The Boogey Man

In mid April i got up one morning to find my rear tire flat.  Just sitting overnight in my living room it had gone down.  Slow leak.  Damn.  I was in a  hurry to get to an appointment, and ever the optimist, i hoped that it had just gotten low without me noticing.  So instead of reaching for my tire levers i reached for my floor pump.  The tire seemed to hold air so i rode off.  It lasted the whole day, but the next morning it was flat again, so i changed it. The nice thing about a slow leak is being able to change the tire at home instead of on a roadside.

I've changed a lot of tires in the past 40 years. A lot.  Hundreds.  Lots of my own and lots for other people.  That's not bragging, it just is what it is.  I can do it in my sleep.  I'm careful and pretty quick.  That morning i quickly got the tube out but, i could not find a hole in it.  I thought another valve might have failed (i got a bad batch of tubes from a dodgy bike shop a few months ago, all the valves failed after only a couple weeks).  I finally resorted to the bucket of water method and even then it took some work to find the extremely tiny hole barely pushing out a bubble every few seconds.  I patched the tube.  I used a big patch instead of my tiny patches because, well in the back of my mind i was a bit worried about The Boogey Man.

I searched the tire and i could not find what caused the puncture and that's always concerning.  The most important part of changing a tire, of course, is finding the cause and pulling the tack or prying out the glass to make sure it doesn't happen again immediately.  I guess at that point i really should have started to think about The Boogey Man but i didn't.  I fixed the tire, pumped it up and pedaled off and didn't think about it again. However, i did buy a new tube later that day.

A few days later i went on a 50 mile ride far from home, no problems.  But after a week of riding every day i got up one morning to find it flat again.  I was planning a bike repair party in a few day so again, i just pumped up the tire each morning at home and was able to ride on it all day each day until it was convenient to repair it.

At the end of the week, at home, i pulled off the tire and, with effort, found the tiny leak right at the edge of last week's patch.  I spent a lot of time looking for what could have caused it, running my finger around the inside of the tire, examining it closely, even using the trick of rubbing cotton on it (hoping for a snag). I couldn't find anything. 

I started to talk myself into the idea that maybe i just did a bad patching job.  It's possible after all, maybe the edge of the patch failed.  It took some effort but i convinced myself this wasn't a puncture but a patching failure.  However i guess i wasn't completely convinced because i didn't use the new tube, i patched the old tube again:  proof that in the back of my mind i was scared of The Boogey Man.

I don't have to change tires very often on my bike, and it's not just because of my partially-in-jest superstition against saying the f-word (f-l-a-t) while on the bike.  I don't like to tempt fate, but i also try to be protected.  I do a good clean job of changing my tires, but mostly i select good tires.  I often tell people that's the one part of the bike you should really spend money on.  In almost all areas, used or cheap will do fine, but not tires.

When i first moved to Western Washington my Bridgestone RB-T had it stock tires on it.  I didn't even consider replacing them when i moved -- they were fine in Wisconsin after all. But after a full winter of riding 400 miles a month on the wet roads (it rains a bit in Seattle) i changed my mind.  I changed my mind while changing a flat in downtown Shelton:  the 4th flat in the 60 mile ride from Seattle to Olympia.

Many bicycle tires (especially the cheaper ones) are made of a rubber fabric, woven strands of rubber, which spreads when it gets wet creating many tiny holes in the tire.  Not good in the rain.  A fully pressed rubber tire is far superior.  I quickly found the legendary Avocet Cross II K tires: solid tires with an inverted tread which acts like a slick when you want it to and like a knobby when you need it to. Best of all they also have a kevlar belt for puncture protection. After 12 years (with only 2 flats) i got another set which i eventually sold with the bike.   I loved those tires.  They are unfortunately hard to find.  I know people who have several sets stashed in the garage because they are so amazing.

The Avocet Cross tires on my road bike had me spoiled and i eventually found some tires with puncture protection for my city bike and for at least 10 years now i've ridden heavy, expensive, protected tires.  It's saved me a great deal of time and bother.  The last 12,000 miles or so i've been riding on Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on my combination road/city bike.  I first tried them when a friend gave me a pair (she didn't like the weight).  I've found them to be wonderful, dependable tires that are comfortable on the road or on the trail.  They work great on my highly customized on road/off road Bianchi Volpe.  I very, very rarely have to change a tire.  Every few weeks i examine the tires and pry out pieces of glass and shards of metal that didn't make it through to cause problems --these are very durable tires.

So trying not to think about The Boogey Man i remounted my tire, pumped it up and set out on my errands. As usual, once i got on the bike, i didn't think about the tire at all. And once again, i got another full week of riding without a thought and without problems until one morning i got up and saw my bike in my living room.  Another flat; DAMN!

I had several appointments to get to. I changed the tire so fast i wasn't sure if i knew exactly how the tube was oriented, so i wasn't 100% sure it was the same spot on the tire, but the puncture was in the same spot on the tube, just a few millimeters from the previous two patches.  I patched it up quickly and was on my way.  Now i really was consciously thinking about The Boogey Man.  All the signs were there. It had me scared.

Once again after rolling out the door, i thought no more about it and once again i got a full week of riding, including a half century away from home.  This time, after 8 or 9 days of not thinking about it i grabbed the bike to hurry out of the house and as i rode out the driveway i knew.  Damn!  It was flat again.

Once again, it was a slow leak.  After 3 more days of pumping every morning. I piled yet another patch on the little pile of patches.  For this one, and the next one the following week i used the super tiny patches less than half an inch in diameter. They went right next to one of  the larger patches, so it looked a little like the cartoon of a water molecule, or Mickey Mouse(tm)!  I took the tire out in the bright sun with a magnifying glass and my pocket knife and examined it as closely as i could.  I was certainly not using the new tube at this point because now, i couldn't deny it, i was running from The Boogey Man

After the fifth go round i called up my buddy Kent and told him my story:   slow leaks, nothing can be found in the tire, lasts a few days each time.  He confirmed my fears.  It was The Boogey Man.  Actually what he said first was: "You're fucked."

Michelin Wires are kind of the Boogey Man of cyclists.  I have to say, i'm not sure i really believed in them.  I had heard about them, but i had never encountered one in over 70,000 miles.  And even though as august an authority as Kent regaled me with horror stories, it sounded almost like a campfire ghost story to me.   Beware The Boogey Man! Boo!

