Where have all the bike riders gone?

I sent an invitation out to three groups, several hundred individuals, to join me on a ride of the Cherry Ride route. It's a challenging 100 mile route with about 8000 feet of climbing in the Hood River/The Dalles area, but at least one of the groups has hard core cyclists as members. None the less, just Brian and I opted to ride today. Rather than start in The Dalles we opted to start at the Hatfield Trailhead near Hood River. A side benefit to this was we had one of the more challenging climbs of the route beginning at about mile 12 instead of after 70 miles. When we got to Mosier we turned up State Rd and made our way to the summit of 7 Mile Hill then screamed down the back side to Chenowith Rd. It was early in the AM, and despite rolling my armwarmers out I actually was shivering cold by the time I got to the bottom. We climbed back up Chenowith Rd/Browns Crk Rd then took Cherry Heights back down to The Dalles. I missed a turn in The Dalles and ended up off course taking Brewery Grade south then Old Dufur Rd until it turned to gravel so our miles varied a bit. We ended up going back to Hwy 197 and following it up the hill (south) until we got to where the course crossed hwy 197 on Lower 8 Mile Rd. We then followed the Cherry Ride's out and back on 8 Mile Rd. When we got back to 8 Mile Rd and US 197, I made the tactical error of following the downhill Cherry Ride route rather than Emerson Loop (the uphill route) so despite best plans, we ended up a bit short on miles. The wind was just howling in the Gorge today and with 4725 ft elevation gain in the first 42 miles this was not a ride for the weak of heart. When we got back to Hood River with 92 miles we both said "good enough". I had this feeling that it just might not be good enough, so when I got to Wilsonville to pick up a trailer that I had dropped off yesterday I opted to hop back on the bike and ride one of my favorite 10 mile loops from there, after all, it was flat and just a very light breeze. After the day in the Gorge it was almost like a vacation!

I didn't fuel up adequately for the effort needed today. My stomach was growling by 40 miles in. I ate my "emergency" granola bar, then my Power Bar, but by 85 miles in I was out of energy. I started hitting the Gu flask pretty hard as well as downing a package of Orange Burst Shot Blocks that I've been carrying for several hundred miles. Short term solutions for sure, but they were enough to give me the shot I needed.

I ended up with 103 miles today, a legitimate "century" and a few bonus miles.

A good ride, and good weather. Too bad not enough folks could find reason to ride it.

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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today...........103...............0................103
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
April total...629.....+........57.....=...........676
May total.....642.....+........23.....=...........665
June total....804.....+.........0.....=...........804
July total....933.....+.........0.....=...........933
YTD...........4856....+.......766....=.........5626

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