TABR 2017 Day two- Not too bad ...so far

DAY TWO - NOT BAD SO FAR

I awoke around 0500 to find that Dave was packing up to start his ride. Rolled over determined to rest until 0600. Packed my bike and put on a few layers of clothes. Process took about 15 min. I still wasn't appreciating how long all these off-bike off-race minutes were costing me during the day. Janie Hayes had mentioned with a determined voice in Astoria, almost as if she was telling herself as much as me that "you just keep on riding, always keep moving". She was, of course, right. She had been up since 0330 and was well over 100 miles ahead and I believe one rider was over 200 miles ahead.

Went looking for breakfast and quickly found a McDonalds a block away. 10 other riders where in there lounging around. Met Chris again from day one. He was shoving two pancake sausage meals, syrup and all, into a large zip lock bag. Not really sure that that was the way for me, I chose the two number 1 meals with extra hash brown and rode out of town immediately...."keep moving" yes "keep moving".

WHERE AM I GOING

I had may snazzy new Garmin Edge 1000 leading the way. The weeks previous I had dowloaded the maps and uploaded to the Edge. New to GPS mapping, I obviously had missed a step or two. I could see my tracking and it showed the race course, but I wasn't getting any cues on course correction or when the next turn would come. Missed two turns and decided to trust the paper maps that Donncha had given me.

Later on I would ride with people that had a great GPS that pointed them all the way to Yorktown. However, I would have to use good old analogue navigation from here on out. Also the Garmin used power, and if you remember, I did not have a Dynamo HUB.

MCKENZIE PASS

That was the big climb, the races' first and it was coming up soon Over 4400' climb by mid afternoon was on the agenda. The ride up to the entrance to the pass was beautiful. I was enjoying this ride. There were far less TABR riders on this stretch. I had passed Dave an hour earlier or so. The field was spreading out. I could feel a little soreness on my sit bones as I approached the last lunch stop location before McKenzie Pass. We are lucky the Pass was open. The snow had fallen pretty hard there the previous week and apparently the snowblower had just cleared a path over the top a two days previous. But first lunch. And a nap! :-) The sun was out and the temp was perfect.

To my delight, the Scenic Byway was closed to cars. We had the whole pass to ourselves. The climb through the thinning trees with patches of snow that grew with every bend that led to amazing scenery.

The climb was a good test of resolve. Not particularly steep, but 26 miles long. I would not have wanted to cross over at night as some for the leaders had done the night before. The amazing scenery would last me for a while. I believe that everybody got the picture next to the snow wall carved out by the snowblowers only a few days ago. My wife reminded me that it was my son's birthday today. I wold need to find a way to contact him.

Probably six bikers where hanging around at the top as I arrived. Looked down to my bike shoes and realized that I was missing the ratchet wheel that tightens and loosens the wire laces. There will be no place to get that fixed for days. One more thing to worry about. I took three Advil to help with muscle and undercarriage discomfort, took a picture or two and started the long and fast down hill to Sisters. One had to be careful with the sand and grit on the curves that were left-over from the winter melt. The ride down was a constant 20-30 mph for 10-15 miles. By the time I reached Sisters the scenery had drastic changed. This was now cowboy country. The air and land were super dry.

The lush green of the other side of McKenzie Pass had now converted to dry plains and hills of grasses.

Admiring the scenery and helped by a nice tail wind, I was bombing down the route...the wrong route. Damn, I took a soft left when I should have gone straight. About seven miles in it hit me; I have to turn around. Staying true to the rules, I drudged up-wind back to the intersection losing a good hour of my day and energy.

Redmond would have to be my destination. The weather was cooling down fast and I realized that sleeping outside would not be happening tonight. My weather app showed temp dropping down around 32. I did not have the equipment for roughing it at that temperature Late winter conditions were lingering on the west of the US. The colder weather would impact many riders in the coming days.

Another hotel/motel night would be on the books. That would be good as my butt was starting to really hurt and keeping things clean is important folks. I entered into town and found the motel section of town, but first I was going to hit a supermarket and get supplies for a motel meal and breakfast starter food for tomorrow. This time I would have a room to myself, as I had not seen anybody for the last few hours. At the supermarket I brought my bike in as far inside as possible for security. Left all the lights blinking away as a warning to any thievery. Couldn't resist and grabbed two big cans of beer. With my recent purchases, I found a relatively inexpensive room and it was the last room. Conversation with Jacquelynn: My time 2156 hrs...

Washed my clothes, grabbed a nice hot shower and laid everything out to dry. Ate some of my food and cracked a beer... yuck. This beer was spiced and was infused with tomato juice. How can this be! Next beer was much better. Drank about a third and had to go to sleep. I was tired - many beers would go partially consumed in the coming week. I would get an early start tomorrow. 155.3 miles today