Just to twist the knife, Michelin Wires actually come from cars.  They are part of the steel belt in steel belted radials.  The steel belt is not solid, it is a woven fabric of hair-thin steel wires.  When someone drives that tire down to the steel belt, the wires, or the whole tire can wind up on the side of the road.  When the wires are long they are not much of a problem, but as they decompose they wind up as little teeny tiny shards.  These almost invisible bits of wire can slowly work their way into your tire.  My personal demon probably spent weeks working through that 5mm protective layer.

It's a good tire, it's got 4,000 miles on it and i'm sure it's got another 4,000 more left in the tread.  At this point i'm scared to use it.  But i don't have another one and i don't have any money so i don't really have any choice.  I went to the storage locker and pulled out my previous set of Schwalbe Marathons with 8,500 miles on them.  But they are worn almost through in places.  I didn't trust them.

The offending tire was already marked up with sharpie and chalk markings as i tried to limit the area of the search. Sigh.  So i patched that same tube again.  I tried booting the problem area of the tire with duct tape in hopes that would help (Kent said it wouldn't.  As usual, he was right.) I was also hoping that maybe the big pile of patches already there (six, for those who are counting) would start to form a layer of protection against my own personal Boogey Man.

I put the wheel back on this time with a Sisyphean certainty of yet another puncture.  Every previous time i had some secret, overly optimistic hope that i would be ok.  This time i knew better.  It went against my instincts to put a any tube in that tire, new or otherwise. I had this morbid understanding of the futility;  but i was hoping that next time i could take the tube out carefully enough to pinpoint (pun intended) the precise location of the offending Michelin Wire and extract it with tweezers.

To add to my stress, i had a long planned metric century (64 miles) far from town planed for next week that i was really looking forward to.  I didn't want to miss it!

It punctured again only 5 days later.  I noticed it, at home again, mid-afternoon when i had appointments that evening.  I can't begin to express my frustration.  This time i wrestled with the tire for a couple of hours.  I could not find the damn wire.  This is a great tire and i love the protective layer, but it's possible that protection is working against me here.  I think the little booger is retreating back into that layer when the tire is not inflated making it impossible to see it, to feel it, or to grab it. With a complete hopelessness i put a seventh patch on the pile.

Then i did something strange. There are these "tuffy" style tire liners on the market.  In my experience they cause more flats than they protect against (because the tube gets cut or pinched by the liner) and they weigh a lot, but i was desperate.  I gave in against my best instincts.  I put one in and i duct taped the place where the two ends met to try to mitigate the pinch problems.  I rode to my appointment and back home without problems. Unlike before i did not forget about my tire, i was constantly aware of it. Then the next day my errands went off fine.  By now i was checking the tire every 15 minutes.

Tuesday, the day of the metric century in the forest,  i set out early in the morning for light rail.  I got the short distance to the train and met my friends for our ride. It was raining, which i really enjoy, but is hard on tires. Once we were through Renton and out in the forest we had a wonderful ride.  I checked my tire regularly and thought about it constantly.  It poured rain and we rode through some very remote areas.  I noticed a little slippage side to side on the big downhills, but i attributed it to the rain. 

Forty-three miles in, right where the lovely country road meets a highway, as we rode back towards civilization, i started to bonk.  We stopped under a bridge out of the rain and i very quickly downed a protein shake.  We were up and rolling again in two minutes, and as we were merging off of the country road and on to the busy highway i asked Dennis, behind me what my tire looked like.

"Flat", he said, passing me.

I hopped off the bike on the very narrow shoulder of the busy highway in the heavy rain and pumped up the tire as fast as i could.  My arms were really tired. 

Then Karen and i split off from the group and rode as fast as we could into town.  I was extremely frustrated about the tire and i was bonking.  I am very grateful to Karen for pacing me the five miles into Auburn.  Once in town, as the sun came out, i stopped to pump the tire up again while everyone waited.

Everyone just thought it was a normal puncture, that a quick tire change was all i needed.  They didn't know about The Boogey Man!  I knew this tire couldn't be changed, i had to pump and ride, that was my only hope. From that point in downtown Auburn it was about 8 miles to the town of Kent and another 6 or so to our end point at Tukwila and i thought there was a chance i might make it just pumping several times.  I wasn't thinking clearly. Damn the Boogey Man!!!!!

When i got the tire pumped up a bit i took the pump off and the presta valve came apart in my hand, blasting all the air out. As if that wasn't enough of a sign, i was sitting one block from the train station.  I really, really, really wanted to finish the ride, but i knew this tire was a goner.

Finally i read the signs and accepted my fate.  I told the group to leave without me.  I walked 1 block and waited for the train.  It was an 80 minute wait. While waiting i called Bike Works and ordered a new tire.  You can't fight The Boogey Man.

I was frustrated while waiting but i was pretty happy once i was on the train. Trains always make me happy.

The next day i took the old tire off.  The flat in Auburn was not caused by the Michelin Wire. The "tuffy" tire liner seems to have held that thing back, at least for a couple of days.  However the tire liner itself cut the tube, that's what caused this flat.  And the tire liner badly abraded the tube in three other places, (including near the pile o patches) all looked ready to fail in the next 20 miles.

A couple of days later i got a call that my tire had come in at the shop, but it turned out that the distributer couldn't get the tire i ordered so sent something different.  I called several other local shops and no one can, at the moment, get that tire. They all have the 32, the narrower one, but not the 35 to match my front tire. I finally ordered one from the always dependable Peter White Cycles (he only had 3 left!).  I put on one of the old badly worn tires in it's place and will ride that with my fingers crossed until my new tire comes. Although knocked down by The Boogey Man i will ride on.  But now i believe.

First Ride.

About ten years ago i was sitting around socializing with my coworkers after work.  We worked at a Bicycle Advocacy agency and so bikes were a big part of our lives.   The conversation turned to when we learned to ride a bike.  People started talking about learning when they were 5 or 4 years old.  Linda's partner Mike said he was THREE!

In 35 years of riding so much it became part of my identity it never occurred to me that 7 was a bit old to learn to ride.  (But on the other hand, maybe it was just that no one could convince me to let go of that awesome red tricycle!)

When we moved across the country Dad bought me a new (used) bike with training wheels.  A few weeks later our new neighbor Logan (he was the "big kid" in the neighborhood) spent a Sunday afternoon teaching me how to ride a bike.  I was thrilled (still am).  That evening Dad composed a wonderful photo to commemorate the auspicious occasion. Dad is a very good photographer and he got an amazing action shot of me riding past.

30 August 1970 with Logan Russell who just taught me how to ride a bike!

What an awesome bicycle!!!  It was a Columbia.  I'd love to have a bike like that today, and it would be very fashionable! Look at those shiny fenders!

