Day 5 (6/9): Unexplored Territory

As I had prefaced my previous entry, my arriving and departing Baker City under pedal power was a key objective for me on this year's race. Having arrived and with a reasonable night's sleep (and a good breakfast, thanks to Brian) it was time to roll on. Stuart was holding back...doing a little recovery time before he headed out. Rodrigo headed out with a rider named Corey and I wouldn't see him again until Richland, OR.

Stuart

breakfast at Baker City hostel

Baker City bike hostel

Rodrigo, Corey, Brian, and his wife Corrine...just great people!

Up and out of Baker City...literally, it's a steep if short climb out...and then onward to areas that I have only seen through map recon of the route. As you might imagine, a 2d map view does not even begin to provide the same info as actually being on the road 🙄 and I found myself at times questioning my readiness for this part of the race. However, I was determined to make Idaho by the end of the day so I set to it. 

Leaving BC, you drop into Hell's Canyon which runs up to and into Idaho. It actually looks like a great place for water sports, hiking, etc. and there were a lot of people along the canyon enjoying the resources. A number of historical markers dot the canyon, including the Oregon Trail Memorial.

There is this flat section once you climb out of BC that is a nice reprieve. As I'm rolling along this stretch I catch a glimpse of someone in my mirror...way back behind me. A minute later, he's not so far behind me... he's right next to me. In fact he shot past me like I was in low gear and then floated back to say hi. Askan...the German cycling phenom...who had been at high risk of scratching due to illness a couple of days ago was now on the move. This dude is amazing and has won several higher end cycling events recently...just incredibly fast. We talked for a minute and then he pulled away...1 and he was two bike lengths ahead of me....5 and he was a receding dot in front of me...30 and he was on the horizon. This is only a slight exaggeration - the dude is blazingly fast and at last check had moved into the top 10 on the leaderboard after being out of commission for 2 days!

I would like to have taken more pictures during this section but I was having issues with keeping a steady pace on the bike. As it has rained heavily on day 1 and part of day 2 and as my kit had been soaked through repeatedly I had developed several "saddle sores" that were beginning to bother me. Anyone who is familiar with saddle sores knows they can be debilitating and so I was keeping an eye on them...doing my best to keep them clean, dry, etc. For cycling to be efficient you need to maintain solid contact with 4 points on the bike; pedals, handlebar assembly, and your seat. The sores were making it difficult to stay solidly on the saddle and as such I found myself spending a lot of time and energy in a semi-standing position in order to keep the bike moving. This had a direct effect on both distances covered and average speed throughout the day...I just can't spend the whole day standing up while cycling. The soreness also distracted me a bit and narrowed my optic to "just keep moving" vs. "take a look around!". I did get a couple pictures though...

It really is quite beautiful countryside and although it is essentially the same scenery for miles there is enough variety to keep it interesting. I can imagine that motorcycle touring through here is probably a great way to experience Hell's Canyon and there were many, many motorcycles out there. 

There was also a lot of wind which depending on which way the road turned was either great or lousy...no real in-between; behind you or in your face. At times it seemed that I should have been going a lot faster than I was; the road appeared to be in a decending grade but because of the headwind I was still having to put a not-trivial amount of energy into into pedalling. This went on for miles and miles throughout Hell's Canyon onward towards Idaho.

About mid-day found myself in Richland, OR. and stopped for lunch. Much like other small Oregon towns, Richland is essentially a main street with some mom-and-pop businesses and not much else. They do have a pretty good cafe though and as I pulled up to it I found several other racers, including Rodrigo, Cody, and Nick eating lunch. A quick look at the menu and I ordered what I thought would be a "normal'ish" size sandwich. The monstrosity that came out was immediately filed into the "I'll have to take some of this with me" category - sandwich was huge!

1/2 of it got eaten there and the staff was kind enough to very securely wrap the remaining 1/2 up so that is would travel. I put the chips in a bag - they were actually very nice to have later down the road...both as food and as a distraction when my motivation was flagging. Quick repack of the bags on the bike (found myself doing that a lot) including the repositioning of the wet clothing that I had strapped on the seatpost bag to dry in the sun and I was off again.

About mid-afternoon I came across a section of road that, in addition to being a set of really steep climbs had road construction going on. After climbing through the first 2 segments I found myself again stopped by traffic control (this happened last year on McKenzie View Highway for tree removal). After an almost 20 minute delay traffic in our direction opened up. What I haven't mentioned is that although for most of the race so far the weather has been cool and cloudy today the sun came out and it got warm...very warm while I was climbing this grade. End result, I'm hot and miserable as I turn onto this next segment of the grade.

