Crater Lake Century

[Tater]

Okay, I am a dork! We are continuing our vacation after the ride, but the only reason we picked this RV site is because it had Wi-Fi and I could log a ride report.

The ride was wonderful! We had beautiful weather, although some of us (ahem, me!) forgot her long fingered gloves and were waving numb digits at Sadie Kate and Bubba as they drove into the start area. It was a chilly start, low 40's I think, but turned out to be a beautiful day. It is late though and I am tired, been driving all day, so I am not going to go into all the gory details. The ride was well organized, had great support, but the scenery was just so-so. KIDDING! The views were amazing! Crater Lake was breath taking, especially for someone like me, who was seeing it for the first time.

Tater at the 52 mile mark, overlooking Wizard Island


It was also great meeting up with the Amici Veloci gang as well. Veronica can bake a mean chocolate chip cookie! Oh, MelissaM, we have to continue our conversation at a future ride! That was cool. Sadie Kate, Veronica, Yellow, Jobob, Dachshund, MelissaM, (I know I am missing someone, grrr, brain fart!) anywho, thanks for the fun. I still think we ought to send GW-12 back for that turn around sign!

Tater and Yellow on the last miles of the ride. (Thanks to GW-12 for the photo!)

[malaholic]

Tater, gorgeous pics, thank you for posting them! Next year I'm definitely going to do Crater Lake. This year DH & I had already signed up for RSVP but now that I see your pics I kind of wish we'd cancelled and done Crater Lake instead. Good job on the ride!

[LilBolt]

Looks like you had a gorgeous day. I've been very tempted to do Crater Lake, but we also rode RSVP, per our annual tradition...well, at least to Chuckanut Drive where DH crashed. Next year, perhaps Crater Lake instead of the race to the lemonade stand for us.

Fantastic photos, and would love to read more (not so gory) details!

[jobob]

Just got back this evening and I'm supposedly still unpacking and doing laundry (hah!) so I'll add more later, but, this was one of the best weekends EVER.

First of all, like Tater said (hi Jen, great to see you again!), the weather was fabulous. Not too hot, not too cold (errr...the freeze-your-azz-off start notwithstanding ... ) and it was clear as a bell out.

And it was so great to see everyone.

My plan was to do only as much of the ride as I felt capable of, and not to push it too hard. I was hoping to make it up to the Crater Lake Rim, which would be about 25 miles from the start, and then turn around and head back. If I couldn't make it that far, no biggie. The great part of riding to the rim was that wherever I did decide to stop, it was essentially all downhill heading back.

Lee and I started out with Mel, dachshund and aka_kim. Like last year, we gave the first flat & boring 20 miles of the century route, meandering around Ft. Klamath, a pass, and headed directly up towards the Rim. The first 10 miles to the boundary of Crater Lake National Park were essentially pancake flat, after which the climb increased very gradually. By the time it reached a whopping 4% at around 15 miles, I had already gone into my small chainring, oy. I started to peter out around then, and Lee and I told the others to go on ahead.

I did the rest of the climb in very small increments. I was familiar with the route from last year and I knew the stops and pullouts and other destinations coming up, so I set my mind on making it to the next destination along the route.

So once I reached the first rest stop, I knew that the turnoff for Mazama Village and the park toll gate was only a couple of miles ahead. Yeah, I could do a couple of miles more. Once we reached Mazama Village we stopped and I rested for a bit.

Then I talked myself into going on for another four miles to the Visitor Center near the turnoff for the 100K route. I had to stop at a pullout before that, but I finally made it to the Visitor Center. When I rolled into that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go on, but we had a long break and I felt much better after a while.

Past the Visitors Center the road was steeper, around 6-8%, with many switchbacks. I got into a zone and trudged on up. There were a lot of cars passing at that point, it was close to noontime by then, but there was a decent shoulder and the cars didn't really faze me. After about five or six switchbacks we reached a large pullout where I stopped to rest again. I was about to wave the White Flag of Surrender, but Lee piped up "hey great job, you're over the steep part and we can take pictures at the sign just up ahead."

Oh yeah, the sign. There's this sign just before the rim that's a hoot. I had forgotten about it, and I realized at that point that the climb to the rim was essentially over. Well heck, I've gotten this far, may as well just do it!

And another very short climb after that, we reached the Rim. I did it!

We celebrated with hot chocolate & cookies from the Rim Café, and we sat around and chatted with other visitors. Many people were curious about all the cyclists riding about with numbers on their bikes and wanted to know more about the "race" we were in.

After hanging about and enjoying the beautiful lake view, Lee & I headed back down. And yes, for once it really was “all downhill from here”. I took the part with the switchbacks a bit more tentatively than I might have in the past, but I still did OK. Farther down the road straightened out, but it was very recently chipsealed so the descent wasn’t as fast as it could have been. But it was fast enough, I still got up around 35 mph for extended periods. And I was fine with the descending.

I think I had a silly grin on my face for most of the descent, I was so happy to have actually made it all the way up to the Rim.

We reached our cabin at Jo’s Motel (I kid you not, that’s the name of the place we stayed) and decided not to ride the last couple of miles to the finish, but to head over later when everyone else finished. So I showered (and used up all the hot water in the cabin, I’m such an ingrate ) and then relaxed on the screened porch of the cabin with a celebratory beer.

And I was ever so content.

[salsabike]

Hey, Jo, congrats! How nice to read this.

[maillotpois]

Jo that's a great report - yay! I'm so glad it went well for you (especially the descending parts).

[SadieKate]

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.ph...u=lMyQI&ref=nf

My two favorites:

http://www.digitalillusions.us/galle...24132977_viDny
http://www.digitalillusions.us/galle...24202854_PofSz

[SadieKate]

And a smashing one of aka_kim

http://www.digitalillusions.us/galle...24212305_h3y4R

In real life size.

http://www.digitalillusions.us/galle...05_h3y4R-XL-LB

[Veronica]

That's a great shot of Kim.

Veronica

[jobob]

Worst picture of me EVER

[aka_kim]

I think we need a Caption Contest for the pix of jobob and yellow!

[jobob]

I'll get you for that, Kim ...

[yellow]

Jo, I tried to hack the site but couldn't remove those flattering pictures of us.

ANYHOO, here are some shots that I took. Not many, but they still give you the idea of (1) how purty it was and (2) most of the folks that were there.

Purty.



The group. Lesee...from left on the wall melissam, SadieKate, JoBob; kneeling in front is yellow; standing in back are Cyndi, aka_kim, Mr. Cyndi (in gray), and Mr. yellow (in white); and on the wall on the right from the back are Bubba (aka Mr. SadieKate) and Daschund. Missing are LeeBob (taking the picture), Tater, Veronica and Thom, and some others that know the group from Bikejournal.



It was a great day and a fun time. I'd do that ride again in a heartbeat!

[Veronica]

Our write up and pictures are on our website now.

Veronica

[GLC1968]

Wow...it looks like you all had a great time!

Thanks for sharing all the photos and the write ups! I'm even more stoked for next year....