Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Day 3..... and the hills just keep coming

Let me first start off by saying we are in an RV park outside Prineville that doesn't have a lot going for it. No grass, no wifi, "partial" cable (some channels have no sound). The people are really nice except maybe Heisenberg cooking blue ice just below us. So I'm doing the update on my phone (with the door locked)
After a great ride on Monday (ok great is a little much since there was a touch more climbing than expected) we woke up excited to get ever closer to what is now becoming multi-K to the bay. We decided to go with the matching San Francisco jerseys.  We have a new morning procedure (following the Deavs debacle) where we double check the spelling on the jerseys and fortunately all was good. 
So off we go ready to tackle Day 3 of our adventure. It quickly became apparent that we were continuing with the mountaineering expedition (versus cycling) as we started going uphill right from the get go. I'll spare you the suspense and go right to the days riding results. It was more ridiculous than yesterday. 83 miles (chart shows 74 because I am an idiot and hit save instead of pause) and 7870 ft of climb!  This is nuts. We are doing climbs that would put hair on Bald Peak!
Here is the first valley we encountered. It is from the John Day river. It was gorgeous.  
The problem here is knowing that we need to climb out of the canyon. Below is a picture I took half way up using the self timer app (I'm going to be pushing this baby all trip). I love it. For you photo buffs note the natural border created by the grass (not bad eh?).  Actually it was pure luck. I only stopped for the picture because I needed an excuse to stop because I was so damn tired I didn't care how it turned out. 
This next picture really has no significance other than I wanted to prove to Cheryl we actually could take a picture without our helmets on. By the way do you notice that there are FREAKiNG HILLS in every picture?
Finally, our last climb of the day was to the top of Ochoco Pass Summit. I thought coming out of The John Day river canyon was tough. This was much tougher. Everything was numb as well as tired. My feet, my butt and associated parts (which was a little unnerving). But we made it!!  OK OK I had a little trouble finding a place for the camera. 
There it is, the final results from a long day on the road to The Bay
Tomorrow may actually be a little easier as we expect 60 miles to Sunriver where we look forward to a visit with Cheryl's sisters family. Hoping for another terrific day. 











3 comments:

  1. You two are amazing! Your posts are one of the highlights of our road-trip vacation (and our race to San Francisco). I get up early each morning and hit the computer to see if your humorous description of your previous day's adventure has been posted yet. Go Cougs! and go Deavs!

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  2. In case you didn't read our comment from July 3 and don't realize that you are in a race with us to San Francisco, here is that earlier post: "Good luck on your trip, Chris and Greg! Vickiy and I are heading out this Friday, July 5, on our own road trip to San Francisco, but we planned it without the benefit of alcohol and are doing it by car. We are hoping Cheryl encourages the two of you to ride like the wind and get to San Francisco by July 16/17 where we can all get together to celebrate your successful ride. John VB."

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  3. Great job, boys! At some point, it has to be all down hill to the Bay! My work day being over, I shall now do my measly 2.5-mile, 500' elevation gain ride home on the 'ol 1988 Trek mtn bike (yeah, it's steel).

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