The start of the day was COLD. We had frost on our tent and we had to get an early start to cover the entire route with the amount of elevation that was in store: 6,800 feet! Over 88 miles.
The 5:45 wakeup wasn't bad until we got on our bikes at 7:15 and we were happy to have feet warmers, even though they were not completely doing the job! I failed to wear tights over the shorts I had and that was a serious problem.
It warmed up after the first 15 miles, but that was a slow start due to the numbness in our extremities.
One more fun note was that as I was packing up the tent I realized it was going into the bag more easily then the previous days. Well that was because the rain fly was still on the ground. Oops! And that was where all of the ice was! Two options: unroll the tent and repack or stuff the tarp in on the side. Option 2 was chosen and let me just say that the nearest experience of doing this that I can think of is rooting around in a cooler for an ice cold beverage for 2 minutes solid. My Hand was Fuh Reez Ing!
We made the trip to the Crater Lake Rim Drive with 45 minutes to spare, so we were safe to continue our riding. Apparently, the permit limited access to the early hours and 11:00 a.m was the cutoff.
Crater Lake was as advertised, I had a hard time pulling my eyes away from the deep blue of the Lake. The terrain posed a challenge and the elevation took us to 7,700 feet.
Pictures to come.
Great day, long and rolling terrain that suited us just fine as we looked forward to the big climbing day of Crater Lake.
The stretch of the route on Highway 97 was not very nice from a pavement smoothness perspective, but ODOT did do CO a favor by lowering the speed limit to 40 for the day and coming off a 2-mile section for us to use a complete lane. That didn't stop a wicked crash from happening though as someone crashed at a high rate of speed at the end of the downhill section.
At mile 60, we latched on to a guy and his wife (in a paceline) that were jamming along at over 25 mph. I wasn't sure we could hold the wheel at times because of the grade and the passing cars. We went along at that pace for 15 miles and lost them a mile or two from the rest stop. We caught up with the couple and I could not believe that this fellow was probably in his early to mid 60s and he kind of scoffed when we thanked him for his efforts, saying it wasn't much effort. This guy was a monster and I will look forward to future CO years when I can carry that sort of pace. (Turns out he has ridden in Race Across Oregon, look it up.)
The town of Fort Klamath was very happy to help out with our fun. We stayed at ranchers property that had lots of room for the entire CO community. Susan had a piece of peach pie and we shopped at the local markets that were set up for us.
The entertainment for the night was David Wilcox, who is also riding the route. I have heard him on a KINK Live CD and enjoyed his lyrics that I find very clever. He is also preparing an original tune for us each day at Announcements for the participants.
Lots of Pictures coming - no way to get camera shots to the tablet for posting
First day of Cycle Oregon and just 490 miles to go! This would start us off with theaverage amount it took to get around the loop! Yet as anyone who rides knows, it is not always how far but also how much climbing there is.
It was a day that was a warm up for the challenges ahead. 70 miles and a bit further tomorrow but less climbing, so not a day that I had concerns about.
The weather today was great, almost cold enough for arm warmers, but not bad after a cold morning where I thought it would be good to get the legs covered.
Last night, Cycle Oregon had a tribute to the 9 that have been on every single day through these many years. Our tent is actually next to one woman who was honored and it is a nice recognition of the group and the commitment that takes.
The cycling community is a nice one, it has been fun to see so many people that we know. Susan's involvement in Sorella Forte means that there are usually people who know her, that I would not otherwise have any connection to.
We remarked throughout the day how this was a great way to celebrate our anniversary. I wondered whether we could do this again on the 50th running of the event. It could be tough to top this route, but I am not speaking from a position of authority on this topic, having reserved most of our riding to the Portland metro area.
