Gary's Hail Mary December Permanent
December 30, 2015
Permanent Brevet #42, Abbotsford start, 201 km
by Gary Baker

Gary reported in after completing his last minute December 30th permanent. He agreed to let his message stand as a newsletter submission. [EF]:

Now that I've thawed out here is a copy of my Control Card.

Actually the roads were surprisingly free of ice, frost, and snow. Mt. Baker Hwy ( I was on it from Approx. 6:20-7:15pm) was starting to have frost form on the shoulder. The rumble strips along that road are very unpredictable in their location forcing me to elect to ride more than i would have liked out on the main roadway. Lots of crap on the shoulders. Two flats, one at 50km on the Hwy # 10 overpass at Hwy # 99. The second at the border 3.8 Km from the finish -Sh.... It was a slow leak so I pumped it up and nursed it to the end. The worst shoulders on this route are from Lummi through Bellingham, to Sumas. If I were to do this route again ( starting in Abby) I'd go clockwise to ride this portion of the route in the daytime. I had a stiff headwind at times from Bellingham to Abby. which really increased the windchill. At the finish I wasn't sure my toes were still attached to my feet.

This is supposed to be fun......isn't it?

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January 3, 2016