Current mood:	blue moooooooooon
Current music:	oldies, all day. thanks buddy holly radio, pandora.

Chamois Butter and Granny Gears: Summer Bike Tour 09

this last tuesday, wednesday, thursday jon & I took a bike tour! with us came lionel, cathy, mike, aaron, ryan, & ryan's girlfriend kyleen. jon, aaron & I were the only ones that had been on a bike tour before - everyone else was green. after some breakfast sandwiches at the citybikes annex, coffee, and a few pictures of our route origin, we were good to go!

we rode up to lloyd center to catch the max blue line all the way out to the end of the line in Gresham. after that hilariously long ride full of apologies to the other passengers for our difficult-to-get-around bicycles loaded down in every direction, we were all antsy to get riding, & after a bit of figuring, we fenegled our way onto Powell and then got onto Orient Road, stopped at Dodge Park for lunch. at dodge park we swam a little, ate a ton of food, & were all generally in good spirits & into what we were doing. Then we got onto Ten Eyck headed south, and then east onto Marmot Road.

Marmot Road was ridiculous. It was so hard. I later learned that we climbed over 1300 feet on that first day. Not all on Marmot Road, but the majority of it. It kicked all our ases, big time. there were points where I was getting off every few minutes, cursing, the gamut. jon definitely helped me cool down, though I was unappreciative at the time, to say the least. thanks for keepin' me from the crazies, jorn! anyway, our reward, our amazing, incredible, not-to-be-disregarded-or-taken-for-granted reward, were some of the most beautiful sights I may have ever seen. Me & Lionel and Jon stopped for a photo op at a particularly beautiful location, laughing our asses off at how we just couldn't seem to, self-portaiture style, get Jon in the picture. Hopefully I'll be able to post it!

After the MONSTER CLIMBS, illegal in thirty seven states, we had a couple of totally glorious, totally wind-regaining descents where I bet we were going maybe thirty miles per hour. Lionel and I were the slowgoers of the group & Jon teamed up with us, because even though he could have kept up with the péloton (so many jokes & references to the tour de france were made), he stayed back with us and encouraged us. jon is rad.

We stopped a bunch, ate a lot of salty snacks and drank a ton of water. Oh, on water, dude I was drinking nearly five liters of water a day, and I peed, like, TWICE on the first day. that's how hard we were working, and how badly my body needed water. ha ha, and many serious references were made to gatorade having electrolytes. ha ha! did y'all know the second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup? ha ha!! that shit isn't gonna be good for you! oh well, I drank it happily & so did everybody else. we were sporty folks, dudes. clif bars and trail mix and bajillion gallons of water. oh and hella salami, ha ha! basically anything proteiny, salty, etc. & lots of dried fruit.

On our final climb of the day, the last three miles up Lolo Pass Road (which goes to Zigzag - these names are amazing), I was kicking ass. It was a 3% grade at times (pretty fucking steep) but man, I was HAULIN', passing jon, lionel, & even aaron at one point. I actually stopped to wait up for them, but that was just to be nice - I could have whomped the whole thing in one go. it was awesome. that doesn't mean I wasn't MOTHERFUCKING BEAT when we got to McNeil. I just got a second wind. dude I was the queen of the second wind this tour. We'd start out & I would be taking a break, like, one minute up the hill, panting already, but then a few hours later when everyone would be tired, I was THEN passin' bitches left and right. I think bike touring might be all about keepin' goin' until you get your second wind. that makes it sound like hell! ha ha! no y'all it's awesome. now my thighs can crush chestnuts. and after eating so goddamn much (I needed it!) my stomach can STILL swallow an entire chestnut externally. ew! sorry guys!

anyway. we rolled into mcneil around 8pm. including a long lunch, it took us eight hours to go 35 miles. whoa. we basically fumbled around on this sandy, dry riverbed, exhausted, to set up our tents, a few people jumped in the river. we finally ate, and though I thought I was feeding all eight of us for one night, only five people ate a small portion of the 15lbs of beans I brought. those eventually went to waste, which makes me pretty sad. including the soak time, I spent nearly a full 24 hours making them. they were vegan, and they were some of the most delicious beans I'd ever made. aaarr!

that night, we slept with the sounding of the rushing river next to us, and withered oaks shading our tired bodies from the shadows created by the brightbright milky way. I haven't seen so many stars in.. years. a very long time. I slept well, and was woken by the sun with my love next to me. wow.

we decided to part ways from the folks who had been at the front all the day previous. ryan & kyleen, ass-kickers extraordinaire, split off & headed to hood river. it was totally amicable & a decision made with the understanding that they have a faster pace than most of the rest of us, or at least enough of us that it's difficult to reconcile. so then it was jon, aaron, lionel, cathy & mike and I. also an awesome group! and a little lower stress for me, personally. we made the decision to go to McIver State Park again, via 211 and then onto 224, which was where Jon and I camped a few months ago.

The way to McIver was about 40 miles, so five miles more than the day before, and it took us about two hours less time, riding. There were definitely some monstery climbs on that day, too, but nothing like the day before. We had MAD, MAD amounts of cars honking at us and being general dicks, so that's always a little scary, but we were fine and the gas station attendant where we stopped off before getting onto 224 was so nice. and also referred to himself as a "hose baby," ha ha.

McIver was PACKED and was fairly high class camping - water, showers, $4/person/night (the other place we stayed at may or may not have been legal? we didn't pay a dime & gathered wood for our fire, whoops!) and full of kids and RVs. man, RV camping is stupid. we relaxed RELAXED, it was amazing. we ate indian food, talked about recent issues at citybikes that eventually devolved into some fairly intense philosophical discussion. I got a little sleepy of it after a while, but it was great all the same.

then we rode out of mciver, a 2% grade at times, stopped for a couple of quick cups of coffee at View Point Restaurant, where Jon & I spent about an hour last time because of my hurt knee. The rest of the ride home on Springwater Road, from mile 75 on, was eaaasy-peasy and so beautiful. so gorgeous. We got home at around 1pm, and I got back to my house after some burgers and beer around 3, totally exhausted but with no real soreness - a total contrast to last time, where I had a severely hurt knee, a terribly sore back due to the shortness of my top tube, and lots of other soreness too. I thought that I might have hurt my achilles tendon on my left ankle, but it's fine two days later and I rode my bike yesterday, so I am unconcerned.

this was great! we're gonna take some overnighty guys in the fall, and it's gonna be fucking fantastic. yeaaah!!!

I rate the route Excellent because it kicked my ass, it was gorgeous, and it was fun as hell. Only the first day was painful, and (in retrospect) fun as crap. I rated the difficulty Very Hard because of the first day, but every day definitely had its fairly difficult climbs. I've done part of this route before (from McIver at mile 75 on) and I definitely got off of my bike when I only had two chain rings. This time, though there were breaks, with my triple chain ring, I climbed every gorgeous, totally amazing hill. I used every gear I had. NOT RECOMMENDED without your granny gears!