Icy, but made the most of it

This past Saturday morning Randy, Gary, and I set out determined to kick off the new year with a long, hilly training ride in anticipation of our big Arizona ride coming up in April. We got as far as Montlake before both Randy and Gary went down on an ice patch. Gary was hurt badly enough that he decided to pack it in for the day. Randy and I camped out for an hour or more at a coffee shop waiting for things to warm up. After we thought we done enough time, we stepped around the corner to look at the place where he'd fallen. At that moment we watched several more cyclists fall in exactly the same place. We got on the road anyway, taking a slightly different route to I-90. We rode cautiously to the bridge, then picked up our speed and headed out to Cougar Mountain. Had a nice ride up to about 900 feet, when we hit ice again. That meant we had to abandon our plans for the hills that day. Instead we headed north around the east side of Lake Sammamish (including about 10 miles on the new Sammamish gravel trail, just for kicks), then up through Redmond, and lunch in Woodinville. We did jog down to Juanita and back to pick up one respectable hill. Got in about 65 miles, but can't recommend the route too much because of all the traffic. As soon as we get a chance we'll try again to do the intended route up and down Cougar Mountain.