| Quick Stats Ride Distance: 78.64 miles Elevation Gain: 6,867 feet Average Moving Speed: 13.66 mph |
The day started with a 5-mile warm-up and then the big climb of the day, 1,700 feet of elevation gain going up the west side of Seven Mile Hill between Mosier and Chenoweth. This climb has significant chunks in the 8-10% range of slopes, but also has some short respites along the way. Amy's legs aren't really warmed up this early in a ride, so I was keeping up just fine, even leading the way at times. She made a comment at one point to the effect that "it is too bad this climb couldn't be later in the ride when my legs are warmed up."
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About half way up I noticed a nice scene that would make for a great panoramic photo, with Mt. Hood on the left, a distant Columbia River in the middle and Mt. Adams to the far right. We wanted to get pictures on this ride, even bringing our little camera, but neither of us wanted to stop at this point, feeling like we had just gotten started. So we skipped the panorama photo.
We got to the top and started down the other side, which is even steeper, but has switchbacks to keep you from going too nutty with the speed. About half way down the hill I stopped to let Amy catch up. While I was waiting I heard a dog barking. I wasn't too concerned, knowing I could simply go fast downhill again, although I wished Amy would hurry up and get past this dog, which turned out to be a very large dog, perhaps a white St. Bernard, perhaps 50 yards away from me. Eventually I saw Amy approaching. I heard a strange noise and could see the dog making his way toward me, still a ways off. Finally I saw the origin of the noise: he was tied to a large tire, and the noise was the tire dragging behind him! It was apparently a heavy tire, because clearly he had to work hard to move it. But he was making progress, now considerably closer to me. Amy finally zoomed by, and I decided I didn't really want him to reach his goal, so I was off, chasing Amy yet again, as is my wont.
On the way to Cherry Heights we had another blue heeler incident. I was in front and Amy wasn't terribly close (not liking to draft), so I decided I'd better go on the offensive to allow Amy to get around him. As he was approaching, but still 20 or 30 feet away, with guns ablazing (ok, snout abarking) I used my only available offensive weapon: I barked back at him. Loud. It worked! He immediately changed his demeanor, not expecting his victim to bark back. He then turned away and barked a couple more times, but these were the I-don't-really-mean-it barks, not the snarling barks from a couple seconds prior. Yep, I guess we know who's the Big Dog now!
We got to The Dalles and filled all our water bottles (7 total) for the 50-mile loop east and south of the city. The last time we did this loop we ran a bit shy on water due to the heat. It wasn't quite as hot this time, but we were prepared with plenty of water anyway. We didn't get far before I noticed a thud-thud-thud on my bike. My rear tire had a big bulge. Bummer too, as it only had 40 miles on it prior to this ride. So we had to choose whether to go on as planned or turn back toward civilization. We chose the latter, even though we've had good experiences with bulging tires holding up fairly well. Why press the issue? We decided to take a slightly different route back to town, so the 50-mile loop became a 13-mile loop.
On the way into The Dalles again I decided to do a quick smartphone map search for bike shops to see if there was one near our route. There was, so we went there and discovered they are closed Mondays! Oh well, it was worth a shot.
The weather was truly marvelous: sunny but not too terribly hot. Even had a slight breeze at our backs by this time. As we continued our way back, stopping at the Rowena Crest viewpoint after a nice 500-foot climb, Amy suggested a couple options for adding on to our now shortened ride. One of them involved getting to the van in order to get a spare tire and then climbing that first big climb again. I was tired enough that I was pretty sure if I got to the van I would be done for the day, even if well short of a century.
So she then suggested we just re-climb Seven Mile Hill, bulging tire and all, without going back to the van. I was trapped. There was no good excuse. Yes, the bulging tire could explode at any point during the high speed descent, but that is easily avoided by simply making it a not-so-high speed descent with the use of these gadgets on bicycles called "brakes". So she got her wish. We would now be climbing the same climb we started with, and this time she is warmed up. So she is not only an excellent climber, but apparently a prophetess as well, somehow knowing back when we started that she would climb this hill when fully warmed up.
Needless to say she floated up and even held back some to keep me in sight. We did stop half way up and this time took some pictures. It had nothing to do with me badly needing a break, I just wanted to get that panorama shot this time!
Looking at my ride data I can see I was fully 7 minutes slower than the first time up this 7-mile climb, not counting the break. I believe it. I wasn't in desperately bad shape, but I was definitely far from fresh. When I was finally not too far from the top Amy had already begun her descent. Would I be able to catch her this time? Would the tire hold? Should I take it easy?
Descending with a bulging tire is a bit spooky. Your mind plays all the what ifs, particularly on the corners, even if they aren't switchbacks. But not spooky enough that I used the brakes much, if at all. That would be just wrong! If you climb a hill, the reward is the high speed descent. Period! And this side of Seven Mile Hill didn't have switchbacks, so you could really let her rip! The tire held, not only to the bottom of the hill, but also the additional 5 miles from there back to the van.
So it wasn't a full century, which means it doesn't qualify for a traditional post-century Whopper. However, this 79-mile ride actually had more climbing (6,867 feet) than the full Cherry of a Ride century does (6,154 feet). So we stopped at Charburger for a reward instead.
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