A rest day in Baker City. Time to reflect, sleep in, wash, clean, shop, go to church, play bridge...anything but a bike ride. For the Hodges, a time to take lessons in map reading, staying upright on a bike and how not to lose car keys.
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The weather gods appeared to be favouring us as the rain dissipated just as we commenced this 107km ride to our first rest day. It was a day for the hill climbers and descenders with 3 big hills in the first 60km giving a total ascent of about 1200m over the three. It was most certainly a challenge on the legs. A very chilly decent off the first of the hills had all riders heading into a local cafe to down hot chocolates and breakfast. The blueberry pie with ice cream that Howie elected to go for was probably not the most warming or energy replenishing snack on the menu but he said it tasted great. Having finished the hills, the map showed a gentle downhill and flat section for the final 40km much to the relief of everyone as we congratulated each other on a great week. However the weather gods decided to punish our hubris with a biting 20 to 30kph head wind on the final 15km. Ugly. Despite the head wind and hills the consensus was a 7 day because of the continuing great views of mountains, gorges and valleys. Tomorrow we rest. A 135 km ride from Mitchell to Prairie City started with a 10km, 7% steady incline from the get go. That started everyone’s heart early. But the subsequent 35km downhill ride through unbelievable gorges will go down as one of the highlights of our cycling career. Steady 3 to 4% decline meant a 35 to 40kpm decent with little or no peddling that gave every rider the chance to observe the fantastic scenery around. A few of the more cultured riders deviated off to see the John Day Palaeontology exhibition centre which was incredible. All you would-be geologists (Brenton?) would have loved this part. Rain for the last 2 hours was a bit a dampener on what was an otherwise fantastic day. Howie would like it known that he lead the broom group for the final 35km claiming that Mal kept asking him to “slow down my leggies are hurting”. At 22kpm I will leave it to you to assess whether this is a believable claim or not. A 10 day downgraded to 8 because of the rain. Dinner at the Oxbow Restaurant and Saloon with a Bison looking down on us was a final treat. A cool but clear day gave promise for a ride that would help the tired legs recover from the previous “mountain” stage. At just over 75km this was a short, sharp exercise. The initial 40km rising about 500m was a bit of a test but the subsequent 15km downhill was exhilarating for those willing to let go of the brakes (Trish??). The first taste of a headwind (well a very gentle breeze) was all that dampened a perfect day through the butte country.
Finishing early enabled the group to visit the “Painted Hills” near the town of Mitchell which was spectacular. A near perfect day judged as a 9 out of 10 despite the tired bodies. Burgers, beers and bed. A huge day that started with an early rise and a temperature of around 5°c but at least it wasn’t raining. We had to climb over the McKenzie Pass, a climb of about 1200m over the first 40 km of the day. Unbelievable landscape as we ground our way up a road that was closed to traffic and was as smooth as anything we normally ride in Perth. Heaven. We progressed from dense pine forests dripping with moisture and moss into high alpine country where snow still lay on the ground from winter. Near the top we passed through volcanic lava flows – incredible vistas all round with the snow, pines and rugged lava rock formations. As you probably guessed it was pretty cold – 2°c at the top when we arrived. Then the decent of about 500m in freezing wind. Again the hot chocolate and chicken soup saved many a frozen body. Overall a 127km day with 1600m of climbing. Big burgers, red wine and beers was the perfect energy replacement dinner before an very early night. Rating for the day – 8 out of 10 and for the hills climbers a perfect 10 despite the cold. The day started cold and drizzly and didn't improve a great deal from there. Total ride about 95km on a steady incline all day of about 1 to 2%. Spectacular scenery spoiled by the chattering of frozen teeth in the first couple of hours. Mexican chicken and lima bean soup with hot chocolate drinks at Walterville was the savings grace for everyone beyond which the weather seemed to improve – perhaps we were numbed to the cold. Mark Howard gets the Alzheimer’s award for forgetting his sun glasses twice during the day. The Horse Creek Lodge where we are staying the night is a haven of warmth and home cooking (thanks Shirl). Overall rating for the day – 6 out of 10 driven down by the wet and cold.
This photo is of Horse Creek at McKenzie Bridge, Oregon. The entire team is staying in cabins and eating a big dinner ahead of 4,000 ft climb tomorrow morning. The creek meanders past the cabins. It's terrific!
The day finally arrived, overcast and cool but little wind or rain in sight. 125km ride from Florence to Eugene that MapMyRide said was over 1000m of vertical climbing. Fortunately it was wrong – only 600m of steady uphill climbing for the first half of the ride followed by flat and downhill sections.
The scenery was spectacular, surrounded by forest through hill walled valleys and bubbling streams running beside us most of the way. Drizzle in the last hour took away a near perfect day. As we entered the outskirts of Eugene with 20km to go we ended up a wide cycle path running thru wet lands that took us within 2 km of our destination. Brilliant. Our first flat tire of the trip was compensated for with a “Fat Tire” beer at the motel to celebrate a great first day. Consensus for the day - 8 out of 10 decreased to 7 for the late drizzle. With 2 days to go before the ride begins all of the team members have begun arriving in the USA to prepare in whatever way they feel most appropriate. Mal, Trish, Iain, Andrea and Rodney decided to enter via Portland to pick up the hire car and to check out one of the more interesting cities in the country. A sign in the city says “Keep Portland Weird”. I am not sure that it should be described as weird but most certainly it is interesting. I don’t know of another city where there are over 90 brewery bars, a dozen distilleries, dozens of coffee shops that aren’t Starbucks, foods carts serving excellent meals and cultural scene from jazz, comedy, live stage and music. All in a city of only 600,000 people (about one third the size of Perth). To top it all off the city has a well-developed cycle system where car drivers and cyclists coexist in harmony. Can we transfer this bit back to Perth...
We would have all liked to spend more time exploring this city but the road calls. What we did manage was to sample a small section of the brewery scene. Every one of these bars has somewhere between 20 and 100 beers on tap and when you consider the number of breweries this is a lot of different styles and types. We barely touched the sides of this barrel and trying to pick the best beer is nigh on impossible. What we did find was an incredible variety of beer styles and types. It is testament to the brewers and their customers that so many different types of beer can coexist in one city. Amazing! What we can share with you is some of the more weird (there is that word again !) beers we tried including: “Sweet Heat” an apricot and scotch bonnet pepper wheat beer or “Hot Chocolate Stout” made with Belgium chocolate and habanero peppers or our favourite “Silence of the Lambs” dry Irish stout brewed with lambs hearts. All sound odd but all tasted great. To top off our visit we visited the Hopworks Bikebar where they have installed stationary bikes for patrons to generate power for the facility. We couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to end our stay in Portland. After a couple of light pilseners Iain decide it was time he commenced his training program – a bit late perhaps but at least he didn’t run the risk of falling off or getting run down. We shall see how well this preparation regime works in a couple of days. Our next update will be on Monday after our first day of riding – we may know by then how stupid or otherwise we have been. |
The ChallengeTo celebrate Wheelchairs for Kids 30,000th wheelchair, a team of nine people including Trish O'Reilly, CEO of AAMIG will be riding the 6,600km TransAmerica Trail starting in Florence, Oregon on 11 May 2015 and finishing the challenge in Yorktown, Virginia on 19 July 2015. This cycle challenge is about raising awareness of this inspiring charity. To donate, please visit: https://give.everydayhero.com/au/aamig-challenge Archives |