Well, folks welcome to my grand experiment.

Am I MB1? Heck no ;^) I'm more of a 30.19 guy than a 200.6 guy and my pictures will mostly show that too.

I have been enjoying this forum for awhile now and a new digital camera is the result. This report is the pictures taken on a ride kind of report. In particular this is a "first outdoor pictures with new camera", "first pictures while cycling" and "first combined pictures and narative post" kind of report.

The ride was yesterday afternoon and evening on a MUT here in Pierce Co of Washington State. Is a rails to trails conversion and thus has no sudden grade changes. I parked in the middle at McMillin, headed "downhill" to the Puyallup end of the trail.

I forgot to set the camera to a smaller image format till after I had made the Puyallup turn. If I can get a website organized after this post I will get back with some links. The lower trail passes close to various farms, close enough for a good view of the plow.
Some farms here are tree farms for ucut Christmas trees and some of those farms get to the point of being too overgrown for chritmas trees as seen in the background of the field of smaller trees.

This week the cottonwood trees are actively shedding. Here and there it looks a bit like snow in May.

Back past my starting point I headed to Orting. On the way I tried for the landscape with bike shot but my framing was subpar. Till next trip you guys will have to make do with the lone bike with no significant background shot to show off my steed.

Once through the city of Orting the direction is upstream toward Mt Ranier. It the prominent natural landmark. The trail close to town is popular. No particularly illogical behaviour was displayed by any of the participants.

Farms this direction, toward South Prairie, are for livestock of varied sorts. The first two guys shared the same pasture. While none of the other animals I shot paid me any mind this calf was as interested in me as I was of taking pictures so he made the cut.

OK this is my architectural artsy shot. I would be more interesting if I had straddled the center of the lane and bridge.

The pictures for the last segment didn't take. I'll give it another shot here:

This section is following up the Carbon River which originates at the Carbon Glacier on Ranier. It runs along fairly closely on and off and eventually heads away.

The final pics are of a barn across of field of what I guess are buttercups.

I didn't get a couple of the river shots uploaded:

I'm more of a 30.19 guy .

....but sometimes a guy has to do what the wife wants to do. :cool:

Nice "first" post--Pierce Co. sure looks a lot more pleasant than the way it's always portrayed on "Cops"....:p

...and how the heck do you pronounce "Puyallup"? "Pile-up"? :confused:

<!--StartFragment --> The top of the trail is South Prairie, not far past the barn with the flowered field. When I got back to the rig I had logged the 30.19 miles. Previous outing max this calendar year was 15 so it was an accomplishment.

None of my attempts to shoot the handlebars while riding turned out at all this trip. Some of the shots while rolling were OK. I think the treefarm was rolling and maybe one of the shots leaving Orting was on the roll.

I highly recomend slowing down to take pics. I saw much more of the scenery than I usually do.

OK, one more try at those other river shots.

Walrus, Thanks.
" ...and how the heck do you pronounce "Puyallup"? "Pile-up"?"
Ok, Pee-eeu (like the letter is said) all up.
or Pieu all up

I guess the Pierce County Sherriffs have got their time on the screen.

MB, I am working on raising the number closer to the 200. On a side note I notice that Miss M seems To haul her share of the frieght with the Bob ;^)
By the way, thanks for lookin' after the forum.

Nice pics. I especially like the one of the barn with the buttercups in the foreground. Good stuff.

Nice posts and you just about doubled your post count. It's fun when a lurker pops in every once in a while.

Hey, nice post! Makes me want to go south a bit to check out some new routes.

Last year I almost went down on wet cottonwood "droppings." I was riding up a slight hill on a MUT while seated...just spinning...and my wheel just spun out! The trail had a little crown to the side, and the rear of my bike slid sideways a couple of feet. It happened so fast that I really didn't do anything to correct, but somehow I stayed up. The guys behind me said it was pretty funky.

Beware the ides of march and wet cottonwood droppings!

Looks like a nice trail, provided it doesn't get too crowded. There are many parts of the country that don't have that kind of thing.

As stated above, the first pics i snapped where in way too large a format for the forum to allow easy viewing. I think that browsers will load and downsize to fit your screen if you select these links individually. Give ‘em a try.
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Early in the ride across the main drag the original McMillin store can be seen. When the intersection at its original location was getting to big for its britches in the name of preservation the store was picked up and replanted in the midst of a.........treefarm
http://home.comcast.net/~vvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/McMillin_StoreAAA.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Evvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/McMillin_StoreAAA.JPG)

At the Puyallup end of the trail is housed another preservation item. It operates and moves cars in the neighborhood occasionally.
http://home.comcast.net/~vvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Meeker_Southern_w_cabooseAAA.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Evvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Meeker_Southern_w_cabooseAAA.JPG)
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I am a sucker for trains, especially older trains.
[URL="http://home.comcast.net/%7Evvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Meeker_Southren.JPG"]http://home.comcast.net/~vvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Meeker_Southren.JPG (http://forums.roadbikereview.com/home.comcast.net/%7Evvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Meeker_Southern_w_cabooseAAA.JPG)

Hiding off to the side a ways back up the trail I spotted this lone caboose. I had no idea it was there till yesterday.
http://home.comcast.net/~vvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Lone_cabooseAAA.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Evvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Lone_cabooseAAA.JPG)

Not much farther is this view.
http://home.comcast.net/~vvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Trail_to_Mountain.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Evvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Trail_to_Mountain.JPG)

And what ride report would be complete without those two elusive views of the Carbon River? Well those pics still aren’t cooperating so this hopefully will again, later, be continued. At this point it will be more because of the challenge than for the value of the views :smilewinkgrin:

that looks like a beautiful place to ride

Not much of anywhere local that I can ride and see any decent rolling stock (except when a train comes through), but I am blessed with a beautifully restored SP depot (22-B model, I believe) a few miles away....

Ok now one more time. Here are links to those pesky river shots. I have thrown in an extra shot. It is just a nondescript trail shot. I am going to wear both galluses and belt by posting both a link to these pics and also see if I can’t get them inserted directly into the post.

http://home.comcast.net/~vvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/River_narrow_2bbb.JPG




http://home.comcast.net/~vvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/River_Wide_2bbb.JPG




http://home.comcast.net/~vvettekkidd/SoPrairieRide/Just_Trail.JPG

Wow, that's some pile of "cottonwood droppings" in a couple of those shots, I'll bet the swimming pool owners hate it.

The lone caboose is probably some sort of cabin conversion. Most of the original windows appear to be covered over.

It's amazing to see how green W Washington is, then I remember what makes it so green.

Good report,
Birddog

PS Is that MUT more of the old Milwaukee Road line?