Obviously i'm having a great time.  I rode it every day for the next four years.  And i'm still going 12 bikes later!

Is it surprising that pitchers are doing so well?

A friend who doesn't follow baseball but has seen the excited reports of pitching gems in the news recently asked me if it is suspicious that very rare pitching accomplishments seem to be happening more often than in the past.

Of course rare doesn't mean they can't happen close together, in fact, they are more likely to.  I can't give any certain answers, but i have some ideas about the background.

Baseball, like cricket before it (and probably like other sports that i don't know about) is a balancing act.  What makes baseball interesting, and, well, even possible is the balance between how hard it is to pitch (and get someone out) and how hard it is to hit (and score). 

And that balance changes over time.  Sometimes it is changed on purpose.  On a number of occasions through the 1800s, 1920s, even as recently as the 1970s, the powers that control baseball have changed the composition of the balls, changed the height of the mound, the distance to the plate, and even (long ago) the number of balls and strikes. All of that was done to intentionally adjust the balance between offense and defense.

And of course, quietly, behind the scenes, the players are always trying to get away with things to adjust that balance.  Just like Lance.  Spitballs, corked bats, amphetamines.   All kinds of things.

It's important to point out that the natural, random cycles of things also have a huge part in these swings between 10 or 15 years of batters dominance and 10 or 15 year so of pitchers' superiority.  The balance goes back and forth.  The 1910s were a famous pitchers' era; when the most successful pitcher of the era was converted to a batter (Babe Ruth) it turned into a batters' era with unprecedented offense.  The swings went back and forth.

In the 1920s a Commissioner's Office was established independent of the players, owners, or  anyone else.  It was required by an act of congress to allow baseball to keep their anti-trust exemption.  If baseball would govern itself, Congress would not allow any rival league to compete with them. The Commissioner was responsible for the integrity of the game, was responsible for finding a balance between the fans, the owners, the players and the media.  Any change had to come through that thoughtful process.  It wasn't always perfect, but it worked well. 

Fast forward to my life, the 1960s were a pitchers era.  Pitchers did very well, records set with 30 win seasons and very low ERAs.  Batters did poorly, batting averages were low, not many offensive records set.  So in the very early 70s the Commissioner lowered the mound a fraction of an inch.  That took away a little bit of the pitchers' advantage.  And they invented the designated hitter, adding a slugger to every AL team.  The result was the booming 70s, a hitters time. 

Nothing OFFICIAL has been done to adjust the balance since the early 1970s. But we can look at what did actually happen.

After 15 years of slugging, it was the pitchers' turn again.  The 1980s were all about pitching and some of the best pitchers of all time had careers running simultaneously.  There are probably many reasons, including randomness, but i can think of three important ones:

• Relief pitching was invented. No longer could batters feast on tired pitchers in the late innings, now they had to face a 95mph fastball in the 9th. That made a HUGE difference.
• The horrible ballparks built in the 1970s.  They had artificial turf, they were HUGE (fences far away), they were fully round (no wind) giant bowls, often indoors.  The surface was concrete and runners tore up their legs.  And they were all the same shape.  Pitchers loved those stadiums. 
• Probably the drugs that were being used in the 80s were more pitching friendly. 

That was followed by an astonishing swing of the balance in favor of the hitters from about 1994 to about 2008. This is more important for answering my friend's question.

Perhaps the most important thing that happened was that in the 1980s baseball was surpassed by first football, and then basketball as America's favorite sport.  Baseball had held that title for 100 years and the rich owners were pretty pissed at being 2nd.   There was a theory amongst the owners that home runs were the only way to attract people.  

What the owners did then was terrible and it was THE REASON i stopped following baseball.  They fired the (un-fireable) commissioner and started running the game themselves, with only their own short term profits in mind.  That was against the law and a lot of people yelled, but Congress did not act.  (grrrr).  Still haven't.  (GRRRR!)

How did that effect the balance?  There are a few big reasons i can think of.  

1. The Commissioner was gone!  The only office looking into performance enhancing drugs went away right at the same time as some amazing high tech drugs (see Cycling, Soccer, Running etcetera) were being developed. 
2. They juiced up the baseball so it would fly farther.  Now i have to tell you that they have never admitted to doing that.  They didn't announce it and they deny it to this day.  But this is not a conspiracy of one, where Mark has this unusual idea either wacky or insightful.  No it's pretty much accepted as a fact by 99% of the baseball establishment.  Watch any baseball game on TV or radio and you will hear them mention it as fact.
3. Collusion, Free Agency and the reserve clause.  In 1974 the federal courts handed down the original decision overturning the reserve clause (which allowed owners to control players, to own them, and terribly underpay them).  But the owners responded with an unwritten agreement to not negotiate with any player from another team, and that collusion had the same effect as the reserve clause.  It was also illegal and they were found guilty by the courts of colluding:  THREE TIMES.  After the first two convictions they just kept doing it.  Finally in the late 1980s after the "Collusion 3" trial, free agency actually went into effect.  Players could sell their services to the highest bidder just like anyone else in the USA.
4. The owners added FOUR more teams to MLB teams in the early 1990s.  That's 100 more players added at the top level and almost 500 more players added to the professional ranks.  Overnight.  One hundred players who weren't good enough last week, were suddenly in the majors.  For some reason that weakened pitching way more than batting.  Even the fairly dense sportscasters doing the games noticed the effects of expansion on pitching, it was that obvious.
5. The owners, of course, control the checkbooks, and with no authority governing them they started paying players more if they hit home runs.  In some cases it was the ONLY criteria they looked at.  Pitchers salaries stayed (comparatively) flat, but batters, especially the one-dimensional sluggers, got paid more and more.  So players who could have chosen to hit singles were motivated to hit doubles and home runs.  The players who hit the ball farther but less often got contracts over players who hit for average.  Up and coming players were encouraged to focus on power.  And worse, there were even BONUSES for power.
6. As always, those power hitters really sucked on defense.  They couldn't find enough places to hide all those three thumbed guys out in the field so there were a lot more errors made and range went way down -- effectively the field got even bigger.  More hits.
7. Cable TV gave the owners more options for selling their product (TV rights) and the prices paid by networks skyrocketed.  (Remember, the owners themselves are now in charge, not a fair and balanced commissioner.)  Then satellite and internet came along giving them even more sales opportunities.  But a great many of those sales opportunities were only 2 minutes long.  It's hard to show a great pitcher throwing a 2-hitter in 90 seconds, but you can show a home run.  That became the product:  the home run.  And the hundreds of clueless new sportscasters who all told us that the players who hit long home runs were the great players -- because they didn't know anything about baseball.
8. Owning a baseball team has been the most profitable thing you could do in the USA for almost 100 years, but the astonishing amount of money that owners make not only went up in 1990s, but more importantly, word got out.  Suddenly the person making the final decisions wasn't a rich baseball guy, it was someone who had never seen a game before.  And they made some really bad decisions.

