Big Assed Loop

Yeah, I know I am a shitty blogger. Summertime is a full time job at my house. Sailor got a Wii for his birthday and had a house full of 11 year old homies playing it all weekend. I finally escaped for a KICK ASS ride around 2:30 yesterday.

I headed south on Oatfield, which is a nice, rolling road towards I205 through Milwaukie; the weather was cool and a little bit windy. I was on the Ellsworth which has bladed spokes and I could really tell the difference in a cross wind on one fast descent it even got a little bit sketchy, but I am still not 100% confident descending full bore on it yet. I was feeling a little tired and sore from wakeboarding on Friday, but I was trying to get a good long day in with some climbing, so I kept a moderate pace wanting to get a least 70 miles and be home before dark.

I crossed I205 and headed out Jennifer Road towards 224 and Estacata. It was a little dicey going through the industrial section here because the bike lane was full of gravel and a bunch of other sharp shit. There were also big grates with plenty of room to drive a 23c wheel into, so I had to stay on my toes. Once I merged onto 224, I had a nice string headwind and plenty of big assed trucks whizzing by to boot. My legs were feeling good, though, and I had plenty of bars, drinks and gels to get me down (and up) the road.

I turned off at the Springwater Road bridge and took a nice detour south towards Estacata. There were a couple of nice climbs and then the road followed high above the Clackamas River for a couple miles where I turned off on Bakers Ferry and headed back towards 224. I think if I do this route again, I will avoid 224 more, and take Springwater road all the way to where it intersects with 211 just west of Estacata. Baker's Ferry was a nice, quiet, rural road with a good surface and I was able to hum along nicely. The afternoon sun was starting to come out and I was really glad to have gotten away for a ride. Anyway, more berms and rollers on Bakers Ferry and one good stiff climb up to 224 after re-crossing the river and I was back heading towards Estacata.

224 is not a bad road for biking, it has a nice, wide shoulder and not too much traffic (at least on Sunday afternoon). I did, however, get a flat from either a big peice of glass or a sharp rock, but a quick change and a Clif Bar and I was back in action. I headed south through the bustling metropolis of Estacata and then west on 211. There's a nice, long climb out of town that lasts a good 8 or 9 miles, that really got my heart working. Some really nice descents out here too... good, wide shoulders and smooth pavement and not a lot of cars.

211 is a nice, quiet highway and I was able to fly though the couple of small towns it cuts through. Around 6PM, I stopped in Colton and bought a gatorade and refilled my water bottles and ate the other half of my Clif Bar. My legs were tired, but I was mostly just still sore in my arms and shoulders from wakeboarding. I stayed on 211 until it intersected with 213 and made my way north towards I205 and Oregon City. It was a very nice evening and while 213 is busier than 211, it was still comfortable and relatively quiet. I crossed under I205 at about 7:30 and decided to see if I could haul some ass and make it home by 8... I hammered all the way up River Road and careened into my driveway at 7:59PM. Great day.

Le Portland - Hagg - Portland

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.

The Conquerment of Larch Mountain

The road up to Larch Mountain went down fighting today. Ben, Richard and I stormed the hill with the fervor of religion and one goal in mind... get to the top. We left my house at around 7:15 AM and headed for the hill. It was a good crew of equal or near equal ability, and we set a good pace out the Springwater to Stark and eventually out the old Columbia Highway. Ben pulled pretty much from the Sandy River to the turn off for Larch Mountain Road, which marks the start of a 14 mile climb to the parking lot at the top of Larch Mountain.

I really had no idea what to expect from the ride. Lon described it, as he describes most things, as a piece of cake, but I have ridden enough with Lon to know that a piece of cake to Lon means that it will kick my ass and leave me puking on my shoes. This turned out to be a fairly accurate assesment of Larch Mountain. All I can say is that it just keeps going and going and going and going. There are really no flats or down hill sections after the first 4 or 5 miles, so there is really no where to rest, just keep pedalling, mile after god forsaken mile. It was brutal, and with every tenth pedal stroke came the urge to stop and rest and my will to fight that urge diminished with every bead of sweat that poured out of me. It was an epic battle fought in the trenches. I spent the last 2 miles fighting the puke, which turned out to be enough of an attention distractor to get me to the top. And I didn't puke. Sweet.

The descent was both victorious and raucous. Like a sailor on shore leave for the first time in months. All of the potential energy wound up on the climb was released in a furocious volley to the bottom. I hit 42MPH and was yelling into the wind as the pavement flew from my wheels. It was amazing.

skaeP eerhT ehT gnitsuB

Date: Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Distance: 21.4 miles
Average speed: 13.8 mph

Justin and I busted the full Three Peaks ride in reverse today, it was pretty kick ass. I did the graveyard in the morning too, which made for a pretty awesome day of climbage. It was really hot though, I think I went through about as much fluid as I did on the Reach the Beach ride.

