May 19, 2012
Eden’s
Gate 400km ridden. Started out at Mentor
Graphics. Helene drove me down and
dropped my over night bag at the La Quinta.
Michel Y was out testing his bike, and offered to take may bag, and
put it in his room, as the counter was unpersoned. I mistook Lynn for Leslie in the hallway
outside of Michel and Cindy’s room, thinking that Leslie was signed up for this
ride.
We
then went over to Mentor Graphics and found the commons, even with the discrete
signage on campus. Susan L was setting
up the drop box and we were the first riders there. As I unpacked, other riders arrived and Susan
had to let us into the Commons for the bathrooms. Nice facility. Susan gave her instructions, and sent us off
at 06:00 and a couple took off, but the rest of us stayed together to get over
the Boone’s Bridge.
Then
another 4 split off ahead and I remained with a diverse group of 5 that set up
a pace line until about Monitor. RB, the
Englishman from the Tri-City with the Arktel rear bag. Vance, the lead of the
Southern Utah Randonneur club , the heavy set and myself, for sure. RB went ahead before the Stayton, and I had
another breakfast at the Safeway Deli of a breakfast sandwich. That was good! My first of several occasions where I
realized that picking up prepared food is a tastier way to consume calories.
Talked with the southern Utah Randonneur.
His concern was the low population density of Southern Utah makes it
hard. His counterpart in Salt Lake is
sponsoring a whole series of Brevets. He’s out here to visit his children
living in Portland. He mentioned that when
asked about taking a ride, they ask where, then he says 400km, and then they
ask how many days. Cyclist are a
minority, and Randonneurs are strata of them. When I was getting ready, Lynn and Michel
arrived. Lynn encouraged me to get
going, as I was chatting with her. Then
the hilly section to get to Sweet Home.
The most severe was the second big climb on Cole School Rd and topped
out at 19%. I was never really with
anyone, but could see a rider ahead of me.
At Sweet Home the Thriftway didn’t have any good prepared foods, but I
took off the base layer, and put on sun screen.
Continued to ride with the Englishman with the Aktel bag. He helped me
get out of Sweet Home, as he had a Garmin GPS, and used NiMH batteries, it was
an eTrex mode. He rides with the Eastern
Washington Randonneurs, a new group that
pulled from SIR and OR Randonneurs. I
pulled away from him on the climb up Brush Creek Road, where I removed the base
layer top, and rested. He said that his
knees were bothering him, and he’d stop for water in Marcola. He split up, and I went on to
Waltersville. At the turn, the SIR big
guy was punching the light that gave me a red.
About two miles later, I saw Dave, and then about 5 miles
later saw RB coming the other direction,
he told me he’d left some water at the front door. I figured that Asta and her companion had
already gotten out of the leg. I was
first confused by the Tackle shop at the corner, and no Select Market. Going
into the only grocery store there was, I saw the water on the firewood stack
out front. I got a decent turkey
sandwich and a coke, and sat out in front of the store. I got the bottle return coupon, but left it
with the water, not wanting to go through the checkout a third time. As I was
leaving, Ray Oglevie arrived, and mentioned that Al was still out there. About 100 yds out, Michel and Lynn were just
arriving. Alone, I called Daniel a
couple times, and the second time, got through.
