Well day five has come and gone and it was nothing like the monster I’d imagined it would be. In the lead up to our tour I have had big concerns about today’s ride. In my fears it was going to be the ride from hell- hot, boring scenery, headwinds, etc—in short, a Monster. In fact, the ride was a solid gold blast- nothing like what I’d imagined.
The day started early- I loaded luggage at 5:15 AM, ate a nice breakfast and joined forces with Jennifer and her husband Brett and their friend Russell (to the right). Others came and went through the day, but I hung with these three throughout the day. I’d ridden a bit with them before and thought we’d be compatible, which we were. All three are strong riders and are very funny. Plus they laugh at my stupid jokes, so that makes me really like them.
Since the ride today is one of the longest of the tour (117 miles)
and has a total of 5,100 feet of climbing, we were on the road by 6:30. The day started with a 30 mile climb in which we gained about 2,000 vertical feet or so. Actually it wasn’t all that bad and I think we crested Ochoco Pass (4720’) by about 10:00AM. From there we had a 12 mile descent (everything comes in serious proportions) that was an absolute scream.
At mile 42 we hit the town of Mitchell and made a stop at the local ranch mercantile store where we had a snack, filled water bottles and enjoyed watching the local ranchers come and go.
We met the Miller Family Train and a few others in the town and then began another 12-14 mile climb gaining another 1500 feet or so and crested at Keyes Summit (4369’). From there we had, I kid you not, a 30 mile descent. That’s right boys and girls- 30 freaking miles. It was a thing to behold and we all turned into squealing school girls for over an hour as we rocked down through the canyon, along the John Day River and on through some unbelievable scenery. The area is still primarily high desert, but there are surprising areas of very lush vegetation. They told me in town that the area has Bighorn Sheep, Elk and Mule Deer.
AT 2:30PM we hit our last sag at mile 85. The 8 of us stopped and had lunch at a roadside café and at 3:00PM we saddled up to ride the remaining 32 miles. Now as luck would have it the cycling gods smiled down on us and gave us sunny skies, temps in the mid 80’s and, I saved the best for last, a big, fat, juicy tailwind. Jen, Brett, Russell and I split from the Miller Train and
hightailed it into John Day averaging close to 20 MPH in a well organized pace line. We were in high spirits as we realized that we had drawn winning lottery tickets for our ride today- it was most of our longest rides ever (117 miles) and yet it was a fun, relatively easy day.
I’m happy to report that I feel good (legs are a bit achy, but perfectly useable) and I’m enjoying the tour immensely so far. Tomorrow’s ride will be a challenge, 81 miles, three pretty good climbs (totaling nearly 5,000 feet) and a really good chance for a headwind.
By the way, thanks again to Keith and Jack for your entertaining comments. And welcome to Brody and Brian from Habersham Bikes- glad you are helping me along.
