I-5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Park

This Saturday I spent some time with Seattle Works and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance do so some mountain bike trail maintenance. There were 10 volunteers and we worked on the I-5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Park and it was a lot of fun dirty work.

I didn't even know this place existed. I do own a mountain bike, however my mountain bike skills are at the beginner level. Nowhere near the expert/trick level required at the Colonnade. I have done a faceplant already on my mountain bike when I first started mountain biking years ago. The Park looks awesome, however it'll be some time, till I get to the other trails, for now I'll stick to the beginner trails. I still love the warning sign, and I don't have pictures of it, it says something like this: "Full Face Helmet and Body Armor highly recommended."

It was fun to watch the mountain bikers do tricks and jumps on some of the trails. This area under I-5, many years ago were filled with squatters and junkies. Now it's replaced with mountain bikers and the area truly cleaned up. Since the whole colonnade is a community resource, it's quite amazing how such space has been transformed to an urban park.

Bucket of Balls

Went to the driving range with Joe & Krause (not pictured). It was Krause's birthday and so a day at the range was a lot of fun! Driving ranges are popular in Seattle, well mainly because it rains quite a bit (big surprise) and it's a lot of fun.

It's all the fun of golf without having to find where the ball landed. It takes most of the frustration out of the equation.

I never thought I'd enjoy golf, but there's something oddly satisfying driving a ball 200 yards down range. The driving range is cool as everyone is working on their stroke, some are great, most are good, and quite a bit are beginners. We fall into the latter category. It was nevertheless a lot of fun.

There is a zen-like moment when you connect with the ball and everything aligns. Your shot powers through and your golf ball follows a nice straight ballistic trajectory.

I have to find out when the ballpicker makes his rounds, as I heard that it's a lot of fun to aim for the armored golf cart that picks up the balls downrange.