Madras Fall Weekend

We compared the Vancouver forecast to the Madras forecast and decided it was time to head to Sunny Central Oregon for the weekend.

I'm gonna change it up, get a little out of control, and put the map first. I know, utter insanity, but there it is. Anyway, in the map Saturday's ride is red, Sunday's ride is yellow, and they are orange where they overlap.

RIDE MAP IN GOOGLE EARTH:

Maps showing all rides: 2011 Rides • 2010 Rides • 2009 Rides • All Rides

We have now finally ridden more miles this year (4,375) than we did two years ago (4,304). Still a ways to go to surpass last year's 5,000 miles. We might make it. We definitely won't hit our original goal of 6,000 miles. The cruddy spring weather made sure of that! You can see all this stat stuff on the Ride Stats By Year page (which is also linked at the top).

Saturday's Ride (10/1) Ride Distance: 61.62 miles   Elevation Gain: 2932 feet   Average Moving Speed: 15.17 mph

Saturday's ride is very similar to what we did back in May of this year. The only difference is that this time we didn't make the 10-mile out-and-back jaunt to the water tanks southwest of Culver.

RIDE DATA:

It was a nice ride, but it would have been better had we not decided to consciously ignore our own advice in the write-up from last time. The advice was to change up the order of things so we don't immediately start climbing up Belmont Lane at the beginning of the ride. However, we were also wanting to get the first half of the ride done as soon as possible so as to avoid the later morning traffic when riding through Madras proper. I am not sure why we were concerned about it as the traffic in Madras is just not even close to the level that would warrant concern, but alas, this was our logic at the time.

All that to say that it was a bit of a struggle to get going. But it was still a nice ride.

Except for the dog. Just after we crossed the railroad tracks in Gateway (which is right when you start going up hill) a blue heeler decided to provide us with some company. We reorganized so that I was closest to him as Amy sped away, and I was matching snarls and barks as best I could, ready to click-out and kick as needed, but he never got quite that close. In fact he gave up, or would have had us think he gave up. We saw him run off in the direction he came from, but partially out of sight behind some structures (barns or sheds, perhaps). Except his running off was not running off and slowing down and stopping and looking at us with disappointment. No, his running off was maintaining relative speed with us, just without being right next to us.

Sure enough, in about a block he reappeared to provide us with more snarling company. He again got close, but not within kicking distance, so all ended reasonably well for both parties. Though I think my dear wife would like my shoe to occasionally connect with these out-of-control dogs.

If you own a dog and let him roam the streets 1) you are an irresponsible jerk and 2) don't be surprised if your dog's head gets bashed in one day. It would be entirely your fault. Speaking of fault, maybe I should look into a more proactive way of dealing with this... perhaps calling the authorities? A snarling menace on the public right-of-way is a clear and present danger to public safety. Hmmm, clear and present danger... I wonder what Jack Ryan would do? Okay I think calling in a smart bomb is probably a little over the top.

Sunday's Ride (10/2) Ride Distance: 53.13 miles   Elevation Gain: 2126 feet   Average Moving Speed: 14.62 mph

You might think by looking at the map that we simply rode the same route but cut off the last part down to Gateway. You'd be close, but not quite right. We got smart and started with a 9-mile warmup loop on the plains before heading down to Madras and starting the climbing up to Round Butte. It worked fairly well, though our legs were definitely feeling the prior day's ride.

RIDE DATA:

As we approached the summit near Round Butte the sun was on our backs and I was getting warm. I decided to remove my jacket. Not two minutes later the jacket went back on. The wind was picking up, and it was quite cool.

A few miles later while headed due south we were fighting a pretty nasty headwind. Our speed dropped to the 10 mph range for a few miles. Occasionally it would be so ridiculous that we would both start cracking up with laughter. My iBike showed a max wind speed of 28 mph. We almost turned around so that we could enjoy a tailwind and also try riding the other direction on the route traveled so far. But we forged ahead, knowing, or rather hoping, the tailwind would come if we stuck to the route.

We've heard someplace that when fighting a headwind don't push it too hard. Instead, save your energy so you can push it a little more than you normally would during a tailwind. I think it is good advice. Your body already has to work harder in a headwind just to hang on to the bike and maintain balance, so you can really wear yourself out if you also push it even harder.

We turned east and got a reprieve from the headwind, but instead were dealing with a nasty crosswind for 2 or 3 miles. It all became worth it when we finally turned north for the long stretch back toward Madras. I'd like to say that we pushed it fairly hard in the tailwind, heeding the advice mentioned earlier, but we didn't. We just cruised, often going 26 to 28 mph with the wind doing most of the work. It was quite fun.

When we got north of Madras and onto Clark Drive our plan was to turn west on Dogwood Lane and either head back once we hit North Adams Drive or do a reverse (clockwise) Gateway loop. However, as we were still heading north with that glorious tailwind we were tempted to continue all the way to Gateway like the day before. But we knew the ride doesn't end in Gateway. After Gateway you've got several miles heading due south in order to get back. That would be directly into the headwind south. Yuck. So we decided to skip the Gateway section altogether.

It was nice having the sun most of the day, but the wind made it a pretty tough ride. Having grown up in Madras I recall this as a fairly typical fall day.

On the other hand, when it comes to riding a bicycle I'll take the wind over the rain any day. I'm not sure Amy totally agrees as the wind blows her small body around a lot more than my bigger body. We never did get rained on though, and that was why we came over.