Traffic was light early Sunday morning and I covered the 33 miles at a reasonable pace.
The loyal blog reader and I made our way northward. We took back roads and in this part of the country I bored her to tears with pointing out which uncle lived where, etc. at nearly every bend in the road. She had a bit of a headache so we stopped in Yamhill for some pain meds. I also took the opportunity to have a fudgecicle and my friend had a V-8. "I could have had a V-8" but didn't.
We crossed over the busy Hwy 47 and headed toward Newberg but turned northward on Laughlin Rd. We passed by the long emptied townsite of Dewey....
...then continued toward Gaston. The day was beginning to warm up and we were hitting the water bottles pretty hard. We detoured slightly to take advantage of the water fountain at the ball field on the edge of Gaston.
We refilled bottles again in Cornelius, then made the final push to Hillsboro where I had made arrangements to do a quick job for my mom. Mom had done herself proud. She had the counter full of watermelon and cantaloupe slices and fresh baked cookies.
I took care of my "job" and we both did our best to eat all the goodies laid out! We visited for a short time then pedaled off, knowing that we had a way to go yet today.
As we pedaled along about 18 mph I demonstrated my skills at multitasking.
We left Hillsboro via River Rd and Farmington Rd. Before long we were gazing at the beginning of the climb up Bald Peak. The temperature was just over 90 degrees and the loyal blog reader had 50 miles showing on the odometer (I had 83) The grade most of the time was between 7 and 15%. It didn't take long to begin seeing the fruit of our labor.
The labor proved to be a bit much on this hot day for the loyal blog reader.
She didn't walk much, but I did manage to get a photo.
She was working hard today. I was keeping my heart rate below 120. I decided to remedy the situation a bit by lending a hand and pushing her as I rode next to her. Speed increased, as did my heart rate!
After a bit even this wasn't enough.In this age of cell phones help is never far away. A call was made and before long one of her friends came out to help.
The friend saved the loyal blog reader the last 1.5 miles of climbing. I pedaled up the hill where we regrouped for the descent to Newberg. The intended route had us skirting Newberg on North Valley Rd, but the heat of the day made a stop in Newberg necessary. We refilled water bottles and cooled ourselves off with ice cream.
The loyal blog reader was ready to cash her chips in. We were only ~15 miles from her home but she was beat. After a few phone calls and texts it was determined that she was just going to have to ride the bike. We hopped on the bikes and started off. She was toast but persevered. Every little rise in the road was met with a drastic reduction of the already slowed speed. We stopped in Lafayette for another cold V-8.
We eventually reached McMinnville. The shadows we beginning to indicate that the day was drawing to a close.
It was none too soon for my friend. She ended up with 78 miles, pretty darn close to what she wanted, and a hill.... just a bit more than she wanted. ;-)
I didn't dally, I had less and hour and half to sundown, and two hours until dark to cover the 33 miles back to Wilsonville.
I had my 1W front LED blinkie in my pack and my 300 lumen LED "commuter light" along also just in case. I pedaled pretty hard in an attempt to finish before needing the lights. Lights or not, statistics show riding at night is just not as safe.
As I reached Newberg I turned on the rear red blinkie. Wilsonville Rd is a bit twisty and shaded. Even in daylight I feel safer with the rear light on. Just as I reached Wilsonville I put on the front blinkie. The sun had gone down and I wanted to be more visible to drivers pulling out in front of me. I never did have the need for the bright commuter light. Seeing the road was never an issue as I managed to finish up before dark.
A 151 mile day, not too bad.
........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.......151..............0.............0..........0.........151
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......502..............0.............0..........0.........502
April.......524..............0.............0..........0.........524
May........1003..............0.............0..........0........1003
June.......1016..............0............10..........0........1026
July.......1148..............0.............0..........0........1148
August......812..............0.............0..........0.........812
YTD........6013..............0............37..........7........6057
What a wimp. Never needed SAG support until the day it's not offered! I fear I was nearing exhaustion from the heat- but wow, that was certainly a challenge regardless! I want to try it again sometime when I'm fresh and not in the hottest part of the day. Beautiful day for a ride though! Thanks again, Kevin! :)
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