Those that train, DO; those that don't, CREW!

It was going to be a wet day in NW Oregon, what better excuse to travel to the "dry side" and do a little biking.  After being reminded by Facebook that I had been there before, the plan today was to ride 100 miles starting from Tygh Valley.  The route would include 70 miles of the Race Across Oregon course. Highly accomplished ultra distance athlete, Lisa, decided to join the fun today, primarily as a way to preview part of the RAO course.

It was a 130 mile drive for me to get there, and I ran windshield wipers for the first 105 miles, before breaking out of the rain.

Within 15 minutes of arriving, Lisa drove in.  She was coming from the opposite direction and a slightly farther distance away.  Before long we were on our bikes and pedaling.  Our first stop was White River Falls. Lisa had never seen the falls before, and I'm always up for a repeat.

The first drop of this multi drop falls

Today we would satisfy ourselves with the sights from the overlook and  not take the hike down to the old powerhouse.

Before long we were back on the road.  It was going to be a nice day for a hundred mile bike ride.

We took the fun descent down to Shearer's Falls and began the climb up "Lauren's Hill" toward Grass Valley.  Lisa is in training for some big races, I haven't biked a century since September 11th, 2015, and am not in training for anything. While she has been training, I've been watching others ride. Needless to say, she is able to ride circles around me.  I knew that she'd want to challenge Lauren's Hill. so I told her to hammer away and we'd meet at the top.

She accepted that offer with a big smile and she was off!

I wouldn't see her again for nearly 45 minutes. She reached the top of the serious climbing and turned around to repeat the hill. She met me before she had to go too far back down.

Lisa's photo

We rode into Grass Valley planning on a rest stop at the little convenience store there, only to find that it was closed (as in out of business closed).  No problem, we were both carrying enough supplies to continue on.

The weather was nice, but windy.  We rode against a 20 mph headwind toward Shaniko.  This 30 mile segment can be a chore, and today would be. Luckily, the roadway has been resurfaced and was as smooth as butter.

The road between Grass Valley and Shaniko might look flat, but it is ascending.  With the uphill pull, and the wind, this slow old guy was slowing Lisa down.  I had plenty of time to think.  I decided that if she wanted to get a bonus hill in, and see 10 more miles of the RAO course, she could ride the hill from Antelope to Shaniko while waiting for me.  She again accepted the invitation and rode off.  This time it would be several hours before I saw her again. The clouds had been building for the last few hours, and finally some of those clouds were dropping rain. While Lisa was off the front searching for bonus climbing I got hit with one 11 minute hail storm.  I put on my windbreaker, rethinking my earlier decision to leave the rain coat in my pickup.  Luckily, that storm blew over quickly and the sky cleared up again.

As it ended up, Lisa suffered through one rain shower, but was having a good time.

Lisa's photo

The ill hatched plan was for me to arrive in Shaniko and soft pedal along, allowing Lisa to catch me.  As I pedaled into Shaniko I realized the flaw.  I didn't know if she was still out by Antelope, or if she was ahead of me pedaling hard to catch up with me.  I pedaled along moderately, keeping an eye on my mirror.  The road turned into the wind.  It was hard going.  I finally stopped and sent a text to her, knowing that in this part of Oregon, cell signals are few and far between.  It might be a long time before she'd see the message.
As it ended up, she was behind me.  ....a long way behind me.  I told her I would stop at the second power substation.  That marks the beginning of the descent to the Deschutes River, and I wanted to warn her about possible gravel in the turns. As I pedaled along I took a few photos.

Tygh Valley in the distance

I saw quite a few deer, most scampered away before I could get my camera out.

About 30 minutes later she rolls up and catches me resting.

Lisa's photo

She too found it to be a very challenging segment.  We compared notes on the day so far, then began the descent.  With the wind blowing in the canyon what normally is a 40+ mph descent turned into a 25 mph descent.

We rolled through Maupin, then began the climb out of the canyon.  My legs were feeling a bit tired, Lisa of course felt fine. She was kind and waited for me at the top.

We continued along toward Tygh Valley, taking advantage of the low traffic numbers to ride side by side visiting.  Finally we took the fun 2 mile descent into Tygh Valley, carefully taking the left turn into "down town".  The end surprised Lisa, who was expecting more miles, and was looking forward to the down hill stretch just ahead.

Today she'd have to be satisfied with her 121 miles, I was satisfied with my 100 miles.

We loaded bikes and drove down to The Dalles for a bite to eat before each heading our separate ways.

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ........100................0...................0.......................0...........100
Jan...............0................0...............,...0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........240...............0..................0.......................0...........240
YTD...... 1200...............0...................0.......................0..........1200