| 3 Rides Ride Distance: 212 miles Elevation Gain: 9,767 feet Average Moving Speed: 16.00 mph |
| 1 Hike Hike Distance: 11.73 miles Elevation Gain: 5,000+ feet Average Moving Speed: 2.50 mph |
We've sort of been in a riding funk lately, neither of us are all that excited about getting out and riding. We did a bit of riding this week though anyway, and even covered some new ground, but the toughest and most rewarding event of the week wasn't even a ride...
SUNDAY: Bend Figure 8 Loop, 42 miles
We had planned to ride the day before while still in Vancouver, but the aforementioned funk kept us off our bikes. So we hit some of our favorite roads in Bend. It was a nice little ride.
MONDAY: Green Ridge OB, 74 miles
This was our new ride. Amy discovered it in a Sisters brochure during our previous week over here this year. The Sisters pamphlet had the ride originating in Sisters, so we tacked on the portion between Eagle Crest and Sisters, including the long way around to avoid a particularly nasty west-bound stretch of the Sisters-Redmond highway involving a corner, a passing lane, and very little shoulder.
It was a very nice ride. We met a fellow cyclist named Doug who tagged along with us for a few miles. He is retired and has lived in Sisters for 4 years and loves it. After riding on the newly chip-sealed Indian Ford road for a few miles, which according to Doug was dramatically better than the freeze-thaw cracks that were now covered up, we turned right onto Green Ridge Road (aka Forest Road 11, I think) and went our separate ways.
As we parted Doug shouted out that we were in for some nice climbing, and that it was a 3-tiered climb. Or at least I think that is what he said, as it is hard to hear sometimes with the wind blowing past your helmet. We hadn't really planned on doing a climbing ride, but once the newness of the revelation wore off we were both okay with forging ahead and seeing just how much climbing there was.
After a little ways I noticed a sign that informed drivers of two campgrounds ahead being open: Monty and Perry South. I found this quite amusing as these two campgrounds are on either side of my parents' property on the Metolius arm of the Cove. We were on the road that takes you to the lake from the back side! I have been on this road before, many years prior, having reached the Cove from the opposite side of Madras, and knew there was a lot of gravel road ahead. This wasn't a problem today though, because right in our cue sheet was the direction to do a U-turn when the road becomes gravel.
We rode right next to Black Butte, which was just about the only view we had. Other than forest. Tough to see mountains or other scenery when you are in a pine forest. We did see lots of chipmunks though. Every time I see them scurry across the road (at near light speed) it brings a smile to my face.
There wasn't really all that much climbing, and what there was wasn't really all that steep. Which was nice. I will say that I didn't particularly enjoy the relatively long stretch of downhill on the "out" portion of the out-and-back, just before reaching the gravel road. This just meant we had to come back up.
Very little traffic, particularly on Green Ridge Road, which was quite pleasant. All in all it was a good route for exploration purposes, but without nice views an out-and-back has a tough time competing with a good loop, in my opinion, so I doubt we'll hit this stretch again anytime soon.
WEDNESDAY: Cascade Lakes Century, 96 miles
We had originally planned to do the 140-mile 'super' version of this ride, starting from Eagle Crest, but neither of us were up for it, so we drove to Bend and started from there instead, getting all the good parts of the ride in 95 miles.
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You can read all about the route in prior years' posts. We did the counter-clockwise loop around Bachelor, which is now standard for us, including the stop at Sunriver for water. The weather was perfect. Overcast at times, a little sun here and there, but not too hot.
We stopped and got a couple photos at Devil's Lake. Amy just loves the rich green/turquoise color. She typically abhors the idea of stopping for pictures, but these were instigated by her this time. Ironically, we would be at Devil's Lake again in two days, but not for a ride...
The climb back up to Century Drive (a little ways after Sunriver) is usually hard on me as it often includes a hot sun directly on your back and a slight tail-wind so that the air is dead calm as you ride slowly with the wind up the hill. Not this day. This day was relatively cool, and even though the sun did come out a time or two on the climb, the wind was in our favor, either still or even an ever so slight head wind, which translates to air movement on one's skin and provides the desired cooling effect from one's perspiration. In fact it was so nice that I noticed the climb isn't really all that tough, with long stretches of only 2 or 3%, so I am all the more convinced that my struggle in years past has everything to do with overheating and nothing to do with the difficulty of the climb itself.
FRIDAY: South Sister Hike, 6 miles up 5,000 feet, 6 miles down 5,000 feet
My oldest brother had suggested some months (or maybe years) ago that we should climb the South Sister sometime. It is a nice trail, as far as trails that summit 10,000-foot mountains go. I investigated on-line and so we decided to tackle it.
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The reasons not to go? We haven't hiked at all this year. We didn't bring any hiking gear whatsoever.
The reasons to go for it? We are in great cardio-shape from cycling. We did bring our running/walking shoes. Much of our cycling gear can be used for hiking (water bottles, food, jerseys, jackets, etc.). I happened to bring my back pack along on the vacation, which would be a necessity in order to have enough water.
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Some details of the hike. It starts out of Devil's Lake parking lot at about elevation 5,500 feet. The summit of the South Sister, the third highest mountain in Oregon, is 6 miles later at elevation 10,358 feet. Most of the hike is at a significant grade, even the first mile or two, with the only relatively flat section being the short segment near Moraine Lake.
We decided to go for it. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and all of our makeshift gear worked out just fine.
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It turns out that bicycling is an excellent way to be prepared for the cardio-aspect of hiking. We both floated right up the mountain, passing several other climbers and never getting passed ourselves.
It also turns out that bicycling is a horrible way to train for descending a mountain on foot. Okay, this is relatively obvious, and we expected to struggle a bit with muscle issues and/or blister issues, but in the end we made it down without too much trouble. There was some extra incentive though. While descending we noticed dark clouds starting to hover near Mt. Bachelor, and even started hearing thunder. Our car is in that direction. We only took a few very short breaks. The breaks were functional in nature and not respite-driven: empty pebbles from shoes; step aside to allow several climbers to pass (we estimate 50 to 75 people still going up as we descended); pick up two of our stashed water bottles from under a tree; etc.
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The timing of the thunder was often punctuating what one of us would say. "Those clouds look ominous." BOOM! "We need to keep moving!" CRACK! "We gotta get to the van ahead of this storm!" BOOM! It was the sort of thing that, though somehow both ominous and hilarious at the same time, it punctuated the seriousness of the situation and kept us highly motivated to keep moving, even though our muscles were quite tired from all the braking on the descent.
The final mile and a half descending through the forest took forever. We had been warned about this on one of the websites about this particular hike. Every step was achy from tired muscles, but eventually we made it. Just under 7 hours for the whole thing.
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Not 10 minutes after we got to the van it started to pour. As we drove away we looked back and the mountain was enveloped in nasty looking clouds. We were quite thankful we started early.
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| Maps showing all rides: 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 • 2009 • All Rides |
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