The day started out cold. I was joined by two members of my social bike group and the plan was to have pedals spinning by 9AM. However it was still 28 degrees at 9AM in Newberg and the roads were very slippery. We went to the local coffee shop and ate goodies while waiting for it to warm up a bit.
We shoved off at 10AM, but the roads would remain frosty in the shadows all day. We enjoyed yet another beautiful sunny day. We were dressed for the weather so were comfortable though the temperatures were brisk throughout the day. Jim didn't have shoe covers so his feet got a bit cold as the day progressed but other than that all was good.
We held a good pace all the way to Dallas where we took our first extended break. We got a few goodies (and new batteries for the camera) before riding off.
Lauren has some spunk. When we reached the intersection of Doaks Ferry Rd and Hwy 22 a few miles from Salem (~50 miles into our route) I mentioned that we could climb up over that hill. Her reply? "Let's do the hill". And so up we went. By taking this little detour we added 5 miles to today's planned 78, and also added significant climbing to what was to be a relatively flat ride. About 1:30 PM as we descended Doaks Ferry Rd to Wallace Rd we had our most tense moments of today's ride. I was leading and came around a sweeping corner at nearly 40 mph to see a shaded section of road that was covered in ice right in front of me. I moved to the far left of the road to an area that looked like it might be the safest route. I did my best to not make any sudden movements and hoped for the best. Luckily the ice only lasted about 200 ft. We all commmented on the "thrills" of this when we got down to Wallace Rd.
Our little hill detour put us on the opposite side of the river from our plan. Wallace Rd is a good road but with a higher traffic count than desired. We crossed the Wheatland Ferry to get back on track.
Jim was probably not eating enough on today's ride and bonked pretty hard at ~ mile 65. We dug into our packs and started force feeding him shot blocks, goos, gels, bars, anything with calories.
We were pushing into a slight headwind and it was compounding Jim's lack of energy.
We convinced him to draft us and we just pulled him along at 14 mph. After about 15 minutes he was able to bump that up to 15-16. An improvement over the 11-12 he was able to do before our rescue efforts. He was surprised at the results because he was sure he was eating enough.
We got back to Newberg just before dark. It was a good day for a ride. Jim had other plans and had to get moving but Lauren and I went to a local Mexican place and had a good post ride dinner.
A good day, good folks.........and 10,000 miles!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles Today
.................83...............0.................83
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......543.....+.........0........=.......543
July total.....1322.....+.........0........=......1322
August total...1603.....+.........0........=......1603
Sept total.....1403.....+.........0........=......1403
October.........503.....+.........0........=.......503
November........664.....+.........0........=.......664
December........265.....+.........0........=.......265
Year to date..10,041.....+........30.......=.....10,071 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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