Troutdale - Larch OB

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	46.39 miles	2730 miles
Elevation Gain	4270 feet	28.54 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.3 mph	15.0 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

We had originally planned to drive out to Trout Lake, Washington and ride around Mt. Adams. However, I wasn't feeling up to such a long day - a 2 hour drive on either end of a long bike ride. So instead we drove to Troutdale and rode up to Larch Mountain in order to get in some good climbing. Plus, in retrospect, it was so cloudy today I'm not sure we would have had the spectacular views of Mt. Adams that we wanted. So probably ended up for the best. We'll just have to hit Mt. Adams another day. Hopefully we can squeeze it in sometime this year. Gonna be tough though as the weekends are mostly booked. :(

Prior to this we have had two separate occasions where we rode up into the mountains and it was colder than we had expected. The Mountain Lakes Challenge in Ashland and then two weeks later our first attempt up Mt. St. Helens this year, the VBC Tour de Blast. In both cases we were blessed to have made the right call, and had ample clothing to keep warm (including extra gloves and shoe covers, or "toesties").

Johnston Ridge:

Troutdale - Larch OB:

So what exactly was it about today that made us forget those lessons? I'm guessing it was blazing hot ride just three days prior. And the fact that the forecast called for 60s and 70s. The forecast for Troutdale, that is. I should have checked the forecast for Government Camp as it is similar in elevation and not too far from Larch Mountain.

The second half of the ascent was very cold. I started without leg warmers and had to stop to put them on. Thankfully we at least had jackets. But no extra gloves or toesties. In other words, the descent was quite chilly. My hands and feet were the problem. My ears were okay as they were covered with my bandanna. I gave Aim my extra bandanna and she covered her face with it. From then on I kept sticking up my hands and giving her all my money.

In all seriousness I almost ran off the road at one point on the descent. Nothing to do with sticking up my hands or being cold though. Just looked down at something, probably to see what gear I was in, and veered a bit to the right. Actually was off the pavement in the gravel about a foot or so, but managed to keep it upright and move back onto the pavement. Nothing like an almost disaster for a good reminder to pay attention!

My thermometer was stuck in the 40s and 50s for much of the ride. Pretty much half of what it was saying only 3 days prior in our ride to Johnston Ridge.

I've included a temperature graph of each ride here for easy comparison. In both graphs the brown line is the elevation profile of the ride and the magenta line is the temperature. Almost opposites. What a difference three days make!

You may wonder why we are doing all this climbing. We are hoping to tackle the Mt. Shasta Summit Century in a few weeks. It has 10,500 feet of climbing in 100 miles. Then in September I hope to dramatically improve upon my result from last year's Ring of Fire out of Maupin, Oregon.

Maps showing all rides: 2010 Rides • 2009 Rides • All Rides