And there were other things, not directly caused by the owners overthrowing the commissioner that added to the swing to offense:

• As we got into the 1990s a whole class of pitchers (from the 70s & 80s) who were amongst the greatest in history all retired at the same time.  There were others that came up, but that was an extraordinary group that disappeared and they were replaced by rookies.  The average quality of the pitching dropped when they left the game.
• Starting in 1990, the nasty staidia started being replaced by real grass, outdoor, "old fashioned" staidia. At least a dozen of these were built. They were odd shaped, and not fully round, always outdoors, and often smaller.  Better for hitting. 
• There was an unprecedented focus on individual play during the 90s and 00s.  Almost all idea of teamwork fell apart (maybe it was just Reaganism reaching the Majors, i never thought of that!).   Lots of players played their whole carriers sacrificing wins for home runs.  The simple fact that anyone actually thinks Ken Griffy Jr is Hall Of Fame material shows the focus on selfish play rather than team play.
• More high school kids could make it to the majors (100 more slots) and they knew they had a better chance as a slugger than as a pitcher or fielder or singles hitter.  So they taught themselves the slugging style rather than the hitting, running style of play.  And they bulked up.
• There was massive innovation in almost all areas of the game in the 1980s & 90s but coaching did not change at all.  Coaches were still focused almost entirely on colloquial knowledge from the 1940s passed on by older coaches. (They even made a movie about it.)  
• Fantasy League baseball really took off.  This is a hobby where you select a group of players from different teams and follow their progress, adding together INDIVIDUAL statistics to calculate how well your "team" is doing.  This  just increased the focus on the individual over the team.

So, we saw better drugs, juiced up ball, friendlier stadiums, closer fences, bad fielders, money for sluggers, player individualism, bad coaching, bad owners and a draft focused on power.  Is it any wonder that the offense just went wild for 10 or 15 years?  Pitching stats plummeted to record lows while almost every imaginable offensive record was broken by some hyper engineered superman.

Finally things started to change.  Slowly of course.  I see the Red Sox 2004 Championship the beginning of the end of that era. 

• The Sox were the first team to hire a statistician and the first team to hire a general manager who ran the team by the numbers rather than by instinct or mythology. When they won the World Series the rest of the teams woke up.
• In the 2010s we are now watching dozens of major court cases. Legal trials of players who became superhuman using those high tech drugs.  It's almost all batters who are suffering, some pitchers, but mostly hitters.  They were performing at astonishing levels, far above anything ever before, far above anything anyone thought humanly possible. It got so out of hand, so completely unmanaged after 10 or 12 years that the JUSTICE SYSTEM stepped in.  Baseball wasn't watching itself (which it is supposed to do) so the Courts took over.  It's been ugly.  The courts singled many of them out, forced a bunch more into quick retirement, and scared everyone else.  Doping seems to have really dropped a ton. Power is off by something like 45%.
• Since 1994 the owners have added more and more and more games every year, expanding the playoffs to an utterly ridiculous extent..  At first this didn't appear to have much effect, but injuries have gone way up.  The players play more games, there is more wear and tear and the protective drug use is down.  Finally players are easing back a little, trying to not get hurt.
• Pitchers however are doing better. Not only have they finally gotten used to pitching in the new ballparks, but kids have gotten smarter about not pitching too young and there are fewer injuries and burnouts in college and the minors.
• A bunch of players came in from Japan, which had never been effected by the hyper-individualism, and slugging focus, of the 1990s USA.  They brought a more thoughtful, team, winning based attitude instead of the screw the team swing for the fences even if you strike out a bunch idea.
• Scouting has gotten much more extensive, and scientific.
• The greedy owners introduced inter-league play.  The American League is significantly better than the National League.  Always has been.  The NL has sometimes had better pitching, but they've never caught up to the AL in offense.  And on top of just being a better league, the AL has an extra hitter on every team.  Since inter-league play started the AL has just torn the NL apart every time.  It's not close.  Several of those recent pitching gems (including the Mariners' no-hitter my friend asked about) were against National League teams.  Easy pickins.
• I also think that there has been an increase in coverage of things like perfect games and then the addition of the internet, even more access to the information.
• Much of the coverage of baseball in the last 5 to 10 years, just like much of the coverage of everything else, has become simplistic but wildly exaggerated.  Sensationalized.  A 'string' of perfect games is brought to our attention by a sensationalized newscast, but with no analysis, explanation or understanding.  A 'near' perfect game is sensationalized without any mention of how common they are.  It leaves us shocked when it's really quite normal.

So the doping went away, the focus moved off of slugging, pitchers got used to the natural stadiums, coaching got smarter, teamwork came back and a lot of the unbalanced factors from the 90s went away.  We are definitely 3 or 4 years into a pitchers' era.  Actually in my opinion it's not a pitchers' era but a more balanced era, but it's being called a pitchers' era.

Of course, just like absolutely everything else in life, things just cycle.  And these bigger cycles of balance are effected by smaller cycles.  For a few years the high schools will turn out better pitchers, just by chance, then a few years with none.  For a few years maybe weather changes, maybe coaching strategies or maybe just randomness.  Although players HATE it, a lot of sport is  randomness.

Statistics That Shape Our Life

When i worked in radio, there was one overnight job i had where my only responsibility was to sit in a studio for 7 hours.  That's it.  Just be there.  The station was automated, i had to sit there and listen in case something went wrong.  I got a lot of reading done.

At 5:00 in the morning the newspapers were delivered to the station, i'd grab them and browse..  There were 3 of them, the local paper, the New York Times and USA Today.  I would often read USA Today cover to cover.  It took about 5 minutes:  not much substance. 

At that time in USA Today there was a ridiculous feature called Statistics That Shape Our Life.  This is annoying for so many reasons, not least of which, is that we shape statistics, not the other way around. I usually glanced briefly at it and then moved on.

But one morning in about December 1986 there was a Statistics That Shape Our Life that left me slackjawed.  It was so funny i just had to cut it out. I stapled it to the acoustic tiles on the wall of the studio so everyone could see it.  This was a big mistake.  It meant that i had to stare at that stupidity 7 hours a day 3 nights a week.  I wish i could find it; i've searched and searched on the internet to no avail.  So i'll have to re-create it. This farcical Shaping Statistic was a pie chart titled:

What School Kids Think of Jello With "Stuff" In it.  

