I did something I have always wanted to do. The McKenzie highway is closed to cars until around mid-June, but open to bike and hikers. I rode up yesterday. I can't believe I did it all.
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I did something I have always wanted to do. The McKenzie highway is closed to cars until around mid-June, but open to bike and hikers. I rode up yesterday. I can't believe I did it all.
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That sounds fun TrekDianna! I love riding on closed roads. Where is the McKenzie Highway?
Yesterday we rode through four cities outside of KC (Prairie Village, Overland Park, Merriam, and Shawnee!) to find a Trek bike shop. I have ordered a couple of tires for my MTB to be delivered to that store this coming week, and we just wanted to make sure it was ride-able. Only about 12 miles round trip, but we tacked on some for a 20-mile ride.
Here are some photos from our ride, which took us on roads, through a couple of parks, on on bike/ped paths. What a blast! I just had to pose outside of the (closed) Trek bike shop with my Trek, of course! :D
http://s816.photobucket.com/user/emi...?sort=2&page=1
It's pouring cats and dogs this morning, so it is a good day for off the bike activities. Hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day!
On Sunday I rode from home and to a bit over halfway of Big Cottonwood canyon here, 42 miles and 4200 ft altogether from my home. 2000 ft climb in the canyon. It was a lovely day.
Way to go trekdianna! That is quite an accomplishment, you should feel very proud. So how much fun was the downhill part??? Love that area around Sisters, it's beautiful.Quote:
Originally Posted by TrekDianna
This weekend we did our first overnight "tour" from home. We left Saturday morning and meandered towards Redmond, and stayed overnight at the Marriott in the Town Center. That's my kind of roughing it. I wasn't too heavily loaded, but I am having gearing issues on my Jamis, so the grade coming back home was a bit of a grind.
Still it was a nice test ride for the longer tour we want to do in Idaho next month. It was about a 50 mile round trip. Nice and relaxed pace.
Friday was warm and muggy and raining on and off. Hirakukibou and I decided to meet for coffee instead of risking it with a ride, and we were glad we did. It started pouring while we were in Starbucks. I ran 3 miles in the early AM.
Saturday, it was 49 degrees and pouring. DH's flight back from Paris was cancelled Friday night because of the shutdown of the airport in London, so he didn't get home until Saturday night. I did work and went to the grocery store and even tried going to the mall. It was awful, I left after 30 minutes. If it had been nice, I would have gone on a group ride. I walked/ran on the treadmill.
Sunday, it was still pretty cool, but mostly, it was windy. Very windy, like gusts up to 30 mph. No riding.
Today, finally, we went with our friends and did a 37.8 mile that I had done with my club a couple of weeks ago. Much more pleasant, I must say. Sunny, 73 degrees, lots of climbing. The ride went through Boxborough, Littleton, Groton, Westford, back to Littleton, Acton, and back. We ate lunch at some beautiful picnic tables outside the Groton library, which is near the rail trail. Lots of cyclists out.
It's going to be in the 90s by Wednesday.
This was an "all biking all weekend" deal. Started out Saturday morning with our weekly group ride. Our club does various speeds and distances. The leader of the slow people, who I ride with, informed me I was doing 40, so that's what I did and promptly wanted to crawl in bed and pass out.
Sunday was our club's mountain bike Sunday and that was like a recovery ride for me. It about 10 miles.
Today we had our Memorial Day DAM ride. I've been told that it's named that because at one time we went over a dam, but not any more. It was 30 miles. Today is also my partner's birthday, so it was nice to get together with everyone. About 70 riders showed up and we had a post ride lunch. As usual she dusted me :)
MTB Sunday
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Getting ready for the DAM ride
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Me and my partner enjoying our post ride mojitos and fish tacos
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I was planning on doing a ride this evening with the local club but I think it is going to be a bust because of the torrential downpours we are seeing today. Sadness. I didn't get out yesterday as planned because my roommate has a kidney stone and needed me to take her to the ER again. I came back home and went right back to bed and by the time I woke up, storms were rolling in. I did get a glorious shopping day in via bike by riding downtown to the bike store on my road bike Saturday. I got a new pair of shorts and some maintenance stuff and threw it in my trunk bag. Only did about 11 miles total but it was a nice day out!
Rode 20.2 on Sunday with some friends. We were going to ride today, but rain caused us to delay, and car trouble killed the idea. I went out by myself and did 33 on the CX bike on pavement. I just cleaned the roadie last night, so the CX got sent out instead. I rode a little bit of the way with another friend from work. He was out with his dad and his niece, and I passed them on my way out. He rode with me to the next intersection, then turned around and rejoined them. I stopped for ice cream at my turnaround. :)
Finally went out for a short ride after 3 days of cold and wind. Still very windy today but at least the sun was out. I need to get prescription sun glasses for cycling. I have a pair for driving that I wore today but they did not prevent a few grains of sand blowing in to my eyes. My vision has really declined in the past year and I can no longer see with my old cycling sunglasses. I always carry one bottle of just plain water. For some odd reason today I mixed both bottles with G2 so had nothing to rinse out with. ROde ten miles home feeling like I had boulders in my eyes.