Remember how I said there was road construction going on? Well, yup, there was and about a 1/4 way up the next segment the road became gravel. Not normal gravel...of course I couldn't have that but chip seal gravel...that sharp, crappy, eat your tires gravel that they put on rural roads and then dump asphalt over. No asphalt, just chip seal gravel. 7% grade, miles of this stuff (it was actually gravel for 17 miles), and kinda hot out...living the dream. At one point I just got off the bike and walked it for about a mile - why grind my tires at 3-4 mph when I can walk it at 2-3 mph and not tear them up? So onward I went, pushing the bike up the gravel road while cars were going back and forth past me. No one was ugly but there were some curious/friendly/maybe not-so-friendly glances at me as they sped by.

About 3/4 of the way up the climb Ashley, another racer, pedalled by me. She asked why I was walking and when I told her why she thought for a minute then got off her bike and walked it as well. At the top we came to realize the extent of the gravel segment and as I wasn't going to walk miles and miles I hopped back on the bike. I'm not a gravel rider and my bike is not a gravel bike - gravel freaks me out a bit, especially on steep descents on roads that I do not know. This made for the first real disappointment on the ride; the descent was steep and long with several switchbacks and what should have been an epic downhill was reduced to a slow-motion descent with the constant fear of blowing a tire or skidding out and crashing.

Panic! I'm on my way way down this gravel descent and I go to shift into my big ring - no bueno...front derailleur is seemingly frozen. For anyone who remembers last year's day 2 mechanical issues you know that this realization that I couldn't shift was deja Vu of the worse kind for me. I'm rolling down this road, going a little faster now that I'm more comfortable with the surface and just cussing - how could this be happening again? I said all kinds of really bad things about ODOT and their wisdom in doing the whole road at one time (most of what I was saying was ridiculous but didn't care at the moment). 

At the bottom of the grade I diverted into Halfway, OR to try and see if I could figure out what was wrong....what had the f**k up fairy done to my drivetrain? Halfway is about mile off course and I rolled in there with my GPS just screaming at me about being off course...shut up Garmin, I know! As it turned out the issue was simple but really hard to see; one of those frikken pieces of gravel had bounced up on top of the front derailleur and lodged itself between it and the frame, preventing movement. I took a moment to say thanks that I didn't force the issue and maybe break a cable, cleared the POS gravel bit, then rolled back out to the course, nearly sliding into a crash when I hit a loose gravel pocket while turning back onto the course. Not a gravel rider...

As late afternoon arrived I began to see signs that I was close...that Idaho was not too far off. Idaho license plates became more numerous, a reservoir that I had seen on the map came into view, and most promisingly, I started noticing the mile markers counting down. 4... getting there. 3...closer still. 2...oh boy almost.1...yes...at last! Passing the mile marker I rolled up on the Snake River crossing into Idaho - escape from Oregon successful!!!

I sat on that concrete wall for about 15 minutes - I was out of Oregon which checked that box from last year's attempt - yay! That 1/2 sandwich from lunch got eaten in celebration while I sat there and scowled back at Oregon. " Ha! I said...beat you!" (though as time will show that was not the case...😐).

It was getting later in the late afternoon. My plan at the time was to make Cambridge, ID before I stopped for the evening and so I headed out. I quickly found that escaping Oregon was not really an escape. Right across the river began the climbing again and for the 1st time in years I actually had to serpentine my bike up this hill...steep! The next 8 miles were a mix of short climbs of various distances and grades coupled with short descents; some actual descents and some that just looked like they went downhill but actually were "false flats" which are a bit demoralizing when you are expecting a downhill. As I was cruising up another climb I caught sight of another racer coming up behind me...going to get passed again. However, it turned out to be Ashley who had stopped a ways back after coming off the gravel segment and had been close behind since leaving Halfway. 

As I turned through the next switchback I came upon a rest area and stopped for a minute to refill water, etc. Ashley pulled in and said that she was stopping there for the evening - they had Wi-Fi, etc. and she was done for the day. I still wanted to make Cambridge before I stopped and so i headed on up the road. Now, if I had been smart and/or had remembered anything about the climb that was coming up I would have known that my goal of Cambridge that night was not feasible. I pressed on for another 5-6 miles in the dark only to realize that 1, the climb was getting steeper and 2, that the wind was getting stronger - and blowing right down the road. Once these facts became reality to me it was time to pull the plug for the night. I did a little mental chiding of myself for not stopping at the actual rest area to camp...was kinda dumb in retrospect when there is no cell service anywhere on that segment of road. After about 10 more minutes I found a flat spot off the roadway and tossed out my bivvy for some shut-eye. 

going up

camp site (shot taken the next a.m.)

While I didn't get to Cambridge I did get into Idaho so I took it for the win that it was and got a decent few hours of sleep...turns out that I would really need that sleep the next day.