 10 metres up the pitch, leaning back with my hands off with double knee bars behind a huge undercut in the most outrageous position. The first crux was right above. A full stretch reach from the undercut to a tiny crimp and then a boulder problem to get to the break at the back of the arch itself. In the space of ten minutes I’d gone from a bag of nerves with a stomach full of butterflies, to feeling totally relaxed and just eager to go for it. So the first crux felt easy.




Unsurprisingly, the transition to completely horizontal roof climbing felt a bit of a shock to the system, and I fumbled with two cams, and then decided not to even bother with the third. I was getting too pumped. I got really excited about the next seconds as I’d find out whether I had enough power to do the crux, or fling myself into the huge space below and test the cams and wires in the creaky roof flake. So I realised I better move it before excitement turned to nerves. What followed was a classic climbing moment of a blur of slapping hands, quickly made up sequences on the hop when I did it all wrong, and a bit of aggression. In no time I found myself stood above the lip, panting to catch my breath.




The great thing about roof climbs is once you get over the lip, it’s usually over and you know it. All that was left was to fully soak up the spacey atmosphere as I abseiled back down to strip the roof and dangle around on the rope waxing about the route just climbed as the sun finally sunk into the sea.




After a 1am dinner of curry, rice pudding and cups of tea at the tents, the rain started. 36 hours or storm later, the back of the great arch had become a waterfall which would have taken days to dry out, and we got on an early boat home. On the ferry back from Barra, we were suitably inspired to seek out some more obvious great lines to point ourselves at in the Hebrides in the not too distant future. A good start to the summer, which has come seriously late in the highlands this year.













Well happy abseiling back down to strip the runners from the roof.












A happy rock climber












A still happy rock climber abbing in to do Prophesy of Drowning, E2, just before getting the boat home. If you climb E2, you must do this route.












Smiles are a running theme for rock climbers on Pabbay. It’s pretty good!












Do you need any more convincing that Prophesy of Drowning is a very very good E2?












Hebridean sunsets on the ferry home. A good moment to dream up new climbing plans.

Beka Burbery - Kiwi Girl

I went to a big-deal seminar years ago. A certain big-name, brick-jawed American success coach. It was huge.

A 14 hour mega motivation marathon, the first 10 minute piss break was at the 6 hour mark.

Content covering; dedication, commitment, success strategy.

It's easy to be cynical, but to be honest, I learned a lot.

Climbers, you already know the message:

How bad do you want success? How badly do you want to do, what you want to do?

Would you limit your budget to a dollar for dinner, less for breakfast, forego a comfy hotel and live in a single, crappy unheated room, weave your bicycle through the dusty Chinese traffic?































Well, probably yes.

I met Rebekah Burbery in Yangshuo, doing just that, she was turning a week of budget into months.

I can't help but examine my own balance of commitments across work, home, climbing. Comforts.







The thing that struck me about Beka is that she practices high-level frugality and keeps the beautiful air of friendliness and full-scale positivity. Generous of spirit. Such a joy.














The route: Yangshuo Hotel 7b White Mountain - China.





















Back in her homeland of New Zealand she couch surfs and sleeps in her car to extend her climbing life between bursts of Outdoor Education work.













I decide I'm happy with my choices. I work hard. I enjoy a beautiful home. I have short trips to amazing places and meet inspiring people. I blog about it.









Vignette:

My mind is on something else.

As I stare through the crappy, blistering window-tint of the van, outside it's dark and dusty.

The road back from White Mountain to Yangshuo is in ruins. The van winds around searching for a workable course through the potholes, dodging buses. We make it into town, there's trucks, and diesel, and danger. It's very cold, and I'm sort of sleepy and aching, thinking about getting back to my hotel, dinner, bed.

Somewhere out there Beka is on her bicycle.

I generalise to myself; Kiwi girls are hardy.












Thanks Beka. jj