Honeymoon (Cycle Oregon) Recap

Our honeymoon was, in a word, great. We had unparalleled weather (high of 80 and not a cloud in the sky for seven days), gorgeous routes through NE Oregon, beautiful camp sites and the bike riding wasn't even that hard (in the realm of epic week-long rides.) Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks were provided, a beer garden awaited us at every camp site, there was music, movies, karaoke and more to entertain us every evening and even though we weren't alone for our honeymoon, we were hanging out with 2,000 happy, friendly people who were all there to have a good time.

Other than some sunburn, a bit of a sun rash and some seriously tired muscles, we escaped the week unscathed. Wish I could say the same for T-Bone (the man who hit a cow), but more about him below.

See daily notes (written after the fact, but pre-dated) below for more details on our kick-ass honeymoon.

You can also visit the Cycle Oregon blog, where the happy honeymooners were featured!

Day 7, Joseph --> Elgin

The fastest 60 miles ever.

Smooth roads and a slight downgrade for the first 45 miles made this the fastest ride we've ever done. Among the last to leave camp that morning (there were literally just a handful of tents still up when we left) we felt the need to "catch up" a bit that day. We also knew we didn't have to save any energy for any more rides so we hit it about as hard as felt safe. We paused at the lunch stop, but it was pretty early, we weren't that hungry, the line was extremely long and we were so tired of the food (not Cycle Oregon's strong suit) that I had no desire to partake. Instead we continued our rapid windings down and out of the Wallowa Valley. In addition to the lake in the morning we had high-country meadows & farmland, skirted the Wallowa River through a narrow nine-mile canyon and after the one climb of the day bombed back down into Elgin where chocolate milk and showers were waiting. And despite being among the last to leave camp, our quick ride and skipping of lunch made us among the first to Elgin.

The only drawback to the day's ride was a narrow road with a bit of traffic and the most reckless riding we saw during the whole trip. I think people were focused on getting home (as opposed to the riding they were doing) and everyone was going about twice as fast as usual, which leads to stronger consequences in cases of poor judgment or inattention. A woman in front of me veered sharply to the left (I guess she was trying to pull off the road on the opposite side?) without signaling and did so at the exact moment someone else was trying to pass her on the left (the person trying to pass also did not call out her intention.) The woman who was attempting to pass was nearly run off the road and both could have been severely injured. We also had a very aggressive pace-line attempt to zip around us when we slowed down. Not paying any attention to anything except the wheel in front of them, they'd failed to notice the reason we were slowing down was a cluster of cars that were going very slowly around riders that were much slower than us. It was not advisable to try and pass anyone in that situation, so we slowed down. Obviously the pace line that passed us made the situation worse and nearly caused a great big bike wreck. We then were stuck behind this group of maniacs until there was a long enough stretch to safely pass them.

But we made it to the car safe & sound, grabbed our luggage and a quick shower, and hit the road home. We stopped off for an early diner at Full Sail in Hood River (with many other Cycle Oregon riders - identified by their Cycle Oregon t-shirts and/or lingering ID wrist bands) and we were home by 7. It was a phenomenal vacation, a perfect honeymoon and we had a blast. I do say it was nice to be back home though. The tempurpedic bed was particularly lovely.

Day 6, Joseph & Wallowa County (layover day)

And on the sixth day they rested.

The overly domesticated deer at Wallowa Lake. They were wandering around the food tents, the main stage and, obviously, felt quite at home in tent city.

Or at least some of us did. Many whack-o's decided to ride their bikes around on our day off. My Christopher and I, however, were extremely tired, somewhat sore and I couldn't imagine getting up on my bike that day. By the end of day 5 I'd actually started sprinting out of the saddle from time to time just to get my buns off the hard, hard seat. I literally got a chaffed hiney. Believe you me, calluses on your hands might make you rugged, but calluses on your bottom are so not sexy.

So instead of punishing our complaining muscles we loafed. I got a massage, we did a bit of laundry. We hitched a ride to Terminal Gravity brewing company for lunch, wandered around the shops in Joseph (we bought a little thank you present for Chelsea who was checking in on Nenya Kitty) and were generally slothful. Towards the end of the day I wandered into the lake, which felt fantastic on my tired legs. And that is about all for Day 6.