Westover and Barnes Road

Date: Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Distance: 17.5 miles
Average speed: 16.0 mph

My after work ride today was relatively short, but with a shit ton of good, old fashioned climbing. I left work, headed over to NW Portland and up Johnson to Westover. I have come down this way several times, but never up it. It was sunny, but not too hot, and I felt great. I went up through the Pittock Mansion and down and back up Barnes Road up to Skyline. Then, finally blasting down Fairview back into downtown and home via the Springwater. Great ride.

Them Thar Hills

Date: Tuesday, May 14th, 2007
Leave: 4:45PM
Return: 6:30PM
Distance: 24.5 miles
Average speed: 15.9 mph

Another quick run of the three peaks in gorgeous weather. I didn't feel quite as strong as last time, but I still felt great and it was such a beautiful day. I am starting to really love this route.

I Could Eat Nails!

Date: Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Leave: 4:45PM
Return: 6:35PM
Distance: 24.5 miles
Average speed: 15.7 mph

Today was the most beautiful day of the year so far. Mid 70's, sunny, breezy and kick ass. I did a post-work run of the Three Peaks and KILLED it. I felt better than I have ever felt doing so much climbing, it was great. I hooked up with Brian, Scott, Mark and their better halves whose names escape me for a pint at the slow-serving Rogue Brew Pub, and headed home with the wind at my back. Great ride.

Breakfast With The Leneves: Humble Pie

Date: Sunday, April 29th, 2007
Leave: 8:00AM
Return: 1:15PM
Distance: 72.3 miles
Average speed: 18.2 mph

I left home at 8AM on Sunday to meet Lon and Sally at their house in Durham by 9AM, thinking that an hour would be plenty of time to get the 15 miles from my house to theirs -- which it was not. I forgot to account for the fact that the first 10 miles of the journey are pretty much all uphill -- most significantly up the short but painfully steep hill from John's Landing up to Barbur Blvd. I rolled into their driveway at precisely 9:00, having taken a wrong turn at the very end. Happy to be ontime (it looked dicey there for a bit), but having used more legs and energy getting there than I would have liked, I scarfed half a Clif Bar filled up my water bottles and procured a couple scoops of Cytomax in preparation for a brutual few hours of chasing the ever-fit Leneves around the rural roads southwest of Portland.

We set off into a blistering pace almost immediately; I was feeling OK, but not liking pushing so hard just to keep up in the first 10 miles of the ride. Riding with Lon is like chasing a crossbow bolt. He gets into his aero bars and just hammers -- Sally glides along effortlessly on his rear wheel, and they both talk and laugh and make conversation with me while I am trying to hide the fact that my lungs are dragging along behind me. Despite my weiner status, the ride was great, nice rural roads with very little traffic and the day just got nicer and nicer as we rocketed along. There was one sketchy part along I-5, but it was only for about a half a mile to get across the Willamette.

We made our way through the mostly flat, sometimes rolling hills of the farmland, out past Champoeg park where there was some organized ride happening, and eventually all the way out to St. Paul, where we turned around. I should remark again at how nice of a morning it was (it offset the impending lump in my stomach due to knowing there was a bunch of climbing yet to come). Coming back from St. Paul, we went north into Newberg and made our way over to Bell hill. There was a bunch on construction going on, so we had to literally climb through a ditch to get where we were going, and as soon as we got back on the bikes Lon's rear wheel went flat, so we took a little breather and bar'd up for the impending climb.

This is where the bonk started. I was already about 50 miles in, and quickly running out of gas due to the accelerated pace of the day. I would estimate that I was running at 85-90% the entire time (as opposed to 60-65% that I usually do), which was quickly draining my energy reserves. So we started up Bell hill, and both Sally and Lon pulled away almost immediately. My legs were burning and I had run out of water, so I was trying to climb in the ol' slow and steady fashion, but I knew a full on bonk was on its way. Lon, the fit bastard, would ride down to me to make sure I wasn't passed out in the ditch, and then ride back up like it wasn't a hill at all. As much as I appreciate the gesture, it added to the misery. At the top of Bell, he graciously kicked down some of his water and we proceeded on.

Before the ride took place, Lon kept talking about the climbs in plural, so I knew there was more to come, but there was a little piece inside of me that hoped that wasn't true. There was a nice descent off the top of Bell and then a STEEP little 14-18% climb out, and then another steep drop down to Hwy 99. We crossed Hwy 99 and I had managed to recover a little bit, but my heart sank when we pulled off at an exit labelled, "Parrett Mountain". Balls.