It  looked like this

The labels said, Tastes OK  29%, Tastes GREAT 23%, Fun to throw 48%.

Excuse me?  That's just weird. 


It took about two weeks of staring at it before i figured out how it was written.  (I'm slow.)  I had found it funny, but for the wrong reason.

Any worthwhile graph or statistic will tell you the sample size.  This one didn't.  That was the give away! I think i can deconstruct it.  The key was that the author was working from home, in an era when that was so rare no one would think of it. Here's what i think happened:  the guy who's job it was to create this little corner of the page was just about at deadline.  He was sitting in the dining room wracking his brain on what silly, pretend, life shaping graphic he should put in the "nations newspaper" the next day.

Meanwhile his kids and their two friends were in the kitchen raising hell like kids do.  He gets tired of yelling through the door at them to quiet down so he storms into the kitchen and tells them to eat their desert and be quiet. Then he has an idea.

He asks the first kid, probably the older of his two, what he thinks of the Jello.  The kid is trying to be cool in front of his friends so he shrugs and says, "Tastes OK".  (That's 1 out of 4, one quarter, tweak it a little for effect, 29%).

The next kid wants to out do his big brother so he shouts, TASTES GREAT!   (That's 1 out of 4, one quarter, tweak it a little for effect, 23%)

Then the next kid, the weird friend who's trying to get attention, makes up something she thinks will make her friends laugh: FUN TO THROW! And the fourth kid can't top that so, laughing, he says the same thing.  Bingo.  49%.

This ridiculous "statistic", run in a supposedly reputable newspaper, had a sample size of....  four, and they weren't independent, their answers were based on previous responses.   It is impossible to fail more completely at statistics, and journalism, than this USA Today graph did.

The Best Tire Change

Just weeks after first moving to Seattle in 1992, i found an excellent 30 mile loop through forested parks and winding curves -- The Mercer Island Loop. It's a wonderful ride and i did it several times a month for the first six or eight years i lived in Seattle. I love the curves coming north on the east side of the island; it's gently downhill, the road runs through heavy forest, curving around deep ravines with fairly little traffic.  It feels like i'm cruising through an alternate world. It's a joy and i always just fly.  Every time i come out of the trees at the north end of the island it's jarring.

Here's the route -- if  you don't live in Seattle, just skip down.

I would leave home in Eastlake, cross over I-5, wind through gorgeous Interlaken Park, briefly join the very fast traffic through the Washington Park arboretum, ride down the Olmsted curves, cruise south along Lake Washington past a certain Seattle Rock Star's house and pedal uphill through Frink Park and over the floating bridge.  Then i would ride 13 miles counterclockwise around the edge of Mercer Island.

One drizzly day in November 1994 i was riding this loop, enjoying the sweeping curves, the forest, the lake and the rain.  After the loop around the island, when i was returning on the floating bridge the rain started pelting down harder.  For some reason, which i cannot remember, when i got to the Seattle side of the bridge that day, i decided not to return through Frink Park as usual, but instead went through the bike tunnel above I-90, and rode up 25th Avenue through the Central District neighborhoods to Jefferson Street. This is a very familiar route for me now, i ride it several times a week, it's a perfectly comfortable neighborhood, (it has an undeserved reputation as being somewhat dodgey).  But this was the first time i had ever ridden in this area and i was finding my way, trying to figure out my next turn. That's when i got a flat.

Everyone who knows me knows that i enjoy riding in the rain, but changing a tire in the rain is another story; so i walked across the street to the bus shelter. There was an 85 year old black woman sitting on the bench in the shelter.  She said she'd never ridden a bike, and looking at her walker, said she didn't think she was ever going to.  I asked if she minded if i joined her and when she agreed, i sat down and quickly popped off my wheel.  As i started shoving the tire lever at the tire she said, "Why are you doing THAT?"

I explained tire beads and pinch flats.  She seemed very interested.  When i pulled out the tube she asked about that, and i explained.  When i felt around in the tire for the offending piece of glass, she asked why and i explained preventing a second flat.   I patched and pumped, tucked and palmed.  At each step she asked questions and i spent the 10 minutes till her bus came teaching her how to change a flat.  We both had fun.  It turned what could have been a miserable experience into a memorable one.

Sounders Buy Home Field Advantage and Win Big

I've always been a soccer fan, going all the way back to the days of the Globe Kicker magazine (which i subscribed to) and Soccer Made In Germany (on PBS) in the 1970s.  I'm very excited about our own, very successful local franchise The Seattle Sounders, (officially known by the rather silly Seattle Sounders FC name).  I've been lucky enough to have friends take me out to 3 or 4 games in the last few years.

The Seattle Sounders have a long history as a lower division team, this is now their fourth year as a first division team.  They have been 4 very successful years.  They've done well in the Major Soccer League standings, but most notably they've won the US Open Cup, the oldest soccer competition in North America, three consecutive times.

Unlike what we are familiar with in sports like Baseball & American Football, Soccer teams worldwide participate in several tournaments simultaneously, during the course of one 'season'.  An Association Football (slurred and shortened to 'soccer') team in England (or anywhere else) might play 4 games in 2 weeks all in different tournaments with different regulations.  For example, earlier this year, the English team i follow, Tottenham Hotspur, played a Premier League match, followed by a European Champions' League match, followed by another Premier League match and then an FA Cup tournament match all in a 10 day period.


The Sounders are half way through the MLS season, and well placed in the standings, while they have unfortunately already been knocked out of the North American Champions League.  But their campaign for a fourth US Cup started yesterday.  Because they are a first division professional team, they got to skip the first two rounds and joined the tournament in the 3rd round.  They played The Atlanta Silverbacks, a lower division team that is a strong candidate for the MLS when the first division league next expands.   The Sounders, playing in the smaller of their two home stadia, dominated possession and won convincingly 5 to 1; the lower division NASL team that won so commandingly in the first and second rounds was overmatched.

I've been following the the brackets for the US Open Cup for the last few weeks and i noticed something interesting.   This match was originally listed as an away game for Sounders FC, but changed at the last minute to a home game.  The Sounders played a league game in southern California this weekend and came home afterwards.

I wonder if this game would have been such a blowout if The Sounders had not spent some money.  They bought the home field advantage from Atlanta, utilizing a loophole in the new rule that is supposed to make the tournament more fair this year.   I wonder if this was why the Sounders game was a day later than all the other 3rd round games.

