Thanks to my wonderful wife who agreed to volunteer her time for 4 hours working the merchandise table your truly got a free entry to ride.
A week prior to the ride the weather forecast was for low 70's and sunny, by mid week it was supposed to be high 60's and overcast, by Saturday morning I awoke to a weather forecast that was calling for low to mid 50's and an 80% chance of rain. Figures.
I had been planning this to be my first century ride, which meant starting early. I grabbed a ride down with Mark, a friend from our local social bike club, we left my house at 5am and arrived just before 6 to the ride start.
After unloading the bikes we headed in and dropped off bags of clothes for after the ride, picked up our rider numbers, milled about a bit, and then at 6:30am I hit the road since I knew that doing 100 miles would take the better part of the day and I wanted to be sure to make the time cut off.
The routes all follow the same route for the first 4 or 5 miles(remember that for later) and then the 62 and 100 mile riders turn off and head for Silver Falls State Park while our 30 mile friends continue along on some flat farm roads.
As soon as we made that turn the days climbing began, as did a steady driving rain. I had brought my rain jacket and leg warmers and was glad to have them even on the climb. Over the next 13 miles we would climb 3500 feet or so, as a side note 3500 feet of climbing on a ride before I moved to Oregon would have had me running the other way...now it's just another day, but I digress.
The days first rest stop was on the side of the road about 15.5 miles in, I partook in a cookie and half an apple and then was back on my way, the next 3 miles were fairly uneventful and I reached Silver Falls after about an hour and 40 minutes of riding.
By this point I am not damp, not sorta wet, but completely soaked...everything from my gloves to my legwarmers to my socks was a sopping mess...and the next 14 miles were a descent down the other side of the mountain...this should be fun.
So after a quick photo of the bike in front of Silver Falls I was on my way down. Even with being cautious about the descent due to the rain I was still holding probably 25mph and my soaked clothes were begining to act like an unwanted swamp cooler. My hands by the time I got to the bottom were cold enough that I was afraid stopping the bike would be an issue.
At mile 32 I hit our second rest stop of the day and had to make a critical decision. My options were to continue along my planned 100 mile route or turn off and do the 62 mile metric century. After milling about for a few minutes, eating a few tiny pb&j sandwiches and wringing out my gloves I decided that doing my first century was going to have to wait for another time.
Just as I was about to head out of the rest stop a guy on a beater mountain bike asked me which way the turn off was "60 is this way, 100 is that way" to which he responds....."What about the 30?"...So this dude wanted the 30, which cut off at mile 4, and was supposed to have no climbing, and he is asking me about it at mile 32 and 3500 feet of climbing later. Luckily I was able to hide most of my "wtf?! face" and directed him back via a side road which would have him back at the start line in another 3 miles or so.
So now that I had made the decision to just plug along and finish the 60 miler I took the time to chat with some of the other riders, take in the scenery, and try to get back to the starting line without needing a flotation device.
The finish line party included a dinner of salad, salmon, orzo salad, and what I thought was one beer from Hopworks. As I would soon come to find out it was in fact all I could drink beer, which in my case worked out to be probably 5 or 6 beers during the course of the afternoon.
I had finished my ride at 11:45, which was considerably earlier than I had planned due to cutting 40 miles from my route and Terra still had to hold up her end of the bargain and volunteer from 1-5pm so I had plenty of time to enjoy my beers.
So all in all, the day was a good one, and also a reminder that the weather in Oregon can be a cruel mistress...at least it's not 105 and windy.
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