Day 6 - The Neverending Story

Patty:
We awoke around 5:30 am to a very cold morning. The water in the bottles wasn't frozen, but it was probably only slightly warmer. We lit a fire in the fire pit and huddled around it to stay warm. After a breakfast of cereal, fruit and yogurt, they guys got dressed for the ride. As we began to break camp it began to rain. I wasn't raining hard, but at less than 40 degrees, it was no fun. Thankfully, it was also only a five minute shower. We took down the tents and loaded and the sleeping bags them into the back of the jeep. I ran the guys up the two mile camp road back to Hwy 58, and then wet back down to load up the rest of the gear.

Kevin:
This was supposed to have been the fun day. We began on Highway 58 at the turnoff to the campground, and it turned out that we were already at the Willamette Pass summit. From there to Eugene there were no major climbs, just a 4600 foot drop spread out over 30 or 40 miles. Because of this we had planned to cover about 85 miles today, possibly the longest ride I had ever done. We got on the road at 8:10 and it was quite cold. We had expected this (at 5000 ft elevation) so we were wearing several layers. This was undoubtedly a good idea, because I think it might have been a bit dangerous to coast at 30 mph in these temperatures otherwise.

Within a few miles there was a tunnel. We had to push a button that set lights flashing on traffic signs informing cars that there were "bikes in tunnel."















But soon I noticed that the ride wasn't as easy as I was expecting. When the road would flatten out for a time I was working moderately hard to sustain 13-14 mph, a disappointing state of affairs after the relatively easy 15-16 mph on the level parts of the ride into Chemult on day 4. But we kept on going (what else do you do?) and made it into Oakridge by 9:30. We had a second breakfast there, because the first one had been small and we were starting to need a little something.

Patty:
I left Odell Lake and headed to the rest area at Oakridge (our planned meeting place). I noticed that my phone wasn't charging using the car charger, in fact, it died completely just before I reached Oakridge. I didn't see the guys on the way down the hill, so I was hoping that they would be at our planned destination. I had no way of communicating with them at this point.

I rolled into the rest area and found it empty. I wasn't sure what to do, so I just continued on slowly, keeping watch for the guys. I found the within about a half a mile at a parking lot along the road. I borrowed Gavin's phone for the rest of the day.

Kevin:
There was a bike shop in Oakridge that was surprisingly well-stocked. We went in there to get a spoke wrench because I thought that one of my wheels was slightly out of true. We ended up chatting with the two guys working there for a little while. We showed them the "Crazy Guy On A Bike" website and they may use it to journal the bike tour in Europe that they are planning.

The scenery was fabulous as we followed the middle fork of the Willamette River down the mountain through the forest. But the ride was definitely not living up to my expectations as an easy ride. My bike felt as if it were less efficient than usual, but I couldn't tell why. It felt as if there were an intangible headwind. I was getting tired.

While in Oakridge we planned to stop at Elijah Bristow state park. This park was 25 miles from Oakridge and that should have been a reasonable distance. As I was coming to expect, it took longer than usual and I was ready for a break. It turned out that Elijah Bristow state park is primarily an equestrian park, so we had lunch next to a large group sponsoring a charity event ride. In hindsight, a better option would have been Dexter State Park a few miles back.

Patty:
I met up with the Gavin and Kevin at a vista point along Lookout Point Lake. We chatted a little while and then they road on. We met at Elijah Bristow and had some lunch. The guys seemed a little tired, though neither really said much about that.

Kevin:
After lunch I put my bike on the rack on the Jeep and checked the spin of the wheels. There were a few very minor wobbles, but nothing unusual or even worth truing at this point. Then Gavin suggested that we check the pressure in the tires. Both of his tires and my back tire were holding fine at 120 psi, but my front tire was only 60. That may have been the reason for the tiring ride. I pumped the front tire up to 120 and we set off again. It seemed more like normal now, but I was already tired and we had used up almost all of the elevation drop already. Now we had another 30 miles of flat riding to go.

We came into the Eugene area at about 2 pm. According to plan, we got onto 30th avenue to bypass the freeway and some of the busy parts of town. It turned out that 30th avenue was a killer hill, especially in our current condition.

Then we wound our way through the city. We had driving directions that we had worked out with a combination of a Eugene biking map and Google. They were good, mostly, but without a map in a city like that, if you get a street that changes name or miss a turn or otherwise deviate from the plan, you are forced to either backtrack or wander until you can find your way again.

Patty:
I drove into Eugene and circled around the city (one wrong turn can mean several more turns to get back to where the mistake was made), and made my way to Highway 99. I knew that the guys would be riding on this road for three miles, and then turning west for another eight. There was a very steady north wind on 99, and I knew the guys were quite tired. I was also pretty worn out from sleeping on the ground and packing and repacking the car. The thought of setting up camp and spending another night on the ground was looking very unattractive. I called Kevin and told him about the winds, and strongly suggested getting a motel right in Eugene for the night. I had a hard time getting my bearings while driving around Eugene (unusual for me), and I found myself in a rather cantankerous mood.

Kevin
And now there was another issue: the jeep was stuffed so full of our camping and traveling gear that there was hardly room for three people as well. Some other cyclists in a park gave us some directions and we tried to follow those directions, two bikes and a car trying to negotiate the city streets together, but it wasn't working well. So we stopped and pushed stuff around in the jeep until we were all able to sit, more or less, and the bikes went on the rack. That was the end of the ride for the day.

Patty:
After I picked up the guys, we drove around for a little while until we found a nice little motel on 6th Avenue (Hwy 99) in Eugene. We went to see "Get Smart" after dinner, and we all slept quite well.

The route to Corvallis is mostly north and there is a north wind blowing, so this next 30+ miles may be a grind. I'm sure it will still feel pretty short after the last one.

Kevin:
I will definitely check tire pressure before we ride to Corvallis.

Ride Stats
Distance today: 75.4
Distance trip: 254.5
Max Speed: 36.7
Av Speed: 14.4
Time: 5:11