It's the old McKenzie highway mountain pass. It's highway 242 and it goes from Sisters, Oregon to the Eugene, Oregon area. From October until June/July it's closed to cars because of the snow. As soon as the snow melts enough to see the road, it's open to bikes and hikers. It generally opens mid-June- July to cars again depending on snow level. At the summit there is Dee Wright observatory, built out of the lava rocks. It has spectacular 360 views of the Cascades and miles and miles of lava fields. The ride is great. You start in the high desert, ride though Pondersosa Pines, then mixed conifer, the finally subalpine before getting to the lava fields.Quote:
Originally Posted by emily_in_nc
I put the brakes on once I reached 30.8 mph. That was too much for me. I can't wait to do it again next year, but we were thinking of a ride through from Eugene this time.Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleTree
Sounds like a fabulous weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by thekarens
I did the 75 mile training ride I was dreading last week. We started out in Belleview, heading southeast and were soon out in the middle of nowhere climbing like our lives depended on it. I know we went to Ravensdale, the Green river Gorge, which is breathtaking, and Black Diamond. I ride with one of the slowest groups, but we were invaded by all the people who normally ride with faster groups, but who have been slacking and now can't cut it with their own groups, now that the rides have gotten very hilly--so it really felt like we were pushing the pace all the time. Oh well, it's good for me. I didn't get lost, or die, or hurt my back or hip, so it's all good. 76 miles with 3600 feet of climbing, and I did it! Almost can't believe it, given all the setbacks I've had since last November. Next week we're going to do a century with the same amount of climbing on the tandem. I'm more scared about the descents, though, given that Dh and I have totally different attitudes about descending and haven't had as much time on the tandem since we're now training in different groups. I imaging I will survive...
Sounds like a very nice adventure!Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleTree
HEY! I have been there! We were out that way last summer, staying in Bend. Drove up and over that pass from Sisters. We must have said about 1000x on the way up what a great bike ride it would be.
Going down the backside was the most carsick I have been since I was a little kid. OY is that road twisty. It is so weird that you go from lava on one side to rain forest on the other. Good Job!
There is some nice scenery out there too. Were you over near Smith Rock?Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleTree
I did a total of 87 miles (7miles of mountain biking) for the whole long weekend (Friday through Monday) All group rides. Can't wait for my favorite group ride today after work ,32mi of hilly terrain. Yes!
It sounds like everybody had a good weekend.
I went up to Maine, where it rained hard on Sat & most of Sun, but Mon was beautiful. We got a short, muddy ride in on Sun afternoon and a longer, muddy ride in on Mon morning.
We stuck to ATV trails - friend going though one of the many mud puddles
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Me.
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It was a dirty ride, but fun. :-)
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My husband and I were camping on Mt. Lemmon, about 7500, above Tucson. We rode from our campsite to the ski lift area, about 14 miles round trip. The main ridge gets a little over 8000 feet, drops back down and then climbs up again to the ski lift. The last mile or so is definitely steeper (and above 8000 feet) so I saw the speed drop to about 4 miles an hour at one point. It's possible to go another mile or so the summit, over 9000 feet but that's just too much of a challenge for me.
The next day, after packing up our campsite, my husband took the car and i rode the bike down the mountain. That went fine, an hour of descending takes a lot of concentration, with all the weekend traffic coming up, but it went fine. However, I must have used up all my concentration because on the last leg of the ride home, I had an unpleasant and unexpected encounter with an object in the road, leading my first ever bike crash. I let my attention waver ever so briefly. I'm basically okay, just suffering a pretty banged up knee, but I'll put up a separate account.
I was recovered enough to be able to take a gentle spin Monday to a sales event at the Kia car dealership that sponsors my women's bike group, where we did some promotional photos with the "Hamstar" mascot, and a bright red Kia Soul. (Our team is called Team Soul, after the car). I guess Saturday they had a much bigger crowd and they didn't really need us to help out on Monday, so we just did photos, hung around and chatted and went home.
Oops, I meant Redmond Washington. I keep forgetting there is another Redmond. I have been to Smith Rock too though, what an incredibly scenic spot! There is probably some good biking out there too.Quote:
Originally Posted by TrekDianna
Yup, the Sisters to Smith Rock scenic bikeway - beautiful and only 37 miles one way so it's easy to ride out, hike around and ride back in the same day.Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleTree
First time since I started riding that I didn't get the chance to ride on the holiday weekend (other activities required a physcial break), and THIS weekend doesn't look so good either (weather this time). It is, however, a good sign that I am missing it :) I've enjoyed reading about the riding our lucky members were able to do however!