Except for the most amazing shooting star ever. It blazed so long and so bright Christopher had a chance to say, "hey look at that" and I had a chance to swivel my slow human head around, see it and make a wish. I think it was a sign, on our honeymoon, of good things to come.

Day 5, Halfway --> Joseph

Brooke & Christopher at the top after climbing a huge-ass mountain!

This was the defining ride of the week. After days of lolling around in the valley, skirting Oregon's Alps, we were warmed up and rearing for a challenge. Okay, so we maybe weren't "rearing" exactly, but I was looking forward to a challenge, and the ride was amazing.

Knowing we had a very long, potentially hot ride before us, we started the day bright and early. We got as packed up and ready as we could the night before and rode off just as the sun was rising above the horizon. The days had been 80-ish, but the nights were definitely down in the 30's and as we started the ride were quite cold. The first 10 miles or so were moderate downhill so we had both the icy morning wind to chill us and very little work to warm us up. I couldn't really feel my fingers, face or toes for a good hour.

It was actually a relief when we started the first major hill. A hill that was 21 miles with 3,400ish feet of climbing. So maybe I should say mountain (I think it was technically a mountain we climbed.) We basically climbed and climbed and climbed for hours - literally! There were a lot of switch-backs and sounds from above would ricochet and echo down as we rode. At one point one of the sag wagons (a handy van for hauling sagging riders back to camp or providing some first aid, basic bike tools, etc.) was positioned such that he could blast the theme music to Rudy a couple of miles down the road. As one of the poor souls tottering up the mountain, I totally appreciated it. It inspired a whole "Inspirational Music" soundtrack in my mind. Theme music to Rocky... circus music.... okay, so the circus music isn't so much "inspirational" as evidence that my brain boiled over, but whatever gets you through it, right?

About 3,000 feet and 18 miles into the climb there was an option to do even more climbing. Quite a number of riders passed up the option to further damage to their knees, but the option was out to (or up to I should say), the Hells Canyon Overlook. It would have been such a shame to have climbed thousands of feet and miles and miles for hours and not get the reward. So we did the option. It was really, really, breathtaking - both the view and the climb. An amazing panorama of Hells Canyon, seen from so high up, you really couldn't see the bottom because it gets so narrow and steep. It was the crown point of the day and jewel of the entire week's ride.


After that was down, down, down, down for 8 or so miles and 1,500 feet. It would have been fun if we weren't on a beaten-up forest service road. The road was nice in that it cut through the gorgeous country of Eagle Cap Wilderness with no cars on the road but those for the ride. The road wasn't nice in that it was pretty chopped up and rough, making the downhills pretty treacherous and not much fun for this pansy-ass rider. Day 5 was also the day a guy fell (on the treacherous downhill), breaking his collar bone and a few ribs. But we made it to lunch safe and sound where I devoured a cold veggie burger. Probably the grossest lunch we had during the week, but they made up for it with Oreo brownies.

If you were thinking we were done working for the day, think again - we weren't even halfway!

Out of lunch was a 12ish-mile, 2,000ish-foot mountain followed by a few miles down and another 4 miles & 800ish foot climb. On the plus side, the climbing was pretty gradual for nearly the entire time, which actually had a way of making it seem like it would never end, but certainly helped the knees. This was followed by a 12-mile down, down, down, and a few other little climbs (only two miles!) By the time we got to the littler climbs, however, we were pretty beat and not quite able to handle them as easily as we might have liked. However, our butts were so tired and chaffed I actually found myself sprinting a bit just as a way to get out of the saddle (as they say.) I was pretty drained though - at the last rest stop I devoured a handful of Oreo's, a handful of Nilla Wafers and a pile of trail mix without pause. We got to the final few miles and had the splendor of Wallowa Lake to behold, but all I could think was "Grrr.... $%^ it.... grmpf... stupid lake.... so stupid & big. #*%!@^# stupid camp-ground. What #*%^&^ decided to put the campground all the way on the other side? $(%* big lake." I may have thrown a "oh, pretty" in there too, but I was just tired. 84-miles and nearly 7 hours actually riding (9 or 10 hours from start to finish) with all those big hills will do that to you!

