Today was a really short day i beleive it was the second shortest day of the tour. We took it easy and didnt leave camp until around 8:30. We then just cruised into the town of Ontario with an awesome tailwind. Now we are all just kinda chilling around town.
The internet on the tour is really hit and miss, sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. Right now im sitting in a library near our camp posting this. Sorry if im not very regular in the whole posting deal.
On Wednesday Jon, Alex and I decided to mix it up a bit and bike with some older guys, we biked with Adrian, Dale and Ed. This was later dubbed “intentional, intergeneration intermingling.” It was a really fun day. When we were about 20km from the town we were ending up in we decided to stop for a bite to eat. Jon, Alex and I ended up getting steak. The steak was incredible. It was just a little bitr hard to get biking again when we finished it.
On Thursday we were scheduled to leave Baker city, and have a short easy day, 70km almost all of which was downhill. But we are foolish and followed Reuben. Right before the tour started Reuben had a race in the area, the race was up and over a mountain. He said it was really fun and would probably only be about a 15km detour. So Thursday morning 17 of us gathered and we left to take this little detour with a nice fun climb. We all took off going a good pace and everyone was pretty chipper. When we started to climb the mountain and everyone was going a good speed and within a decent amount of time we all made it to the top of the mountain (about a 2,000ft 6% grade climb.) We then proceeded down the other side of the mountain. This was incredible with lots of switchbacks and tons of speed. It was a ride of a lifetime. We got to the bottom, regrouped and headed the direction we thought we were supposed 2 go. We went about 20km and then we hit a fork in the road. The problem was this fork went from a single lane of paved road into two different directions, both gravel… At this point we biked back to the bass of the mountain and here we talked to a farmer we told us that we could continue a different direction and go another 100miles or we could go back over the mountain. So back over the mountain we went. At this point some of us weren’t exceptionally happy with our leader. Lol.
We made it back into Baker city by around 2:00 with 100 “bonus” kilometres under our belts with about 25km of climbing. We then down for pizza and then final we made our trek in the right direction.
All said and done we ended up riding 177km, (over 110 miles) 25km uphill (approximately) Average speed (29.5km/hr), Approximately 6,000 ft of climbing. It’s a good thing tomorrow is only a 56km day. Feeling the burn.
Good times.
Good times.
Top of a nice 3% grade 3,000 ft climb. It was actualy really enjoyable. (Theo and Lawrance) (tuesday)
Sitting in the restaurant where we got steak. :) (wednesday)
Everyone nice and chipper just cruising along towards the "15km" detour (thursday)
At the top and stoked for the downhill! (thursday)
the very top picture is me climbing the mountain for the second time. In the very middle if you look close you can see the road near the begining of the climb. (thursday)
the end
5 comments:
Love the pics and your humor. So many flats! I got sick of flats so I buy kevlar tires, then insert thin vinyl strips between tube and tires. No flats in three years and 6000 miles. O, right. You already thought of that. I never hear any mention of a bike mechanic. Wow! If that is so, you are all in God's hands for sure.
Hank Post, interested observer and avid cyclist with a healing knee replacement.
Ya your right we are deffinitely all in God's hands. We dont have an official bike mechanic but we have many highly experienced cyclists on the tour that are very helpful and know their way around bikes.
“intentional, intergeneration intermingling" is really fun to say.
hey hey,
you're burnt :)
it looks like even though you guys took that major detour you're still having fun with biking and all.
Can't wait to see you again (maybe when you're biking through!)
Rachie
ps. if another "deleted post" shows up it's because I made a massive spelling mistake and didn't want you to have a heart attack over it, as I know you're a total english/grammer junkie :P
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