Daily Summary

The Ride

Today was a pretty hilly but super nice ride. We started in the wet, heavy forest zone and finished in the dry, almost treeless zone. A good chunk of the day was on trails to start and then we finished along some lightly travelled side roads.

The most interesting part was a 6 mile ride along I-84. Out west, there are areas where the only road is the interstate and you have to ride along the shoulder. It is legal and necessary. We all stayed together until we finished that leg so we had a highly visible group. Ironically, it felt super safe because the shoulder is so wide. I’d rather ride on an interstate than many of the other roads, as it ends up…

You can see a couple images from early below and a sign for the one trail we rode on. The trail used to be a road. After they build better roads, they turned the old road into a trail.

You can also see a couple views from the ride. We went along the Columbia river pretty much all day. We started in Oregon, went into the other side of the river and Washington for a while, and then crossed into Oregon for the hotel. In the last picture of me below, you can see Mount Hood off my shoulder.

There isn’t much here, so we are at a local, non-chain, old school motel. It isn’t bad.

You may be wondering what the stupid looking blue things are by my ears. I forgot to bring my head cover and it was cold. So, I took an arm warmer and put it over my head. The helmet held it down and it actually work fine to keep my ears warm even if I won’t win a fashion award.

The Wind

It was by far the windiest day I ever rode. There were 20 – 25 mph consistent winds with gusts beyond that. As we approached the top of the biggest mountain on the left side of the graph, it got pretty dicey. I was getting blown around and actually had trouble not falling over a few times. I thought maybe it felt worse to me than it was, but a couple guys mentioned that they saw me slide over at least a foot almost instantaneously when the wind hit me one time.

I am lighter than the others and also have a wide torso that catches the wind. So, the wind was doing a job on me. I was white knuckling all the way down that mountain and using my brakes to keep my speed low in case I got blown over. I came VERY close to having the van pick me up, but made it down. I was going back and forth in my head whether I needed to man up and power through or if I was being foolish. Given nobody else was having the same level of problem, it made it pretty frustrating along with the scare.

When we crossed the river both times, the side winds were outrageous. I was having to lean my body to the side to stay up and also was getting blown to the side fairly frequently.

So, this was by far the scariest biking day I’ve ever had. I will be avoiding heavy wind days whenever I can in the future (after this tour is done).  I am very glad to have this one safely behind me. The winds are going to die down tonight, so tomorrow should be fine.

The only upside of the winds was that we had it fully at our backs for about 20 miles at the end, which made the hills easier. But we ended up with a slow average pace due to the headwinds and hills.

Planned Vs Actual & Leg Update

Today was some of the last steep hills for a while. The first hill 3 miles in had a half mile that averaged 12% grade and hit 16% – 17% for a bit. I protected my leg and had them shuttle me past that hill. So, I started about 6 miles in. Then, at our final rest stop most of the way up the last long hill, I could tell my leg was close to done. So, I had them drive me up the last 2 miles of hill. I didn’t want to push it and mess it up when I was so close to done. Plus, I did manage to get through over 4,000 feet with is by far the most since I hurt it.

The leg is still holding steady and sore. I plan to skip the opening steep hill tomorrow and then I will have five full days with the rest of tomorrow without any hills steep enough that I am worried about the pressure they’d put on my leg.

The next 3 days include two 90+ mile days with lots of rolling hills. I guess I’ll be testing how much stamina the leg has tomorrow. 

The Food

A few people had said they wanted detailed food logs. I was given some “gentle coaching” by my wife that perhaps I should dial it back for general consumption. Thus, a brief summary of just the interesting parts will be provided starting today.

The hotel breakfast was amazing today. I got a full sized, 8 inch sausage with my eggs and potatoes instead of just typical breakfast sausage. It set me up for the day.

You can see the place we ate dinner in the pictures below. As soon as I saw the sign, I knew it was going to be good. It was established in 1968 and was a super old school, casual steakhouse. I got a 12oz chopped steak, mashed potatoes, applesauce, a salad, and an ice cream sunday for dessert. It was awesome.

I’ve always been into eating at local places when travelling and didn’t fully appreciate the awesome level of food tourism I’m going to get to do here. A bonus!