Daily Summary

It Was A Great Ride Day

The temperatures were coolish to start, but the day got very sunny and nice as the day went on. It was comfortable the entire time. The scenery was awesome as we worked back towards the Portland area. The road we were on was incredibly low traffic. At one point, I don’t think a single car passed for close to an hour! Everyone agreed it was a great day and we hope for more like it.

I forgot to get some pictures, but most of what you would have seen were just lots of trees and views of hills and mountains.

Planned Vs Actual

I played it safe with my leg and had them shuttle me past the 4 steep hills today. So, I had about 15 miles less than planned (13 miles of the 15 were climbing and the other 2 were because we needed a to find a safe place to pull over for me to get in and out of the van with my bike) and about 2,000 feet less climbing. The screen shot shows more climbing but that is because it is somehow still keeping the grayed out portion. The other portions I skipped are not shown, but I forgot to pause the ride for the final shuttle and so that is why the gray is there. 

A few other spots on the graph look odd because the graph is shown as a continuous timeline and You can see a few spots where I jumped up instantaneously. That because I paused, drove up the hill, and then restarted.

The good news is that my leg held up and I feel pretty good still. Tomorrow there is only a single 5 mile climb that isn’t too steep and so I will likely do it at a mellow pace if I can.

Everyone again went at a solid, but not crazy pace, and I kept my average heart rate down below 120 again and had barely 20% in zone 3. It still feels very sustainable and my leg didn’t seem to mind. 

It Was A Good Food Day

We started with breakfast at a local place called Pig & Pancake. You can see the picture of the awesome sausage, egg, and hashbrown bowl I got. At lunch, they had a burrito bar complete with GF tortillas for me! They had chicken, guacamole, beans, cheese, hummus, salsa, corn chips, and drinks. Lunch was both tasty and healthy and I’m realizing that I won’t be just eating empty calories.

I had mentioned to a guide how much I like Dr Peppers for energy and caffeine late in a ride and he added some Dr Pepper to the cooler today! The guides are doing a great job so far and it was interesting to see the behind-the-scenes action when I was in the van.

Dinner was a burger and potato salad at a local pub. I had some various gels and other snacks during the ride.

An E-Bike Learning Moment

There is a much older gentleman on the ride using an e-bike because he can’t handle the hills and distance as well anymore. His bike ran out of battery during the final multi-mile hill. Keep in mind that you still have to pedal e-bikes and they just help out. He was still putting in a serious effort all day.

E-bikes are super heavy. So, now he was tired late in the day and having to pedal a heavy bike up the steepest hill of the day. Apparently, he fell over twice due to going too slow (I had shuttled past so didn’t see it personally). Falling over can happen when you have clipped in shoes. If you slow too much, you’ll simply fall over. By the time you realize you’re falling, it is too late to pop your foot out. (I can speak from experience from having fallen over a couple times when I was getting used to clipping in)

He got banged up and they gave him a ride back the last 10 miles. My point here is to keep in mind the need to plan battery use very carefully if you ride an e-bike! Luckily, he’s ok and was back to himself an hour later at dinner.

The Local Fauna

Now for something a bit nasty but interesting. Stop here if you don’t want to be grossed out…

I had heard of banana slugs and know some sports teams out west go by that name as well. What I didn’t realize is how big they are. The other picture is of a 6 inch long, one inch around banana slug. And, if you look carefully, you’ll see that yes, the slug really is eating some sort of animal poop!  I think that’s a good place to sign off.