Today was a terrific day on the road. Very shortly after we started, we headed up a 12 mile climb. The grade was very comparable to Mt Lemmon for my Tucson friends. The first SAG was on 13.4 miles in, at the top of the climb. The following photo shows yours truly at the sign in the area. It was only a 3995 foot summit, but we started about 1200 feet, so it was a pretty good haul. We descended about a thousand feet, then went back up to just over 4000, down 500 and back up. We finally leveled out and rolled for a good ways easily.
After spending the morning in Douglas fir and other large trees, we made the turn to Kah-Nee-Ta and promptly were in high desert. The trees became scrubs at best. The nice part was a number of mountains in white in the distance. This shows a group called the Three Sisters near Bend. It better shows the typed of vegetation, or lack thereof.
The one thing we did have was an abundance of wildflowers in purple, yellow, and white. They are having a good season for wildflowers, as the following photo shows.
After riding along a plateau for a while, we had a screaming, winding 5 mile descent into the valley. It was a nice reward for a long day of tough riding. Everyone seems to have remarked how great it was.Speaking of everyone, here are a few more facts about the group before I close for the day. We have 5 couples on board, a father/son, a mother/daughter, two Swiss, two Englishman, two Canadians, and a US citizen who has worked the last 16 years in Asia. My roommate is a 65 year old retired Navy man, also retired from keeping a school's computers in order. We seem to be doing well together. More on the group as facts come clear.
1 comment:
Sounds pretty challenging. Good thing the high school sophomore trained for a couple of weeks! Next time I'm out on a wimpy little jog, I'll remind myself of the feats you're accomplishing out there.
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