Lake Cassidy

Centennial Trail

Wet! Rainy! Gloomy! Windy!  Yep, a perfect day to link up with Travis and Booker for a bicycle ride along the Centennial Trail.  Nothing drastic mind you, just a little noodle pedaling from Lake Stevens up to Lake Cassidy and back.  A little chance to break out our slingshots and shoot some cattails… Get good and wet… Then stop in somewhere for cocoa and snacks along the ride home.

I met the boys at their house at 0900 and, under a slight drizzle we started loading up Travis’ bike and Booker’s trailer.  As I was strapping Booker’s car seat into the van Travis tossed his bicycle onto my rear rack…

Pssssssst Crap!

A swooshing of air from the general vicinity of my bicycle tire was my first indication that there was something amiss…   Travis said, “Uh Oh, I think I just popped your tire”.  Oops!

A quick inspection revealed he’d hit my Presta tire stem with his’s bikes pedal as he was loading it on the rack.  No worries, out with my spare tube.  I made a quick switch-a-roo and we were rolling.

With just a little bit of rain we had a very pleasant ride up to Lake Cassidy.  Red wing blackbirds were in full song and a bald eagle cruised by as we rolled out on the wooden boardwalk.

The Rockhopper on the boardwalk

Slingshots vs. Cattails

The cattails never had a chance.  We clowned around on the boardwalk for a little while but the wet weather and lack of movement caused me and Travis to get chilled pretty quickly.  Booker said he was “fine”… even though I thought his hands were cold as ice.  Of course he’d made the trip inside the bubble of his bike cart wrapped up in a fleece blanket.  (Hum… a Polar fleece one-zie designed for cycling… Just a thought.)

Cattails

Booker

The rain looked like it was gonna try a little harder to interfere with our fun as we loaded up for the return trip.

Necessary details

We took care of a few last minute necessary details and turned our bikes south in search of the first place we could find selling mochas, cocoa, coffee, treats… whatever.

That place turned out to be the Oven Monkey Bakery in Lake Stevens.  We had actually been by there several times in the past, but it had always been closed on the days we were there.  We stacked our bikes under the covered walkway and stormed in for a look, and some heavenly smells.  I knew right away that I was not leaving here without some kind of delightful treat to bring home to my wife, since she was present on some of those earlier visits when the shop had been closed.

Oven Monkey Bakery

Happy boys

Well one thing about coming in from the cold, wet, windy outdoors for a warm treat… All that nature is still out there waiting for you when you finally bring yourselves to leave.

Peaking out of the mail slot

One look out the window, or a peak through the mail slot in Booker’s case, reminded us that we still had a little ground to cover before we were through.

Not Lake Stevens

The water was rising in the parking lot so we made our escape.  Within a few blocks we were back on the Centennial Trail and jamming along in our big rings.  It was probably the coffee… But we were like a pair of old rental horses on a leisurely stroll when you turn them back towards the barn.  Giddy up!

Clowning with Grandpa

The rain was working us over pretty good by the time we got back to the van.  Interestingly enough there was not the slightest hint of a ‘too bad the weather sucks’ kind of vibe…  We were too busy planning our next outing.

Thanks for riding along with us.

Kat