He was having a big dinner and playing games with his friends. I told him the best opportunity to see me
would be across the McKensie river by Armitage Park along Coburg Road. He said
that he did get the brakes back on his bike, and that they needed to be
readjusted. He figured that was too far
out, and I agreed. He said he’d gotten a C on his philosophy paper, thus
disappointed. Rolling through alone, Coburg now has NO coffee shop, just the Dari
Mart. Onward to Harrisburg, and no
headwind. I was parsing out my two water
bottles to be sure I drank them up by the time I reached the next supply
stop. They seemed to be about 40 miles
apart, and I was sweating enough during the day, that I wasn’t peeing but 3
times by then. The clerk at the
Harrisburg store was pleasant, but they didn’t seem to have a good Deli. I got a big bag of Fritos and a Root Beer,
and then a gallon of water, applying the $.05 deposit to the purchase, lastly a
coffee (my first of the day) to dump into the water bottle. Ray Arrived, then Lynn and Michel, and as we
went to find the bathroom at the firehouse, Al rolled in. Ray, Lynn, Michel, and I rolled out and as it
got dark along Peoria Road, we tried to form a paceline. Lynn eating a burrito warning us not to get
to close, made me think I could pack ½ sized burritos for the stops that don’t
have decent food. I realized that I
must have left my reflective ankle straps on the bench in front of the
Harrisburg grocery store. We stayed together until arriving in Albany. I started to diurese after the Root Beer,
Coffee in water bottle, and peed 3 times in an hour, once on the roll. It being dark made it possible to be more flexible
in the possible locations. Ray and I waited for Lyne and Michel at the turn
onto Lyon St, in Albany and to see if they wanted to go to Pop’s Branding
Iron. I was feeling so much better than
last year along this stretch, and figured I could eat, but would rather
continue to Salem (unless there was no 24hr service). Ray and I waited about 10min, until we took
off and continued up to Independence. Ray’s stomach was bothering him. The cue sheet said it was Open Control, and
the Brevet Card said to answer the question on the Brevet card. This was the first of the discrepancies
between the two. Ray was out of water,
and local that wanted to use the ATM, after we’d used it to get receipts, told
us that the bar would have water. We
looked around for a drinking fountain around the locked public bathrooms. I volunteered to go into the bar, and the
bartender gave me a bit of a bad time, saying no, then grabbed the two water
bottles. I should have tipped him. On my way out a young , likely drunk, tapped my
shoulder, and want to do a fist bump, a high five, then another fist bump. She knew I was riding a bike and was trying
to encourage me. I was flattered that
someone under 25 paid any attention to me.
As we left Independsence, Al rolled in and we showed him the answer to
the question on the cue card. He
followed up and along River Rd, he was with us much of the time. I pulled into the Plaid Pantry first, as Al had been talking about it being the
only sure thing in Salem. The coffee was
out, so I got a Red Bull, and looked through their selections of burritos. Selected the Beef, Cheese, bean and warmed it
up and was able to eat the whole thing.
I was too anxious to finish it, but it tasted a bit spicy and I kept on
wanting more, until it was gone. In my
quest for coffee, Al had a cup of coffee and he’d taken a cold coffee and then
microwaved it to get it hot. He took a
picture of us sitting on the front walk with his phone, asking how to spell my
name. We rolled through Salem around
2:30, and the traffic seemed be getting out of the bars. River Rd through Keizer was quiet, and we
finally got out of town, and Al was no longer with us. I was feeling my diaper rash, that made it
quite uncomfortable to settle back down onto the saddle. It was also the sleepy time as it seemed to
take a long time to reach Keene Rd. Ray
and I chatted when we were together, but I felt more awake just by having him
nearby. Then the birds started to sing
and chirp and slowly it got brighter, as we were getting onto Butteville
Rd. Ray was feeling better and going
faster after having had a waffle in Salem.
His average was around 15, and at that pace my HR was between
95-105. At about 4:30 my Dinotte finally
exhausted the 4 cells that I’d used in my made up 4 cell package, and was
afraid that I’d reverse polarized a cell, when they wouldn’t recharge
before leaving the house. It went from
the blinking blue immediately to the off and red within 5 seconds. I stopped and Ray waited while I dug around
and put the second set of cells in. I
then realized that I’d not closed the rear bag, since taking out my raincoat in
Salem. Everything still seemed to be in
it, though, now that it was mostly empty, without my clothes. It was quite light by the time we got to
Arndt Rd. and getting across the Boones Bridge was better than when I’d come
across in March, there was more room along the exit. We saw a Denny’s but then scouted out the
Shari’s. As the cue sheet said, we got
it signed, and we had a few minutes to spare to have made it under 24 hours. We ordered and were served, then Al arrived
and sat with us. He checked Facebook,
and Lynn had posted that they’d stopped in Salem at a sit-down place. Al mentioned that the RUSA website has a way
to see the results of all riders, if you specify the event by name.
I've now completed an easy Populaire, that Dieter and I have recreated without the Snoozeville leg. A tough 200km that took us up the Mollala and to Silver Falls State Park, but helped get me in shape for the fastest 300km I've had from Newberg to Breitenbush and back.