However, back to the splendor. Around mile 70 we crested our next-to-last climb and were in the beautiful Wallowa Valley. I'm always surprised by how many Oregonians don't know about our Wallowa Valley (it seems like Coloradans somehow overlooking the Rockies.) At the foot of the Wallowa Mountains and the Blue Mountains it combines gorgeous farmland with gigantic ranges of mountains just about everywhere you look. The Wallowas are sometimes called "Oregon's Alps." The heart of the valley is Wallowa Lake near the town of Joseph, and we just happened to have the run of the state park on the shores of the lake for two days. It was pretty sweet. Or at least it was on Day 6 when we were lolling around not doing much.

Brooke & her dad at Hells Canyon Overlook. In case you were wondering, yes her dad was on her honeymoon. But he signed up for CO first and we pitched our tent on the opposite side of the campground!

A long exhausting day, but a pretty phenomenal ride.

Day 4, Halfway & Hells Canyon (layover day)

Typically Cycle Oregon has one "layover day" mid-way through the ride. This day has a ride that is either an out-and-back or loop starting and ending in the same place. In other words you don't have to pack up your tent and things, get them to the transfer trucks or even ride at all! The layover day is a good opportunity to do laundry, loaf, explore the area in non-bicycling ways or just take an easy spin around.

This year we had not one, but TWO layover days. The first layover day was in Halfway where we had the chance to ride down into Hells Canyon - the deepest in North America (even deeper than that famous gap down in the Southwest part of the country.) We decided on a pretty easy route, just going out to the canyon and back. A total of 35ish not-so-hard miles. This was partly due to the fact that we had a killer 84-mile ride the next day (see above!), partly due to the fact that we wanted to take it easy (it WAS our honeymoon after all) and partly due to the fact that my skin was burning with a sun rash. There are drawbacks to a week of sparkling sun, 80-degree temps and not a cloud in the sky. Nothing sun screen can do for allergies to the sun.

The Snake River in Hells Canyon - taken from Idaho, looking back at Oregon.

Back in Halfway Christopher and I tried to get a six-pack of beer from the local grocer, but 2,000 hungry & thirsty cyclists had burned through town like a pack of locusts. Almost every beer in the case was gone and the shelves were mighty sparse. Luckily there was our trusty traveling beer garden set up by Widmer Brewing at every camp site. A girl just likes a little variety.

The evening's entertainment was one of the highlights of the week - Karaoke From Hell. Essentially a cover band (but a cover band with a lot of spunk, funk and flair), Karaoke From Hell is every Cycle Oregon's rider's chance to sing in front of thousands of people with a live band. I have to say the low-spot was the drunk ladies doing provocative back-up dancing for their friend. The highlight was definitely the 9-year-old singing Joan Jett's I Love Rock and Roll. We didn't stay late, however, as the killer ride to Joseph was waiting for us the next morning.

And I nearly forgot T-Bone. I'm not sure what his actual name is, but one guy was zipping around the narrow winding road through Hells Canyon with a bit too much perk in his pedals. He rounded a corner to find a cow or cows on the road (actually somewhat common throughout our NE Oregon adventure.) Unable to slow in time the guy ran into the cow. Luckily the cow was fine and T-Bone will be okay after he heals up a bit (he was bandaged for the rest of the week and unable to ride.) I'm not sure about the status of his bicycle, but there is a rumor that while he was down on the ground, the cow's calf came along and kicked him. In any case, he was in pretty good spirits around camp the rest of the week and even had a little toy cow mounted onto his handlebars.

Day 3, Baker City --> Halfway (Hells Canyon)

Finally some serious riding. Only 52 miles, but a good hill near the end.

We started off with a good warm-up climb a few miles outside of town to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. I don't know what I was expecting of the early stop at the Oregon Trail. I knew there were some sort of trail marks. What is there, however, are deep groves in the earth that are 150 or so years old. Scarred by years of wagon after wagon rolling through, the grooves are totally apparent today. The earth so compacted and worn that plants still don't grow in the wagon ruts. It isn't a stunning site like Hells Canyon or some of the mountains we saw (and climbed) during the week, but it is quite a remarkable symbol. Thousands of people undertook an immense journey and helped shaped the history and present of Oregon and the west coast. There was something very cool about standing in the valley settled by the early pioneers and looking at the grooves.

