good call!

The wind was blowing about 25-30 and rain falling sideways when I left home this morning. I got over the pass without problems. It was 27 and icy but no issues. I'm now in Sisters and it's 43 and dry. Looks like I will get my ~70 miles in today on dry roads! :-)

UPDATE:
Bend was dry, as expected. I knew that my intended ride would be a gradual uphill route heading towards LaPine. What I didn't know was that it would be uphill AND against a 25+mph wind! ;-) At least it was dry. I wasn't sure if the shortness of breath was because of the elevation or if it was caused by the amount of energy I was expending going up that slight grade and fighting a substantial headwind. No matter, I just kept spinning the pedals.

It was nice to be on dry pavement and I knew there would be a lot of gravel because of the sanding operations. I just wasn't quite ready for the AMOUNT of gravel. On the secondary roads it wasn't too bad because I could take the edge of the travel lane and the vehicles had it pretty well blown clean. I did have to take about 7 miles of Hwy 97 and that was a little nasty. There was a wide paved shoulder all along however there was a rumble strip taking up the section of the shoulder I'd normally ride. That left riding right on the fog line (I don't like doing that on roads with that much traffic) or staying almost 3 feet from the fog line......... right in the copious gravel debris. Take a look at the video below and note the surface about halfway through the clip when I stop to show the falling snow. That shot was taken near Lava Butte where the elevation was near 4500ft and there was a lot of gravel.

I didn't have to fight it long because I turned west and took a parallel road as
soon as I was able. They also sanded these roads but there was no rumble strip and I was able to ride closer to the travel lane or in some cases it was safe to ride on the edge of the travel lane itself.

It took me longer than expected to reach LaPine because of the headwind, but I made up for it on the return to Bend..... minimum speed on the return= 27mph, maximum speed= 36mph. The BIG chainring the whole way. :-)

It was a fun ride. Would be even more fun when we start getting more seasonal weather! (I drove over 12 miles of packed snow on the drive over Santiam Pass on the return trip home!)

from the handlebar cam:


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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............73...............0
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
YTD...........1601....+.......720....=.........2321

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