Continuation of Let her rip!

In Cycle Oregon we had excellent route maps, so good that the hills were marked with 5%, 7% or even 9% grades.  I would say I am a shy cyclist.  I am not of the ilk to race down hills.  Maybe cautious. Certainly cautious on my first adventure in Cycle Oregon.

I patted myself on the back for letting myself go 24 mph...  to be humbled by those racing by me, letting her rip!  It was exhilarating to just be going 24 mph! In those eastern Oregon paved forest roads there was no traffic. If traffic came along, our trusty Milwaukie, Oregon, police who were hired to help us, just escorted the wayfaring trucks to move slowly through the weaving and flying bicycles.

The only problem with trying to keep my bicycle beast down to merely 24 mph was that my arms ached from holding onto my brakes.  I would let them go occasionally and find some relief.

Let her rip!

November 14, 2013

Almost two months have passed since I completed Cycle Oregon.  I still have the images of the experience moving through my mind.  "Let her rip" is one!

The roads of Eastern Oregon

The turtle (painted) in the background on the backroads.

The last two days of the ride we had some steep hills to climb, all the time as I was trudging away up hill I kept thinking...whatever goes up, must down.  Up, I had made my peace with.  I used the sag wagon four times,   

Miles and miles, 300 of them

Day 6- Pine Creek School.  How many students attend Pine Creek School?  Three.. yep, one third grader and two first graders.  This was our lunch stop on Day 6.  You can see how we take over the school grounds.

I had dropped off my jacket at the Gear Drop below. We get a blue bag with duck tape on it. Write our rider number on the tape and drop it in one of the boxes separated by rider numbers.  I found the 1700-1799 box, my number 1720. The Gear Drop team hauls it back to camp so I can get it when I get back. You may notice all the tape on the box. When I get my gear at the end of the ride, I take the duck tape tag and put it on the box and drop the blue bag inside. By the end of the week, it is quite a colorful collection, like telephone poles that have remnants of posters from years past.

I am home and have more posts coming.  I did ride 300 miles over the 6 days.  I took Wednesday, Day 4 off and am now not sure I should have. Woke up on Day 5 with many aches.  Of course, it could have been that I did not solve the problem of the puncture wound in my air mattress.  All during the night, every night, the bag gradually deflated and, there I was at 5 AM with my one inch Thermarest laying on top of a fully deflated air mattress.

Future posts; "Let her rip!"  "Thumbs up! Thumbs down!"  

Chet and the morning/evening routine at CO

Chet with his morning brew.  

When not brewing coffee for Cycle Oregon, Chet sails boats across the seas.  I am sure there is a special name for it, but, when someone buys a boat in, say, Seattle, and needs it in Barcelona, Chet is the one who sails it over to her. The last time this happened the owner asked him to stay on for a year to work with him on the boat. "No way, I have to leave in September to work for Cycle Oregon."

Too weak, too strong, too cold or not there...

All the ways coffee can be served to 2,200 people from 5:30 - 8:30 AM- too weak, too strong, too cold or, even, not there.  All the ways to turn off an anxious group ready to ride.  Yet, this is not the way it works at Cycle Oregon. Chet makes it work.  Chet, former commercial fisherman; Chet, red-faced from the steam of brewing coffee hour after hour.  Chet, smiling Chet.  It is not too weak, not too strong, not cold and definitely there on time and ready for all of us.  I saw him on the second morning with four 2 foot by 3 foot high kettles brewing hot water; each with a spigot extending about 2 feet in front of the kettle.  Clearly  here was a man who knew what he was doing. The coffee grounds were in a cloth bag clamped onto the spigot of hot water, descending directly into the blue plastic serving container. Chet gently using a long spoon to lift the grounds as the water flowed through making a full, hot container of coffee.

Photo will come tomorrow...

The Crane home team advantage

I am in Crane, Oregon.  The only store is half a mile outside of city central along Hwy. 310. A cluster of Cycle Oregon folks were there as I whizzed by wondering where we were camping.  Where was this Crane, Oregon?  Lunch was a six mile round trip, out of town and back to where we were camping... Well, I wanted a light day so I turned back to the only store on Hwy. 310, got three cheese sticks and peanut butter cookies.  Talk about a food desert, it was the only store I have seen for two days.

Turning north into a sweet, green small valley, I was handed free iced coffee mocha with whipped cream.  Then, for $5. I bought a recovery smoothie.  Turned into the Crane Oregon school grounds to find my tent where the porters had tossed my too large duffel upside down in front of Number 184, my mobile tent home this week.

The Crane, Oregon, volleyball team hosted one of our stops today, passing out strawberries, animal cookies, pretzels, soda pops, V-8s, Pellagrino lemonades and iced tea.  Crane High School is good in sports, even with only 60 students.  One reason seems to be that they have a captive audience.  The K-12 school is a public school boarding school, the only one west of the Mississippi River, I was told with 50 students K-12. If you live more than 15 miles from the school, you must board.  Jennifer from the Crane HS Volleyball team, at the food stop at mile 25 today, noted, "Everyone participates in sports because, well, so many kids board, what are they going to after school anyway?"

I arrived at Crane at 1:30, an early day today.  Only 38 miles for me. There was an alternate trip that added another 40 for the hardy folks. Tomorrow is 73 miles with a 3,900 foot vertical gain  on our way to Seneca.  I treated myself to an hour-long massage and an acupuncture treatment, hoping to "provide support" for the physical challenge ahead.  Dave, my masseuse from Portland, had given me a massage at the end of Day 1, 73 miles...When he pressed on my sore neck muscles, he exclaimed, "There is no way someone could convince me to ride 73 miles at 5000 foot elevation in one day!"  No wonder I ached in many new places.  

Cycle Oregon brings resources to these small Oregon towns, not to mention our strange behavior. The acupuncturist has 5 tables going at once and open and public to those who walk by.  I wonder what the folks from Crane think of these people lying on tables volunteering to have needles put in their knees, necks and hands.