Parrett Mountain was long as shit and actually a beautiful climb that I really would have enjoyed had I not been already bonking for the last 30 minutes. Lon came down to cheer me on multiple times, and even brought Sally down with him as I approached the top. While I know both Sally and Lon have been cycling for decades, it still put in perspective how much farther I have to go with this whole being a cyclist thing. It also had me cursing my steel frame, fat tires and fenders on my beloved Surly, since they both ride Titanium-framed Serottas.

The descent from the summit of Parrett Mountain was unfuckingbelievable, and totally worth the bitch of a climb to get to it -- hit 42mph and stayed there for a good long time. The only problem was that at the bottom I got a cramp and spent the rest of the way back to Lon and Sally's trying to fight off various cramps in my legs, and moving quite slow as a result; further solidifying my status as a weenie with the Leneve's. However, it was a great training ride, and while I was totally humbled by the athletic prowess of Lon and Sally, I was proud of myself for riding through a pretty serious bonk and getting some serious climbing in to boot.

Tearing Up The Westside

Date: Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Leave: 6:30AM
Return: 10:40AM (about ~30 mins of stoppage at Ben's and for a flat repair)
Distance: 56.65 miles
Average speed: 15.7 mph

Finally hit a long-ish ride out West via Kruger with the world's newest Microserf, Ben "The Hamma" Hickman. It was a beautiful morning, although chilly at times, but it warmed up enough to de-sleeve and let vest guy roam free for a while. I felt pretty good all day, although Ben climbs fast even when he's not trying to, so there was plenty of wind suckage going on.

Kruger is a nice climb not too steep anywhere, but long enough to remind me that I still have a ways to go to be in Cycle Oregon with Lon shape. The descent down Mountain Home is unreal, and I hit 39.9 MPH on the way down.

Around the Horn

Date: Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
Leave: 4:50PM
Return: 7:05PM
Distance: 38 miles
Average speed: 17.0 mph
Wind: Headwind most of the way

Justin and I had a nice, brisk run around the horn yesterday in the middle of some absolutely kick ass weather. Vest guy reared his goofball head as it was close to 70 degrees when we left his office (the usual 10 mins late, of course).

We made good time getting out Hwy 30, but were forced to wait on the shoulder for about 7-8 mins for a gap long enough to cross over to the ramp up to the St. John's bridge. While we were standing there waiting in the bike lane, a car piloted by some fucking drunk-ass nutjob came barreling up the bike lane towards us -- we both yelled, "Holy shit!" in unison and jumped up on the curb with our bikes and this fruitcake swerved back into traffic. We stood there, shocked for another couple minutes and then finally made our way up the ramp to the bridge.

I was treated a couple of times to Justin leaving his toe clips on and falling to the pavement. Good times.

Terwilliger Four Beers Deep

Date: Friday, March 30th, 2007
Leave: 4:00PM
Return: 6:00PM (minus a pitcher of beer at the Lucky Lab)
Distance: 25.3 miles
Average speed: 17.6 mph

I always allow myself to get talked into riding with Ben and Lon after a couple of beers and it is, without fail, awesome and sucky at the same time. We had a banner quarter at work this year, so the booze started flowing at around noon and didn't stop for the rest of the afternoon. Just as I was thinking, "wow, I kind of have a buzz...", both Ben and Lon proceeded to call me a pussy until I agreed to ride up to the SW Lucky Lab with them. Not really a difficult ride, but enough hill climbing that 4 beers is not a welcome inhabitant of my stomach.

The other thing about riding with Ben and Lon is that Lon has 1 speed, Fucking Flying, and Ben has many speeds, but none of them are slower than what anyone in sight is going, so it pretty much means Dave is sucking air and wheezing like pansy the entire time. We of course hit every green light, so it was a hammer fest all the way up Terwilliger to the Lab. I think Ben and Lon enjoy dragging my younger lungs around and then trying to make conversation the entire time, as if they aren't even breaking a sweat. Since I was the last one to Lab, I had the honor of buying the beers. Fuck.

After pleasant conversation and a pitcher of the organic Golden Ale, I parted ways with Ben and Lon and headed back to the office to get my bag. The descent down Terwilliger was as fun as I expected it to be -- it's rad to hit 36 mph on a sunny day. I zipped back to the office and grabbed my bag and headed home via the Springwater Trail where I got a nice 25mph pull from a racer guy.

Me getting ready to have my ass handed to me (photo courtesy of Brian Myers):

Marine Drive With Crafty

Date: Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
Leave: 4:30PM
Return: 7:15PM
Distance: 38 miles
Average speed: 14.6 mph

Justin and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous day yesterday and take a nice easy run around "the horn"; out St. John's Bridge to Marine Drive and home via the I-205 bike path. My Achilles was still pretty tender from Monday's pathetic jaunt around the same course, but I was otherwise feeling pretty good, and it was such a nice day that it seemed silly to not get some miles in and soak in the sun a bit. I left work at around 4:30 and zipped over to Justin's office in the Pearl. I was wearing my trusty, yellow, ripped and filthy rain jacket, so I was a little warmed over when I arrived, which reminded me that the sleeves of this particular jacket are removable, and thus emerged Vest Guy. No sooner than Vest Guy emerging did I run into an old coworker, who I hadn't seen in years, who promptly remarked on how much of a dork Vest Guy is. Awesome. Justin was his usual 10 or so minutes late, so we said our goodbyes to the work day and headed out through NW Portland towards Hwy 30.