In the past, during the US Cup, clubs submitted a sealed bid to the United States Soccer Federation, saying how much they would pay for the right to host the match.  Since it was secret, the other club didn't know how much they bid and that helped the USSF because it made the winning bids higher.  If you really wanted home field, and you had money to burn, you just promised a big payout.  Sounders FC has had a reputation for bidding very high and that's why they've had so many home games in previous Cup tournaments. Other clubs complained about that, and there were accusations that Sounders FC was "buying the tournament" so this year the process was changed to a simple coin flip to make it "more fair".  

The Portland Timbers figured out a loophole early on.  They realized there was no rule against paying off the other team.  MLS clubs obviously have a huge monetary advantage over lower division clubs.   Before the tournament even started, the Timbers straight out bought their home field advantage for the their entry in the third round (which they didn't need because the team they paid off lost in the first round).  

After the second round last week The Sounders bought home field advantage from Atlanta.  Real Salt Lake then bought home field advantage from lower division Minnesota (also a strong candidate to join the MLS.).  The ploy didn't work for RSL, Minnesota, beat them, in Utah! 

It helped The Sounders both financially and in wear and tear on the players to avoid making 2 cross country flights in a week (from LA to Atlanta and then back to Seattle) and the home field advantage is certainly helpful in winning.  They also pocketed a bit of money from tickets, although they still had to pay USSF for the right to host.  ($12K i believe.)  I don't know what the percentage is, but the home team does share gate receipts with the visitors. The game was played at Starfire, the Sounders second home field.  Their first home field seats 60,000.  This stadium seats 3,700.  Atlanta's stadium seats 5,000 and they were expecting a sell-out.

Playing at home, Atlanta would've made more money on tickets and spent less on airfare.  Traveling to Seattle they saved money on hosting fees and they got money from The Sounders.  The amount was not released, however Atlanta announced what they are going to do with the money:  sign new players, give away all the tickets to an upcoming home game, AND host an MLS exhibition game.    Wow, Sounders FC must have paid A LOT to move the game.   They are one of the richest clubs in the US and they want their 4th straight US Open Cup pretty badly. 


Since the payoff money went to the Atlanta TEAM instead of the USSF, i suspect this loophole will be filled next year as the federation would rather be getting that money themselves, like they did in the secret bid process.

In a rather nasty response to accusations that richer clubs buying home field advantage "spoils the purity of the tournament"  Sounders general manager and part owner Adrian Hanauer, said:  “… It’s to their benefit as well because they got something out of  the deal in terms of cash … That’s sort of a win-win situation.”

While the Atlanta GM's quote also sounds quite ominous: “Sounders FC presented us with an offer that we simply couldn't refuse,"

Atlanta fans were furious of course.  A meaningful game against an MLS opponent had the loyal fans very excited.  Somehow the promised exhibition doesn't quite do it for them.  It was a chance to show off and grow the brand and demonstrate their ability to advance into the MLS.  Granted, the money may help with that too, behind the scenes. Many fans said they felt betrayed.

I'm fascinated, as always , to see how things work behind the scenes. But as a Sounders fan, i have to admit it spoils some of my excitement for a fourth cup. Sports are a business, i recognize that.  This is the way the game is played, and it's not really much different than previous years.  But it still feels a bit dirty.

Several blog posts and newspaper stories that i read were highly critical of this move by RSL & Sounders FC.  The comments boards on soccer websites show the fan frustration in Atlanta and Minnesota over the sale, and many Sounders fans weighed in with embarrassment too.  Of course the conservatives were outspoken in these discussions with their 'money solves everything' and 'if i have the money i can do what i want' arguments.


Eight of the remaining 16 teams are lower division teams.  The brackets get tweeked a little for regional purposes so not all future matchups can be predicted.  Sounders next match is at home against a very low division (5th level i think) team from California.  After that Sounders will likely play only MLS teams in the 4 more games to try to win the cup.

bibliography:
US Open Cup
Soccer Newsday
Bellingham Herald
Soccer Union Dues
Sounder At Heart

Dry Socks

I love the feeling of rain streaming down my face. We are in a pace line, flying down the Green River Valley surprisingly fast. The light rain we have been enjoying all day has turned into a torrential downpour. And we're loving it. We're talking about how much fun it is. My fenders are keeping the spray down and Nadine says that water is pouring down the inside AND the outside of my buddy flap! Dressed well, we're wet but warm. I'm wearing a poly turtleneck, wool shirt and wool socks and bike tights (kicking myself for not wearing the wool kinckers!). I'm soaked.

Earlier in the day we pedaled up the Cedar River Trail, which after it leaves the highway and the pavement ends, takes us through rain forest that is just so beautiful it is hard to believe.  It fills me with joy.  I love that trail and look forward to it, and i'm always surprised at how magnificent it is.  Today, in the rain, the ferns and mosses, the cedars and alders were glowing.  It feels so RIGHT to be in the rain forest in the rain.  It just made me stronger, my legs had all the power i wanted pushing the bike up the gravel trail.  It just doesn't get any better that that.

A few minutes later i found myself in a log shelter in a park eating a sandwich looking out through the rain at the moss covered roofs and trees.  I couldn't be more happy.

My peanut butter looked exactly like the banana slugs we were dodging on the wet trail!

Right now, i'm sitting at home, warm and clean with wool socks on.  Dry socks.

I love riding in the rain, i'm very happy getting wet.  It feels good. And i love getting dry afterwards!  I appreciate the dry in a way i wouldn't otherwise appreciate it. Warm dry wool socks feel so good right now!.

Eclipse Party

As a kid i was fascinated by astronomy.  Of course this was when the Gemini and Apollo missions were going on and that helped, but i really loved the movement of the planets in particular and i couldn't learn enough about it.  I subscribed to the newsletters and magazines… not the ones for kids, but for adults, for astronomers.  And i desperately wanted a telescope.  In 1977 my dad gave me 4½ inch reflector which i still have and still use.

Eclipses are one of the most fascinating things about planetary astronomy.  The moon is one of my favorite things and i think it's amazing when the moon moves between me and the sun.  Orbital dynamics are so cool.

There was a 94% eclipse in my front yard in Washington DC when i was 6 years old.  We ran inside to watch totality (in North Carolina) on TV in the basement and then ran outside again.  From that time onward i really wanted to see a total eclipse.  I had my hopes set on 1979 in Montana or 1991 in Mexico.

