Reuben (read some previous blog entries if you’re not already familiar with the fact that this guy is the source of a lot of hilariousness this summer) proposed to myself on Wednesday afternoon that we modify the previous day’s riding schedule to take in some additional miles and additional elevation on the way from Baker city to Huntington. Having had a significantly improved day in the saddle after switching seats for a day I decided it was a good idea and took him up on the offer. 15 more people also got on board for this detour after seeing the success of “detouring” on Monday and a few more easy riding days on the horizon.
Reuben had raced in the area 4 weeks prior and one of the stages in the race had finished on top of a mountain pass somewhere between Baker city and Huntington. After looking the details up on Google the directions were identified and the route was supposed to add something like 2500 feet of elevation and 10 miles to the journey.
Setting out at 8 am we rode 10 miles to the base of the climb and then the unannounced race began. The hill was 9 miles long and had a grade somewhere between 4 and 5 to my best guess, completely manageable to tackle in one shot especially considering that we had shade from the trees on the way up. Within a mile the pack had split and within another mile Reuben had dropped the lead group. John Vanderveen, Ryan Bruxvoort, Theo Bandstra, and Mark Brower and myself followed together for 5 miles and then split off each at their own pace. John won the king of the mountains title to the surprise of lots of us, he hasn’t put in nearly as much time in the bike seat as most of the rest of us. Mark took second and I was third (Reuben is ineligible for these awards because we don’t have a chance to think of dethroning him).
Following the arrival of the others we set off down the other side with 15 second gaps. Reuben second last and myself last. By the time we had reached the bottom Reuben and I had worked our way through the field and emerged in 4th and 5th. My weight and Reuben’s skill and a bit of co-operation on the descent made for what was probably the most exciting 10 miles yet this summer. Hovering between 55 and 65 kph we wound our way down through the trees and corners chins centimeters above the handlebars. The combination of curves and grade was a perfect mix accelerating us just enough that a bit of braking was required in some of the corners but it didn’t feel like we were wasting our speed. That’s probably the worst thing a road can do, make you work hard to gain elevation and then force you to loose the speed with the brakes.
After grouping up and setting out to re-join the planned route we set off through a picturesque valley complete with cows on the road, tractors haying in the fields, horses running alongside us across the fence and a rather curvy road to follow. All was going well until the pavement ran out.
Now the internet search the night before seemed to suggest we’d have pavement all the way back to the main road but that wasn’t exactly the case. After discussing with a local our options were 20 miles on the gravel road or heading back over the pass to town and doing the day’s journey from the start. 16 of us opted to climb the pass and Sylvan Addink opted to tackle the gravel road (equipped with the only bike suitable for the journey and 7 spare tubes for flats and bottles brimming with water).
The second ascent included zero racing as we realized that we now faced a day total of approximately 180 kilometers instead of the 90 we had planned. This time at the summit we remembered to do the group photo and cracked some jokes about the fact that we were destined to do any pass twice if it was called “Dooley”. The second descent was also amazing and setting off in last place again I emerged third at the bottom. It serves all the skinny 5 foot 6 inch guys right that they can’t go as quick. They didn’t have to lug 195 lbs up the hill in the first place.
Back in town we strolled through the local safeway, made use of the “buy three get one free” deal on 1 liter gatorade bottles, stocked our pockets with energy bars and decided to finally get started on the day’s route at 1:15 in the afternoon.
The ride south was fantastic as we generally were loosing elevation and had the blessing of wind ¾ from the rear. After leaving town with the fast boys (Reuben, Nick, Tyler and Ryan) we quickly came upon Larry Stehower, Mark Stehower (father & son from Kalamazoo Michigan), and Eritia Smit who I opted to join for the rest of the ride into Huntington. We cruised along between 40 and 50 and watched the average speed for the day rise and rise and rise. That’s not something that usually happens as you approach the 100 mile mark in a ride. By the time we rolled into Huntington the average had creeped above 30 kph and the grand total for the day was 182.3 kilometers and time in the saddle was 5 hours 59 minutes.
So the moral of the story is that there are more people who are classified as crazy than there were at the beginning of the week. While that is kinda true, the real moral of the story is that we’re incredibly blessed. We set out with bad plans but the day turned out to be spectacular. We set out with enough water to get us about 60 kilometers until we were going to be back on route. Unfortunately we weren’t back on route for 105 kilometers. Fortunately we were able to get water from at tap at the post office in the middle of no-where. We had a tailwind and downhill to finish.
