80% of the Covered Bridges, 70% of the miles

I joined 10 others on a ride to see 5 covered bridges.  The weather was predicted to be a little wet from 7:30-9AM, then dry out. Perfect, since our ride was to begin at 9 AM.  It was a wet 50 mile drive to Scio, our starting location. It was still drizzling lightly as we started spinning pedals.  I put on all my raingear, figuring I could always take off layers if I got warm.

Dave S photo

 A few of us were prepared for rain, some where not.  As the Oregon Randonneurs like to say, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices. It never really rained (by Oregon standards anyway) but it drizzled most of the time. Sometimes it was more like heavy fog.

Dave's waterproof camera came in handy

Gilkey Bridge

The drizzle would lighten up from time to time, giving us hope.

We were traveling at a relaxed pace to take in the view.  While that made for easier riding, we weren't generating much heat, and those who made poor clothing choices were suffering a bit. The temperature ranged from 45 degrees to 49 degrees while we were riding, so it wasn't really all that cold.

Hoffman Bridge

I was riding sweep again, and the pace was just a bit faster than advertised most of the time. It was advertised as a 15 mph on the flat sections, and no drop.  Several times I'd find myself keeping a couple of the slower riders company, about a mile behind the lead group. I define that as being dropped, but then I'm not the ride leader.

Larwood Bridge

As I arrived at our 4th bridge, I could hear the others discussing bail out plans.

Shimanek Bridge

 The route for today's ride was not published ahead of the ride.  No problem, I figured I'd just play follow the leader today. Suddenly I was being tapped to lead anyone that wanted to finish up the planned route while the others pulled the plug and were riding back to our cars.  Cold and miserable is not fun.  Dave and I were dressed for the weather and wanted to ride to the last bridge, but neither of us knew the route.  So we followed the others back to Scio.   We'd miss 20% of the planned covered bridges today, and cut 30% of the miles off.

With the 100+ mile round trip to get there, it as disappointing to not ride the full meal deal.  It was still a fun ride though.

4 of us met in Salem (about half way home) for a little post ride debriefing. Some were still cold...... some of us brought warm dry clothes to change into.  ;-)

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .......33................0...................0.......................0............33
Jan............0................0...............,...0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......133................0..................0........................0..........133
YTD...... 257...............0...................0.......................0...........257