I saw both of those eclipses, but only as partial eclipses from home.  In 1979 i went to a friend's farm and i used my telescope to project the 55% eclipse.  In 1991, i couldn't make it to Mexico, but there were people projecting the 21% eclipse at the electronics company that i worked at in Wisconsin. Finally in 1999 i traveled to Germany to see a Total Solar Eclipse.  I was extremely lucky to find a friend who took me to an amazing hillside in the path of 100% and then got very lucky when the clouds parted at exactly the right time.

I had been looking forward to yesterday's eclipse for a long time;  we haven't had a partial solar eclipse in Seattle for 10 years -- usually it's only 2 or 3 years between them.

For 6 months i have been planning an eclipse party at the park.  As Sunday May 20th approached, i was quite excited.  I was not particularly disturbed by the rainy forecast.  I was, as always, optimistic.  I would be happy with just a peek through the clouds.  In fact, sometimes you can see the disk of the sun through thin clouds and it acts like a filter.  I was kind of hoping for that.

I packed up my "big" telescope in my bike trailer.  I also brought 5 or 6 smaller hand held telescopes, binoculars, sun filters for the telescope, aluminized mylar for direct viewing, eclipse glasses from Germany 1999, a camera, cards and paper to make pin hole cameras, tripods for mounting pin hole cameras, a globe and some balls (for demonstrations) and cookies.

I rode up to Volunteer Park in the rain.  The trailer tracked nicely and smoothly, and felt fine, but i did try to ride gently and did my best to avoid bumpy pavement.   I arrived at the park right at 5pm.  I set out the bright red plastic telescope on the platform and stood by my bike looking at the clouds.  I was ready.

We were due to have a partial solar eclipse starting at 17:01.  The moon was going to move between the earth and the sun.  Slowly over about 2 and half hours the moon would start to cover the sun, starting with just a little bite and then slide off the other side. At it's greatest point, at about 6:15 pm, the moon was going to cover 82% of the sun.

The eclipse was annular in parts of Japan, the Pacific and Nevada, but not here;  it was a partial eclipse here.  In Portland my brother was going to see a partial eclipse with 87% coverage, and down in Nevada it would be an annular eclipse with the moon covering 95% of the sun, leaving only a ring (an annulus in Latin) of sun around the edges of the moon.  They will see the mountains on the moon!  That's pretty amazing.

Of course in the months approaching the eclipse there was not a peep about it in the newspapers, on the radio, TV & websites and then in the two days beforehand the media went batshit crazy reading off any idiotic thing they could find, occasionally even finding something that was true.  I couldn't believe how much mistaken and just made up things they broadcast as eclipse news.

And by the way NPR and Cliff Mass, and others, it's an annular eclipse, not an annual eclipse!  Duh.

You also heard again and again the silly scare tactics about eclipses making you go blind.  Staring at the sun is bad for your eyes, but staring at the sun also really HURTS and so if you try, you just look away and amazingly, that prevents damage.  The other, perhaps more important thing is that staring at the sun during an eclipse won't help you see the eclipse!  The sun is too bright.  So it won't help and it hurts so no one is going to do it, but they keep repeating the thoughtless frightening alerts because the of old superstition of eclipses being portents of evil.   They are not evil and you won't go blind.

To watch an eclipse you either have a filter to protect your eyes, aluminized mylar works very well i have a thick piece for my telescope and a thin one for direct viewing, or you project it on a white card using a pin hole, binoculars or as i planned on doing, a telescope.  It's the same for viewing sunspots on a normal sunny day, which i do frequently.

I had invited a lot of people to come join me, i was hoping for a party, but with the prospect of rain i wasn't expecting many.  A few people did come and one friend waited out the whole thing with me which i really appreciated..  I also figured that my telescope might attract some passersby because even at 82% of the sun covered on a sunny day, people wouldn't be likely to notice unless they were looking.  The sun is so bright that even that much blocked wouldn't be readily apparent.

Seattle sun view at 18:17 (May 20, 2012 partial eclipse)

I stood in the rain watched the clouds but they didn't clear or even thin.  I didn't see anything.  I was a little disappointed.  A little peek would've been nice.  But i enjoyed the time in the park.  And it wasn't a complete loss:  i was very pleased that i managed to carry my fragile, expensive, not small telescope by bicycle!  I packed a thick fleece blanket around it in a plastic tub on my one-wheeled trailer.

The next eclipse is in 4 years. (Not 60 like i heard on the TV news.)  In fact, there are two partial eclipses visible in Seattle in the next 5 years, both pretty big. 

Oct 23 2014  start 12:35  end 15:19  max at 14:00 - 55%  
Aug 21 2017 start 08:08  end 10:38  max at 09:20 - 92%

In that on in 2017 the narrow path of totality will pass nearby, it will go through Salem Oregon.  That's biking distance from here!

Here in Seattle, before  yesterday, we were 120 months without a partial solar eclipse, the longest wait in 200 years.  The 1990s were good, with a big cluster of eclipses about a year apart, now we're entering a period of 3 to 4 years between them here.

Here's a graphic i made of all the eclipses visible from Seattle between 1900 and 2100. The date is along the bottom and the height is the months wait since the last eclipse. The size of the circle indicates (slightly confusingly) the amount of the sun that is eclipsed:  bigger is more.  Total eclipses would be the largest circle and filled in.  There are none. The last total solar eclipse visible from the (current) city limits of Seattle was July 18, 1860 and the next one will be May 17, 2645.

Notice yesterday's eclipse at the top of the chart. I've put the year on a few notable ones.

I've been in the path of 18 solar eclipses, and i've seen at least 6.  All were partial eclipses except for the 1999 Total Solar Eclipse that i traveled half way around the world to see.

In December 2001 there was a tiny little 8% partial solar eclipse which i saw from my apartment.  I used my telescope to project the eclipse on the ceiling.  It was really cool.  In June 2002 i took my telescope out to Seacrest Park on Elliot Bay in West Seattle for the 37% eclipse in the evening.

So since there are no photos of today's eclipse, here are a couple from the December 2001 eclipse that i projected on my ceiling.  It was a very small eclipse, only 8%.  Notice the red plastic telescope in the bottom of the photo, that is what.is projecting the image.

2001-12-14 Solar Eclipse in Seattle (c) Mark Canizaro

2001-12-14 Solar Eclipse in Seattle (c) Mark Canizaro

The Power of the River

The removal of the two Elwha River dams is moving ahead at a fast pace.   Faster than expected.

This is a project i am very excited about.   It was proposed around the time i moved to Washington 21 years ago (actually they first started talking about it only a year after the first dam was built 90+ years ago!) and i have followed it's tortured course through last year when they actually started the removal process.  It's exciting that this wonderful river in the National Park will be restored.



