The Flying Aquarian RAO training route

Today Ken and I rode a 100 mile route from Tygh Valley that was pioneered by Lauren and I last year as a training/preview ride for Race Across Oregon. 2 other members of my social bike club didn't come today. One changed her mind and let me know, the other just didn't show up. Grrrr.... I hate no shows.

Ken and I began today's ride in Tygh Valley. The roads were damp from a night shower, but not splashy wet. Good thing, neither of us had fenders.


We had seen 6 road killed deer yesterday and before too long we saw our first of the day.


We hoped it was more a case of errors on part of the deer rather than errors on the part of vehicles.... cyclists don't fair much better than deer when tangling with cars.

Neither of us had time constraints today and Ken had never seen White River Falls so we took the opportunity to play tourist.


We got back on the bikes and made our way down to the Deschutes River at Shearers Falls. It is a site rich in history as a tribal fishing site, and even today Native Americans dip salmon from the river while standing on flimsy looking platforms overhanging the frothy waters.

From Shearers Falls we rode downstream along the Deschutes for a short distance.


In short order we turned toward Grass Valley and rode what we've come to know as "Lauren's Hill" after my 2010 Race Across Oregon partner. She had her heart set on riding this long tortuous climb, and absolutely rocked it. Neither Ken nor I would be riding it that hard today!


Part way up we came across the scene of an apparently recent accident.
Suddenly an old Harry Chapin song began going through my head, lyrics went "he said, 'God, make it a dream' as he rode his last ride down".


Ken continued to show me why I'm not in his league as we climbed this hill to Grass Valley. But a funny thing happened, as we neared Grass Valley I gained on him. We made a brief stop in Grass Valley to rehydrate and refill our calorie reserves, then headed south toward Shaniko, 30 miles in the distance via a continued but gentler climb, and into a noticeable headwind. Before I knew it Ken was lagging behind.

I was not pedaling hard, but it was more than Ken had in him at this point. I arrived in Shaniko with a 17 minute lead on him.
We spent 45 minutes there eating just about everything that little store had on the shelves. ;-)

We then turned northward toward Bakeoven Rd and it's fabled crazy fun descent to the Deschutes River. Before we could do that fun descent though we had to continue to climb a bit to our highest point on today's ride. We reached the Bakeoven Summit then playing in the rolling country a bit. Ken was still lagging. I told him I needed to savor the moment, it's not often that I find myself leading him!

All jest aside, it did make me feel a bit better. Not that I out rode Ken, but that I could ride strong after significant miles and climbing. I have been in the shadow of better riders for the last several months as was beginning to worry about my bike fitness a bit. Today I remembered my little mantra, "I'm not the strongest rider, I'm not the fastest rider, but what I have going for me is that I can ride at a decent pace all day, all night, and all the next day if I have to". I just played around not wanting to drop Ken.

We arrived at the power substation marking the beginning of the descent into the Deschutes Canyon. I took the first sweeping turn at a brisk pace and was picking up speed. Up comes the second curve and I'm on the aerobars and into my groove picking up speed. Up comes the third and whoa, gravel! The next curve same issue. I note that new gravel has been applied to the shoulders of the paved road, and it's been dragged across the turns. Ken and I reluctantly brake our way down the hill at 10-15 mph instead of 50 mph.

We do eventually reach the Deschutes River at Maupin.




We climbed up away from the Deschutes River and headed toward Tygh Valley.


I was still able to ride away from Ken at will.


I was having so much fun today. I was riding strong and it had not so much as rained a single drop on us (and the text messages I was getting was letting us know that it was raining back home!)

I got back to Maupin just a bit ahead of Ken, I took the opportunity to "round up" to the next mile. I stretched the 100 mile route to 101. :-)

We loaded bikes, changed into street clothes and headed to The Dalles for pizza!

You can see the rest of the photos from today's trip HERE

.........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.......101..............0.............0..........0.........101
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.....1049..............0.............0..........0........1049
Sept.......1153..............0............50..........0........1213
Oct.........201..............0.............0..........0.........201
YTD........7506..............0............87..........7........7690