June 24, 2015
Government Camp - Detroit Lake, OR: Heaven on two wheels.
All Seasons Motel, 130 Breitenbush Rd., 503-854-3421 $63.50 before tax. Queen bed. Basic old motel. Horrible TV, slow wi-fi. Nice lady at the desk. There were other choices in town. This is clean enough. Small room.
I have to give credit right up front to my support group - Wayne, Alison, and Pete all fielded several emergency emails concerning today's route. I read that Magnus' support vehicle got lost on today's remote ride. I tried searching CG, not much to find. Several people mentioned the lack of markings, but didn't mention getting lost. I think I've strained my cheerleaders with questions. I'd better lay low for a few days. The end of that story is that it was all fine - if you are doing this route, and I strongly encourage it, the turns are basically intuitive. There's a couple of paved road intersections way out in the middle of nowhere (Colorado isn't so luxurious with it's pavement) - but it's reasonably easy to look at the map and figure things out. I was down to breakfast early to figure out the double billing on my room. Of course, the manager isn't in until a much more civilized hour, regardless of what Michael had told me the night before. Luckily, this front desk person knew his way around the computer. Ryan fixed me right up and made print outs showing the original payment and no charge on the second card. There, see how easy things are when you get someone who knows how to do the job?
Oren and I agreed to leave together and stay together until FR 46, which seemed larger and better marked. My 8' long bike did go up to the third floor in the elevator (standing on the rear wheel). It came back down the same way. We were ready to leave right at 7 AM. Jacinto's opinion was today was long in miles, but not so long in climbing, 3,900 feet. It should be a reasonably easy day. That assessment was good.
We had an uphill back to Hwy 26, I mentally whined about having to backtrack the 3.5 miles. We had two passes finished by the first ten miles. Nothing like getting in there and getting it done! They even had signs. There was supposed to be two passes later in the day also, but no signs for those. Darn, I was wanted to claim a personal best, four passes in one day.
Riding on Hwy 26 was busy, but no problem with the wide shoulder. At the turn for FR 42, the sign says Timothy Lake. Oren was busy with the chalk, marking for Jacinto. That worked out well for me today. Oren would always get ahead, then I would catch up while he was marking questionable areas.
42 was WONDERFUL. No traffic to speak of. Lots of tall pine trees and bushes, ferns, etc. Rinse and repeat mile after mile. The road was gently climbing. Gently is the key word.
We reached a fork in the road - left to the ranger station or right to Timothy Lake. Go left. Go and go. This is great. I hope to hold FR 42 in my memory while we are on busy Highway 97 in a few days.
CG Dan Browning had plans to drive out and meet us. He was going to park in Detroit and ride up the road until we meet, then ride back. Remember that plan.
Jacinto and I played text tag as we both had service. He seemed to be doing well with the markings. He later said he didn't look at the scenery at all, just watched the road so he wouldn't miss any of Oren's handiwork.
We had eight miles of single lane road. I don't believe a single car passed me there. We did have the occasional vehicle during the day. Maybe every half hour or so.
At the intersection of 46, I cut Oren loose. At this point we were at 2,200 feet elevation. We had a pass to climb (no sign) at 3,390 feet in 12 miles. Oren said it was going to be a bear of a climb. I told him I thought it would be more of a cub. He didn't think I was amusing.
Jacinto caught up to me at 3,100 feet elevation. I told him the top had to be very close, let's take a break together at the top. I kept riding and riding. The top wasn't really defined and stayed fairly level. I stopped for a snack. Where was Jacinto. Finally I saw him talking to another cyclist. Dan!
I hoped off. Hi, Dan! Great to see you! Thanks for coming to meet us! Wow, you really loaded your bike up! He replied, "I have the whole week off, I'm going to Klamath Falls also.: Mentally I'm very confused. Dan had just said he was driving out for the day.??? We chatted, checked each other's bikes out. Dan said his wife was out of town, so he was doing a little tour before she got back and they adopted two girls from Uganda. What?? He had definitely not said anything about that. I kept thinking this wasn't Dan. We hadn't met in person, but were Facebook friends, so I had seen photos. Things were matching up, but they weren't. He had cats, had just gotten married, wife traveled. But adopting two girls? Teaching school? Plus it just didn't look like Dan.
Then, here came Dan up the pass! I could tell it was Dan! Heck, then I felt so silly and awkward. But I didn't say anything. What could I say. Surely the guy could tell I didn't know him.
Since we had spent so much time talking to 'Dan'. As soon as the real Dan arrived and caught his breath from the 10% climb, we agreed to head on to town.
Jacinto and the mystery man rode together. Dan and I got acquainted. On the steep parts, I pulled ahead. Then Dan would catch up on the level pieces. I filled him in on my embarrassment over the confusion with mystery Dan.
When we pulled into town, Jacinto and mystery Dan were at the marina having a snack. This was my chance to apologize and explain the confusion. Graham was actually an Oregon resident, a teacher. He said he'd talked to so many people in the past few days that when I mentioned the voicemail and answering text he thought his memory was poor. It all ended up pretty funny in the end. Graham is doing a tour to Klamath Falls and then riding the train home. We might see him again.
The real Dan went for a shake while we checked in the motel and showered. We walked downtown for dinner. The first place we went, we got menus and that was it. We left. We went to the shake place, but they had closed since Dan bought his treat. We ended up at the only place open, a BBQ place. I ordered a half chicken. It was probably good when it was fresh - a couple of days before. But I was hungry and I ate almost all of it. Jacinto took part of the breast to eat later.
We said our goodbyes to Dan. It was great to meet him and really nice of him to drive all that way to torture himself on the 10% grade and eat subpar BBQ with us. At least the shake was good.
We went to the store and bought supplies for the next day. For not having anything to do but ride and eat, we sure have trouble getting it all done!
As a side note, at the marina where Jacinto was having his snack, the lady said he was the second customer of the entire day. The water level of the lake was so low, she had no business. It's pretty hard to stay in business with two customers a day. I wonder how many other businesses in drought struck areas are suffering similarly.
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Today's ride: 69 miles (111 km)
Total: 712 miles (1,146 km)
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