While I certainly enjoy the hell out of a good, long solo ride, I really enjoy riding with other people too. The company and conversation is always nice to have, and it is easier for me to regulate speed and effort more (for some reason) when I'm riding with other folks. We kept a nice, easy pace up and over the St. John's Bridge, but traffic was extremely heavy on Hwy 30 due to some trees getting drunk and trying to cross Hwy 26 in the middle of the day, so crossing 30 to the bridge ramp took a little time.

Once we got over the bridge onto Lombard, we made good time up to Marine Drive and were pleasantly surprised at the lack of a headwind all the way to I-205. Overall, it was a kick ass ride, I love that route for an after work ride, it's the perfect amount of length, time and effort.

To The Falls!

Date: Sunday, March 25th, 2007 Leave: 7AM Return: Noon-ish Distance: 70.4 miles Average speed: 16.4 mph

Ben and I met at the Tideman/Johnson Park rest area at 7AM on Sunday for our biggest ride to date: the wonderous (and far off) Multmonah Falls, which is about 35 miles east of downtown Portland. The weather was pretty iffy, a little drizzley and cold, but not unbearable on either front. We set off heading west on the Springwater Trail, keeping a nice and easy, but steady pace on the flats of ~17mph or so. Both Ben and I have ridden this portion of the Springwater several times, so we made really good time up to 182nd, where we turned north and rode up to Stark and turned east again. Stark is your typical large street bike path with lots of junk and debris in the way, so it wasn't long until Ben was gifted with a flat rear tire. It was just cold enough that waiting the 5 mins or so for him to change the tube had completely chilled me to the bones, and I was stoked to get back on the road... only to find that we were at the top of a 3/4 mile descent down to the Sandy river, which chilled me even further. As if on cue, as soon as we got to the bottom of the hill, Ben was flat again, so on came another 5-10 minutes of standing in the now increasing rain freezing our asses off.

While changing the tire just before the Sandy River bridge, and at the base of a fairly significant climb, three guys rode past us, at least one of which was on a fixie, which quickened Ben's tire changing pace and got us on our way, although we never saw those guys again. The climb up through Corbett warmed us back up, and was uneventful save for the fact that it began absolutely DUMPING rain on us... so much that it was ridiculous and fun to be trudging through the sheets water. The climb is not very steep, but pretty long and ends as you can either start the climb up to Larch Mountain or descend down to the Vista House and ultimately Multnomah Falls.

The quick descent down to the Vista House is really fun, especially after ~5 miles or so of climbing. We stopped at the Vista House and soaked in some more rain along with the spectacular (even in shitty weather) view. The stop was ultimately long enough to cool down again, which, given the descent from the Vista House down the historic Columbia River Highway, proved to be somewhat of a wool-headed move on our part, as by the bottom we were both frozen stiff again. Despite the cold, the only thing I could think during the descent was, "holy shit, we gotta climb this on our way back!"

The ride from the Vista House to Multnomah Falls is so awesome, especially on a bike. I have driven it several times in a car, but never on a bike, and it was just spectacular. There are so many falls and gorges and things that you miss at 35mph in a metal box that just jump out at you when you're on a bike. We were passed by only 3 or 4 cars, all of which were very careful and gave us lots of room, which was nice because it was still a colossal Oregonian downpour in our faces.

Getting to the falls was awesome, simply because it rules to roll up on a bike to a place that's a fair ways away from civilization, let alone that it was dumping rain and witch-tit cold. Ben snapped this picture of me with my shitty camera phone, which works even less in the rain -- thanks Cingular! I had a couple shots of espresso at the coffee stand and filled up my water bottles and we were off back up towards the Vista House. We took it easy on the climb back up, but even still it proved to be far less daunting than it seemed on the way down -- the more big climbs I do, the more I realize this is pretty much always the case. Still, getting back to the Vista House and up into Corbett felt great, and just as we crested the top, the sun came out in full force. It was totally a moment of shining awesomeness for me, and I think I began to annoy Ben with all my, "boy, this sure is awesome!" talk.

The ride back was pretty uneventful, but there was a bit of an annoying head-wind that made it less enjoyable than it could have been. I made it home to an empty house and took a shower and proceeded to construct an ass-kicking omelette with about 10 pieces of turkey bacon that tasted like it was made by the Specialized Angel.