Ride Discontinued after second year.
2002 was the first year of this ride.
Lisa was involved in this ride as an event organizer, which was the reason that
I rode in the ride the first year.
The ride was directly after Cycle Oregon, and I would have preferred to use the
following weekend as a rest period instead of participating in another hill
climb, but it is a great ride.
And, I was able to see her and participate in an event she was working on.
I parked at the bottom of the hill, both saving spaces for other riders, saving
the 3 dollar parking fee, and getting in a little more hill miles. The weather
was great, though the attendance was rather light.
It is such a treat to ride those 4 miles along that wide smooth bike path that
was once the Columbia Historic Highway.
The path travels high on the hillside, overlooking the Columbia River and slides
below a cover of trees. The ride out to Roweena crest is at first a series of
rollers, then a gradual, incline through some open spaces that can expose you to
a little wind.
A rest stop was atop Roweena Crest, which gives you a break before the long,
winding downhill. Here you need to be alert, to navigate the many switchbacks
and contend with the sudden wind gusts, but its a great ride down.
Rode out to The Dalles Interpretive Center, and then out the bike paths that
take you out a few miles to the river. Winding, wide paths, with very few
people, back up the the center to look around and then visit with Dave and Edna
who are staffing the rest stop.
At the stop I meet up with Andrew Black who had been acting as the bike
mechanic, but got bored since there was nothing to fix, so he had ridden down
from Rowena Crest to The Dalles and back.
We ride up the winding looping road to the top of Rowena Crest, at a good pace,
as he is a strong rider, and I am in my best form having just completed Cycle
Oregon.
On the ride back there is a long downhill stretch through the orchards.
At this point, as I was gathering speed, I shifted in to my large front ring,
but the derailleur over shifted causing the chain to go off the other side of the
chain ring. After a brief glance down to see the cause of my pedaling problem, I
looked back up only to realize that I had now gotten out onto the shoulder of
the road. Unwilling to risk swerving back up on to the roadway at a speed of
approximately 25 mph, I opted for rolling down the incline and into the field. I
quickly hit a bump, and flew over the top of the handlebars, did a somersault
and came to rest more or less on my feet. A quick mental/physical inventory
revealed no real damage, and I was quite relieved. Straightened up the
handlebars, replaced the chain and put everything else back in place, and after
a moment for composure, was back on the road to finish the route.
After the ride, was able to meet up with Lisa for Lunch and ice cream in Hood
River, prior to heading home.
2003 - The second annual ride
Again, Lisa is involved in the ride, and has gotten me involved as well,
attending the Friends board meetings, providing input where I can and generally
helping Lisa with her duties. A web site has been created, and a registration
service was involved. The date has been moved, prior to Cycle Oregon this
year, but also the same weekend as the MS150. So, I have decided to support the
Friends, instead of MS this week. Lisa and I leave for the course very early so
that we can put up directional signs by 8:00am. Last year she was a SAG driver,
this year she is a rider so we ride together. We get back to registration table
about 830 and get on the course by 900, I am rider 11, pretty low number for an
hour in to the ride. But we are off, the weather being cloudy, a bit cool, and a
bit humid as well. And windy. A nice ride, and we see a few riders out on
the road to Rowena, it is getting windier but we keep up a pretty good pace. The
ride up and over the crest prove to be uneventful with the exception of meeting
3 tour buses on the winding loops of the Rowena Crest downhill. We get to The
Dalles and hear that we are actually the last riders on the course. Not that we
are slow, its just that there weren't any registered riders after us going the
full distance. So after we chat at the rest stop, the women begin dismantling
the rest stop and we head out. The guys at the top of the Crest have waited for
us, which was impressive since it was quite windy up there as well. We stay to
catch our breaths, fill our bottles and have a few more cookies. I didn't
mention that this ride features home made chocolate chip cookies. That by itself
is worth the ride. And we are off to the finish. The organizers have waited for
us to finish the course as well. The last few miles along the bike path were
harder for me than I expected. The brisk pace and the steady heavy winds, which
forced us to pedal during some of the best down hills, has taken my energy, and
I didn't enjoy the last stretch as well as I expected. Our early plans called
for going back again, at least up to the crest and back giving us at least 60
miles. But the group has decided to go eat in town, and we decide that a social
hour at a brew house may be more fun the doubling back in to the wind for more
miles.
A disappointing result for the organizers in terms of a fundraiser, but it is
still a great route to ride.