Cary and I were both up early and had breakfast all finished and tents put away before J Micheal woke up. The dry climate and a gentle breeze eliminated any concerns about rolling up a damp tent. Morning temperature was mild, in the low 40's.
I had been trying to dodge a mild cold since about midweek. I told the teammates that I'd probably have to work a bit harder because of that, breathing issues and all. I was very surprised to wake up in the morning completely congested. Before this it was more of just a dry cough type cold.
I figured I'd just do what I could.
We started off from the little town of Kimberly. There can't be much for than 20 people who live there.
(there are some huge video files in this posting and none will play properly until all load completely)
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Cary and I had our bikes ready to go before J Michael so we leaned them up against the side of the Kimberly Store while J Michael finished gearing up.
That proved to be a mistake.
About 4 miles into our ride I was surprised by a flat back tire. I run Slime Lite tubes and Kevlar tires. I haven't had a flat in years. The roads were debris free. Inspection showed a very small thorn, less than half the diameter of a sewing needle, had found it's way to my tube and with each revolution of the wheel it would wiggle around and let air out. I pulled the thorn and was somewhat surprised to find that the tube did not leak. The Slime had plugged the leak once the thorn was no longer an issue. It didn't take long for Cary to figure out where I had picked that up, he inspected his tires since we parked our bikes in the same weed patch. Sure enough, he had a thorn in his tire too. I looked my tires over and found one more in the rear tire, and one in the front. By deflating the tires we were able to pinch the tire and pull the thorns. Unfortunately, in the airing up process, my valve stem broke. In went the spare tube.
With our tire woes hopefully behind us we continued east towards Long Creek. The first part of our ride would take us over the flatest part of the RAO course, a rolling 15 miles to Monument. From there we would begin a long several thousand foot climb.
As we rode along the rolling terrain my throat began to burn and I'd break into coughing spells. At one point the gasping for air and hard breathing triggered a hard cough that resulted in throwing up. At that point I knew I just was not going to keep up today with the serious climbing in store for us and the time constraints of finishing before dark.
A fall back plan was hatched. Cary and J Michael would ride on, I would continue on as long as I was comfortable, albeit at a slower pace to keep from aggravating my throat any more than necessary. At some point I'd turn around and ride back to my pickup, where I'd drive today's route in reverse meeting back up with the guys and then assume "support duties".
Once I dropped off the fast pace of my two partners I improved and coughing didn't happen near as often or near as hard. I thought it might be a nice goal to ride a metric century....62 miles. I got out of the rollers and started the serious climbing. I just kept working my way up. The grade relented for a short stretch as it went through the small town of Hamilton, then resumed the climb up.
I finally got to the top, there was a little snow around in the trees. I looked at the drop before me to the town of Long Creek. I didn't feel I had it in me to make that descent only to turn around and climb back out. I turned around with 26 miles on the odometer. A wind had developed that ended up being a headwind on the way back to Kimberly. It kept my downhill speed to between 35 and 40, a manageable speed on these sweeping turns.
From the handlebar cam:
There were some very pretty views and I was glad we got the chance to see this in daylight, when riding RAO this entire stretch will be in the dark.
When I got off the hill I had to put a bit of effort into riding the rollers into the wind. I thought about my teammates who would be riding a long stretch on Hwy 26 through Dayville the same direction and likely battling the same wind.
With my breathing issues it was the hardest riding I've ever done. This was harder than any of my one day STP's. I took a little rest as I went through the town of Monument.
After a short tour of Monument I pushed on. I finally rolled into Kimberly, so glad to finally have the bike portion behind me. I just sat on my tailgate and drank some water and had a few cookies....I'm sure with a blank stare on my face! The temperature was 70 degrees. I ended up with 52 hard earned miles. I finally got enough energy to change out of my bike togs and into "regular" clothes. The store in Kimberly with it's one gas pump closed at 3PM and I just missed it, so I drove back to Spray to get gas.
I then beat feet backwards along our route to assume my support duties. I got to the intersection of Hwy 26 and was a little surprised that I hadn't seen the guys along that stretch of the North Fork of the John Day river. I didn't get more than a mile or two east on 26, right in the Picture Gorge section when as I came around a corner where vision was obscured by the narrow gorge, here comes J Michael and Cary, just flying. I turned around and was going to come in behind them. They pulled of at a wide spot in the road. I thought they might need a refill of water bottles..... but they said that with 93 miles under their belts, and several high mountain passes they were ready to call it a day. The unnamed pass on Hwy 395 south of Long Creek is in excess of 5100 ft. They reported a lot of snow around, but no issues with the route like hairpin turns, rough road, and the like. They said that the pull into the wind was brutal. They took turns leading their mini peloton with about 1 minute pulls, but there just weren't enough riders to allow much rest between pulls. It had drained them.
We loaded up the bikes, they changed out of their bike clothes, and we proceeded to follow the RAO route by auto back as much as possible. Some of the roads are still closed by snow.
This part of Oregon is so friendly....rural America at it's finest. As we drove the route we figured about 2/3 of passing vehicles would wave, uninitiated by us. As we rode bikes most drivers waved at us.....and unlike in the big cities, they used ALL their fingers!
They also have a good sense of humor.
(click on photo for larger version)
The sign at the base of the tree says "No cherries, no peaches, just a few pairs"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............52...............0
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
April total...629.....+........57.....=...........676
YTD...........1825....+.......720....=.........2533
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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