Before even laying eyes on my bike on Saturday morning, the battle was already in full swing. At 5AM my alarm went off and the parade of excuses began its long march through my reasoning, trying to convince myself not to get out of bed and ride. The plan was to get up at 5, do a quick tune on the bike and be on the road by 6 so as to make it to Lon's house by 7. However, I made the mistake of having "a few beers" with a friend (and heroic pint-quaffer) at Produce Row the night before. As I lay in my deceitfully comfortable bed, next to my sweet, sleeping bride, the bloodless battle of reason waged in my head:
Pro: "It's a beautiful day; perfect for a ride"
Con: "It's also a perfect day for relaxing!"
Pro: "You haven't been on a ride longer than 30 miles on the new bike"
Con: "Yeah, but you can spend the day relaxing! The new bike isn't going anywhere..."
Pro: "You've never been to Hagg Lake"
Con: "So?"
Pro: "You always flake on Lon. Don't be that guy."
Con: "Lon thrives on being such a bad ass that no one wants to ride with him."
And on and on...
Finally, the Pros eeked out a narrow victory and I dragged my ass out of bed and began getting ready for the ride. After a year or so of Ben's gentle nagging, I broke down and purchased some Hammer Gel and some Hammer Bars as well as some Perpetuem. I have used Clif Shots and Clif Bars almost exclusively to date, but I was finally won over by a very convincing article about Hammer products that I read recently.
I spent about 20 mins cleaning and tuning the new Ellsworth. Man, this is such a sweet bike. It comes in a just under 18 lbs with pedals, which is extremely light, especially when compared to my beloved Surly. It's aluminum with a carbon fork, and a compact 10 speed Ultegra group.
After getting the new sled all dialed in and cleaned, I filled up my water bottles, did a gear check and hit the road towards Lon's house. It was cold but clear as a bell when I left. I opted to wear my new smart wool arm-warmers, which turned out to be a good plan, as it was only just 6AM and the sun wouldn't be out until I got to Lon's house. I went up the cemetary and I was feeling pretty good, although I was taking it easy knowing I had a >100 mile day chasing Lon ahead of me. The rest of the way to Lon's house was a breeze -- through Multnomah, out Hall Blvd to Durham. I pulled into his driveway at exactly 7AM. Huzzah.
I topped off my water bottle and we hit the trail. The sun was out now and it was immediately apparent that this was going to be an absolutely stellar day. We headed out to the ever-kick-ass Kruger Rd for a bit of climbing. Lon was going easy on me, but I was still able to keep a good pace, and spirits were high just because it was such a gorgeous morning. The descent off Kruger is so fun; Lon was off like a rocket, but it took me a bit to feel comfortable with super fast descents on the new bike. The geometry is way more forward than the Surly, which feels a lot faster and a lot looser. We rocketed to the bottom of Kruger, and then we headed up Hwy 219 towards the Bald Peak state park. It was about a 10-mile climb to Bald Peak from there, with a couple of small drops in the middle. Not super steep anywhere, but definitely some good climbing to be had. Again, Lon was going easy on me, but I was feeling pretty strong and we stayed relatively close up to the top. The view from the peak was absolutely amazing, and we got a first look at our destination off in the distance: Hagg Lake glistened in the morning sun.
The descent off of Bald Peak was a nutty 17% grade drop down Laurelwood. My hands were sore and tired by the end, and I was very thankful that it was dry. Lon kept talking about going up it on the way back. Uh...
As we got down to the flat and made our way out towards Gaston and Hagg Lake, the wind picked up a smidge, and I guiltily clung to Lon's wheel as we hammered out Hwy 47 to the Lake. We made a turn onto the road that encircles the lake and were surprised to see a whole family of deer (two adutlts and two fawns) crossing the road, we slowed and kept our distance, knowing that does with baby fawns are prone to being protective. It was a cool sight, though. As we approached the lake, there was a bunch of traffic and we realized that we were actually riding into the triathalon in mid swing, cool. We turned off and eventually found ourselves heading the opposite direction of the cyclists, which was pretty cool. Lots of fancy Tri bikes and athletic lasses in tight clothes. Nice. It was another 5-6 miles to the start/finish where we met up Lon's family right about 10AM and watched his niece, Gabby, finish 8th in the Age Group National Championship Triathon. Nice work, Abby!
After about an hour of hanging out, we filled our water bottles and headed out, hitting the road at 11. It took a bit to get my legs back after that long of a rest, but we were soon back on pace and jamming. Lon's brother-in-law suggested an alternate route back that turned out to be a pretty awesome jaunt back through the farm land of Forest Grove -- all except the part where I got stung in the head by bee. Lon and I parted ways at Scholls and I headed home via Multnomah Village, with a quick stop at Ben's house (which was at almost exactly mile 100) to say hello and borrow some lube for my squeaky chain. I made it home about 1:15PM, and felt really good thanks to my Hammer Gel. It ended up being 106.7 miles, my personal record for milage. Sweet.
I took a quick nap with Miles and then Mandy, Sailor, Mira and I went to see a matinee of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Overall, a totally awesome Saturday.
