o What: Ride Around Clark County, Southwest Washington’s largest cycling event, with 18-, 34-, 66- and 100-mile loops through the countryside. Bring identification and some cash, repair supplies and a pump, water, warm clothing and rain gear.
o When: Same-day registration opens at 6:30 a.m. Saturday at Hanna Hall, Clark College, 1820 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. Event begins at 6:30 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m.; all riders must be on the road by 9 a.m.
o Cost: $35 for the longer routes; $20 for the 18-miler. Vancouver Bicycle Club members get a discount. Children younger than 12 ride free with paid adult; youth 13-17 are $10 with paid adult.
o Information:
www.vbc-usa.com/racc
You’ve probably covered big swaths of Clark County at 35 or 40 or 60 miles per hour. (Or much faster than that, but we won’t go there.) You might occasionally remember to notice some scenery as it flashes by. But when you’re inside that four-wheeled, climate-controlled, sound-surrounded capsule, it’s easy — too easy — to feel about as connected to the world beyond your windshield as to a screen shot of a tree.
o What: Ride Around Clark County, Southwest Washington's largest cycling event, with 18-, 34-, 66- and 100-mile loops through the countryside. Bring identification and some cash, repair supplies and a pump, water, warm clothing and rain gear.
o When: Same-day registration opens at 6:30 a.m. Saturday at Hanna Hall, Clark College, 1820 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. Event begins at 6:30 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m.; all riders must be on the road by 9 a.m.
o Cost: $35 for the longer routes; $20 for the 18-miler. Vancouver Bicycle Club members get a discount. Children younger than 12 ride free with paid adult; youth 13-17 are $10 with paid adult.
o Information:
www.vbc-usa.com/racc
That’s one big reason why people love cycling. You still get your speedy little thrill — that slightly unreal sense of flying over the ground at an unnatural velocity — but the wind is in your hair, the sun (or rain) is on your skin and the sights are there to admire at a reasonable clip. There’s nothing much between you and reality except your helmet. Plus, the exercise feels so good.
Until it doesn’t, that is. Hills do fight back. Flat tires can happen. Legs and posteriors tend to protest.
Which is why the 32nd annual Ride Around Clark County, sponsored by the Vancouver Bicycle Club, offers four distance options, lots of mechanical as well as nutritional support, and even a roving escape hatch: rescue vehicles driven by volunteers who can plug your leak and pump your tire — or just scoop up you and your bike, and drop you back at home base, Clark College, if you’ve simply had enough.
There’s no shame in that, event coordinator Mary McLaren said.
“This is just about the friendliest, most informal organized ride you’ll find anywhere,” she said.
You can even hitch a lift to the next rest stop, she said. There’s one every 15 miles, and they’re well stocked with a sumptuous spread of road snacks: fruit, bagels, pastries, cookies, juice, coffee and more.
“Sometimes you can recharge and keep going,” she said. “We pride ourselves on the variety of food.”
Different routes are meant to encourage beginners and families while challenging the experienced cyclist, club president Dick Gordon said.
• The 18-mile route takes you to Cascade Park and back and is mostly flat (“minor hills”).
• The 34-mile route is hillier as it takes you all the way around Lacamas Lake and back.
• The 66-mile route also rounds Lacamas Lake but then breaks north through Hockinson, around Battle Ground, over to Ridgefield and then down the western edge of the county. (Insider secret: There’s another escape hatch at Daybreak Regional Park. You can flee south down 72nd Avenue and St. Johns, directly back to Clark College, for a total of 55 miles, Gordon said. It’s on the map.)
• The 100-mile route keeps going northeast beyond Battle Ground to visit Yacolt and Amboy and eventually touch the top of the county at Etna. Then it meanders back down through La Center and rejoins the 66-miler.
“The 100-mile loop is beyond gorgeous,” said McLaren. “That’s really the showcase. This event always has a lot of 100-mile riders.”
The 66- and 100-mile routes include some serious elevation gains, so they’re recommended for cyclists who have put in the conditioning time, she said.
“And then you’re also going to see a lot of 18-milers who are just trying this out for the first time,” she added.
What first prompted these bike club volunteers to try it out? Gordon’s inspiration was wanting to stay healthy despite the years. The former road runner found “after 30 or 40 years of pounding the pavement, you find you don’t have any cartilage left.” This is a smarter, gentler way to keep fit, he said.
For McLaren, it was the Vancouver Bicycle Club itself.
“I went on a beginner ride and met these wonderful people. We hung out after the ride and had coffee, and I realized, ‘These are my people.’ I just started riding with them every week. It seems like every ride I go on, I find somebody who likes to ride at my pace, and we get to chat. I’ve met people from all walks of life who I never would have met otherwise.
“Plus,” she said, “I’m not very good at fixing flats.”
Weather is everything for this event, Gordon added. Rain has driven participation to as low as 600 riders; sunshine has seen it climb as high as 1,200.
“We have a lot of fun with this every year, and all the money we make goes to charity” after the cost of putting on the event, he said.
Last year, he said, the Vancouver Bicycle Club wound up donating “well over $10,000” mostly to bike- and health-related related charities, from the American Diabetes Association to Bike Clark County and Waste Connections’ annual Christmas-season bike giveaway for children.
