This past Friday (2/23) i was late to 'mass', but caught up with the group downtown, in a super-stroke of luck. It's easy to see 100+ cyclists in the dark, what with all the flashing lights, and the traffic backed up behind them!
We slowly headed north towards Fremont, and while stopped on Denney Ave something weird happened: a Washington State Trooper pulled up beside us and shined his spotlight at our faces, kind of scanning the crowd, of course this yielded hollers and laughter from the crowd of confused cyclists. What was even more confusing was that the trooper then just sped off, and never said a word. Guess he figured it wasn't worth it to try to arrest us all!
Anyway we eventually snaked up Westlake Ave and cross the Fremont Bridge into the 'center of the universe'. Upon turning up the short but steep climb to the Troll, some kid on a fixie (and in a t-shirt in 30 degree weather) bit it hard, basically slid on his chest! and as usual with critical mass, lots of old road bikes instantly gave up on the hill, protesting to years of neglect no doubt. seriously, every time we go up a steep hill at least 10 chains come off!
After partying at the Troll (thanks to the dude with the keg on the trailer!), we eventually decided to take the Aurora Bridge! We walked up the East steps, which meant we had to stop both directions of traffic (all six lanes) - at first a few of us just stepped out into the street, halting oncoming traffic. This is super-scary consider the traffic NEVER sees bikes on this road, and they're cruising at 50+ mph... but they stopped when they saw our flashing lights in their path..
After we all regrouped, all 30 of us rode south on Aurora for 10 minutes or so, to the tune of a half-mile of honking traffic behind us! I tried to do a backwards circle on the bridge before the pack caught up, but drunken backwards-circles are no easy feat! Damn, I just wanted to say I'd done that, guess I'll have to wait till next time.
P.S. If you haven't seen the Fremont Troll yet check it
Friday, March 2, 2007
Critical Mass rules Aurora Ave once again!
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1 comment:
Your post in commute by bike about the two horns was funny. An "F-U" and a "howahya".
You know, when you call a Critial Mass something different and pay the police to close roads, and work details, it's ok.
I'm refering to Bike New York five borroghs ride. Last year 30K bikers took of NYC for 10 hours and all the police were smiling.
Go figure.
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