Gene and i decided it would be fun to go out to see it first hand -- and to do a little hiking.  I took the ferry Sunday evening and slept on Gene's couch so we got an early start.  We had a great breakfast at the Oak Table in Sequim; it lived up to my memories.

All day Gene and i were joking about the self centered way that many travelers use the word 'explore'.  You hear people say: "I flew to Europe and explored Prauge."   No you didn't!   It was there laid out for you and people had been there for 1,000 years.   You can't explore any place you can fly to.  You saw it, you learned about it, perhaps if you are lucky you experienced it but you didn't explore it!  We wanted to see the dams and the new riverbed exposed behind it...   wanted to learn something.  And we wanted to spend some time in the forest.

Our first stop was the Elwha Dam.  There is a short pleasant walk to an overlook to see progress on the dam.

Reclaimed site of lower Elwha dam May 14, 2012

A year and a half ago my cousins Ann & Pete & i walked across the top of this dam.  Now it's completely gone!  Upstream from the dam site the river is reclaiming the land that has been underwater for 90 years.  It has re-exposed the location of the creation myth of the Elwha people!

Sediment from drained Lake Adlwell 2012-05-14 (c) Mark Canizaro

There is a huge amount of sediment built up, over 30 feet deep in places, that should have washed out to sea over the years.  The river is cutting through that like it would through a delta, cleaning out the clogged river bed, draining that sediment and rebuilding beaches and harbors and ecosystems in the Salish Sea at it's mouth in the process.  It's fascinating.  The Seattle Times 'Field Notes' had a good description of it.

Aerial photo by Tom Roorda, of Northwestern Territories, Inc. the surveyors for the dam removal. From National Park Service website.

From there, we drove into the park and paid our fee, although the ranger station was closed.  I've been in the park through this entrance quite a few times.  It was surprising to see that the road, and trail to Olympic Hot Springs is closed for 2 to 4 years.  The hot springs must be very serene right now since it is a several day backpacking trip to get there.  The good news is that when they are finished with the work on the dam, they are going to rebuild the crumbling pavement of a long closed road to the hot springs into a genuine hiking trail! 

At the gate closing off that road, we went left and took the road on the other side of the valley, along the other side of the fake lake created by the second dam, the Glines Canyon dam.  We only got a few peek-a-boo views of this dam because they are still in the process of tearing it down.  The jackhammer didn't work (or rather, it broke) so they are now setting off explosives.

The Whiskey Bend road goes through the woods along the reservoir.  They water level is still dropping but that same moonscape that we saw behind the lower dam was becoming visible up here too.

I was scared on the very narrow steep gravel road.  I had some flashbacks to the crash i was in 8 years ago, when a terrible driver flipped the car we were in right off the mountain road and half way down the slope after bouncing upside down.  I held my breath a few times, but there was nothing like that this time, Gene is a very, very good driver.

We booted up at the trailhead and set out on a wonderful trail through the thick forest.  The Elwha, one of 15 major river systems on the Olympic Peninsula is the third of 7 major climatic zones.  It's the border between the heavy temperate rainforest of the west and the continental pine forests of the "dry" east side.  Still it was heavy with ferns and moss, salal and big cedars.  Which i love.  It was strange hiking in dry weather.  That's unusual for me, especially in the Olympics.

After a couple of miles we dropped down off the ridge, in a short, very steep descent to the river.  These raging mountain rivers are a favorite of mine. They are so powerful, so beautiful.   The Elwha, which comes down out of the high mountains fairly straight, encounters a major uplifted basalt ridge a couple of thousand feet high (which we were on) and turns left and flows along the edge of the ridge for a couple of miles.  At the point we descended it was finally able to punch through the ridge and form a canyon.   There is a very sharp turn in the river (rare for water don't you know) as it cuts through a narrow deep gap called Goblin Gates.

We sat there for quite some time taking it in, listening to the roaring water and watching a couple of ducks which seemed to enjoy extreme sports.  They would swim out into the strong whirlpool, getting knocked around a bit, and then dive.  Perhaps they were finding good food under the turbulence, but it sure looked to us like they were just having fun.

The Elwha here is a torrent of milky blue glacial water.  It's fantastic.  Sitting next to it is amazing.  This is a stunning place. There is a beautiful little meadow across the river from where we were which would be a fantastic place to camp.  I've hiked the other side of this valley 3 dozen times, or more, but i never knew this was here, and so easy to get to.  After 45 minutes or so we doubled back towards the woods, and down on to the rock bar alongside the river.  We took off our boots and dangled our toes in the icy water.  It felt good.

I didn't want to leave, i stood for a long time before climbing back into the forest. I found the spiritual power of the river almost overwhelming.

The trail paralleled the river for a little bit, but then turned up the steep slope again.  We were walking a loop and had to get back to the start, so what came down (us), had to go back up the steep trail.  One step at a time.  Hiking in the hot sunny weather is much more difficult than in the cool rainy weather, but i had put the in extra preparation it demands and other than the expected mild discomfort and tiring quicker it wasn't a problem.

We hiked a 5 mile loop total, which was a perfect length for me, especially in the heat, as i'm quite out of shape.  It was just enough to feel like i'd worked hard, but not enough that i couldn't walk the next day.  It was far enough in to the forest to experience some truly wonderful places, knowing that there is more further on for next time.

Here's a map of our route.  Soon this map will be out of date as Lake Mills is slowly draining.

As always click on the pictures to see a bigger image.

We enjoyed experiencing the Elwha river, the canyon and the forest.  We didn't explore it, clearly many boots had preceded ours.  The experience however, feels very much our own.



The restoration project is fascinating.  Here are some links for further information.
Elwha dams webcams!
Dam Removal overview
National Park Dam Removal blog (great photos!)
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe
Wikipedia Elwha Dam Removal

Bureau of Reclamation Elwha Dam Removal project
a photo of the Glines Canyon Dam under construction
Elwha watershed map

Riding Across The USA

Here's a photo of me riding across the USA on March, 10 1981.  That's my old World Sport.  I loved that bike.  I put 10,000 miles on it.   Notice the old fashioned click-click-click mechanical odometer attached to the front axle.

 (click to make the photo bigger)

The giant map i'm riding across is in Hodges Gardens, Louisiana; this was taken during family weekend (car) trip. 

Notice that on the map i appear to be riding from Wisconsin to Washington.  Ten and a half years after this photo was taken i moved (via car, sadly) from Wisconsin to Washington.