Mettle for the pedal needed for rigorous NW cycling events

If you were entertaining thoughts about riding in the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic, I sure hope you’ve been practicing pedaling.

The 200-mile bike ride is but a few weeks away (July 9-10). It’s the largest multiday bicycle event in the Northwest, with up to 8,000 riders covering the distance in a day or two.

Already, 6,955 bicyclists have registered. If you haven’t signed up, now’s the time to do it (www.cascade.org). Last year riders came from 38 states and several countries, including Australia, Denmark and Japan.

Another challenging option is the Aug. 27-28 Ride Around Puget Sound, a fundraiser for Bicycle Alliance of Washington.

The rider limit is 1,000 for this one- or two-day event with about 9,000 feet of elevation gain that starts and finishes in Tacoma and circles the lower Puget Sound region with two ferry trips.

Check it out at www.rapsodybikeride.com.

Take a peek: Olympic National Park is the latest park to go online with Web cameras, giving visitors a look at conditions at two sites, from the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center toward the peaks, and across Lake Crescent to the hills beyond.

There’s a little bonus with the Hurricane Ridge view. Once you’re there, click on “landmarks visible” and the next scene includes the names of valleys, glaciers and peaks seen in the first shot.

Check it out at www.nps.gov/olym/cams.

Not a pet: You’ve got a better chance of dying from lightning than from a rabies-infected raccoon, but raccoon rabies can infect other animals, as well.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only one person in the U.S. has died of raccoon rabies, a Virginia man in 2003.

Interestingly, he hadn’t been bitten by a raccoon, rabid or otherwise; it’s still a mystery how he contracted it. The raccoon strain of rabies has spread through the Virginia-D.C. area into many foxes, squirrels and groundhogs; and there are pockets of raccoon rabies around the country.

An antiviral treatment is effective if started right away, but since the victim wasn’t bitten, doctors went after other possibilities.

It’s always wise to treat raccoons as wild animals, not pets. A cornered raccoon, for instance, can be dangerous when it tries to escape. The raccoon that’s so cute and nibbles dog food from your outstretched fingers can nip or scratch without warning.

You probably won’t get rabies, but the raccoon would have to be killed to find out whether it had the virus. It’s better not to have that on your conscience.

Forest sampler: A new recreation guide to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest has been released this month by the Washington Trails Association.

The four-season guide, “The Forgotten Forest: Exploring the Gifford Pinchot,” is a sampler of 10 outings, including climbing Mount Adams, cross-country skiing Oldman Pass, mountain biking Siouxon Trail, car camping at the Takhlakh Campground, and hiking for huckleberries in the Sawtooth berry fields.

The one-million-plus-acre Gifford Pinchot is 108 years old, making it one of the oldest national forests in the nation. It has 1,475 miles of trails and 45 campgrounds, and includes the Dark Divide Roadless Area, the largest unprotected roadless area in the Washington Cascades.

A free copy is available from www.wta.org or 206-625-1367.

Book shelf: Migael Scherer’s “A Cruising Guide to Puget Sound” (McGraw Hill) was a hardback success 10 years ago. She’s back with an updated edition, including approaches and anchorages, weather and water information, history and attractions, and charts.

This time McGraw Hill added color photographs and color to its charts, chosen larger pages, and printed the book with a heavy-duty wire spiral, a lay-flat binding that will make it handier for looking at it while piloting.

The Seattle resident wins high marks for clarity of writing and accuracy. She’ll appear from 1-3 p.m. June 25 at Armchair Sailor, 2110 Westlake Ave., Seattle.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.