After the morning's climb we had a very gradual, mostly downhill, grade with just a couple little uphill blips until lunch. After lunch we finally got our first real climb of the week. Over six or seven miles we climbed about 1,500 feet. We'd gotten another late start and dawdled for most of the morning so it was the heat of the afternoon with no shade around. Some animal-types charged up it, other riders huffed and puffed and wove back and forth. Quite a few people got off their bikes and walked - particularly when the grade got steeper. Christopher and I stayed cheery by singing and humming (and being obnoxiously happy newlyweds.) Mid-way he picked up the pace a little and I fell back, but I could still hear him prattling away to his neighbors (who couldn't respond for lack of breath) telling long and involved stories as if he were just strolling down a flat little sidewalk.

(The view from atop!)

After that was a screaming downhill on super smooth roads that even I, the consummate pansy on the downhills, felt comfortable blazing down. In Halfway we got to camp on another baseball diamond and found ourselves with a relatively large open space to ourselves - which was nice as we camped there for two nights.

(150 miles and 3 days in and we still seem to be getting along and enjoying each other!)

Day 2, Union --> Baker City

A bit dry and dusty, but Day 2 was also a gorgeous ride. Though still short at 45 miles, this one had a bit more to it with one long and stead climb a few rollers and another decent climb toward the end. We got to see the sites of two valleys and the North Powder River and it was all on roads that were nearly deserted (well, except for the 2,000 bicycles and various support vehicles.)
There was an option to do 60 or 83 miles, but when the woman directing traffic said "Keep straight for the option or left for the beer garden" it was a pretty easy decision. Baker City is also a pretty neat town with scads of cool historic buildings and home to a world class brewery, Barley Browns, whose beer can only be had in Baker City. AND, it was our honeymoon after all. We were there for a week of bicycling, but we wanted to be able to relax too.

One of the unexpected treasures of our camp site in Baker City was that we got to camp out on their new 2 million dollar sports complex. I think we were on part of a baseball field and it was the thickest, lushest, softest grass I've encountered. So much better than the rocks and bare roots of most campground sites, I barely needed my thermarest.

And the evening's entertainment/inspiratioin - Blazing Saddles.

Day 1, Elgin --> Union

All we had to do day 1 was ride 45 flat miles through beautiful farm-land valleys. We didn't set an alarm (the zippers of roughly 1,400 other tents sufficed) and took our time getting ready, eating breakfast and packing up our tent and bags at a leisurely pace.

(Christopher applying sunscreen to his white, white legs. By the end of the week they actually got a bit of color in them.)

Christopher had a bit of a rough start as he realized he had forgotten his cycling shoes. Luckily the Bike Gallery was on hand to sell him a new pair. Very luckily their buyer happens to wear size 13 and so is very consistent about having shoes in Christopher's size. And when the new shoes needed new pedals, one of the mechanics traded with Chris for the week. To make the morning even more memorable, just as we were about to head out, Christopher broke his sunglasses. Luckily he has a very talented and adept wife who tracked down some shipping tape and managed to weld the pieces together for the day while he was getting the pedals adjusted. Even better though was the recommendation from the kids in Union to hit up the Shell station for a new pair.

A good thing the day was short and flat as the new shoes needed some serious adjusting when the fit started to give Chris knee pain. Actually, the shoes and glasses and knee drama helped spice up the day. Otherwise it would have just been gorgeous pasture and hillsides after gorgeous pasture and hillsides and we would have made it to camp before our bags.

(Day 1 and we seem to be having fun and enjoying each other!)

Day 0, Elgin

We ran around Portland trying to clean the house, finish packing, run by the library, get the dog to the kennel, fill up on gas, and a million other things. We hoped to leave by 9, it was closer to noon by the time we were finally on the road. As we made the 5ish hour drive we constantly passed and were passed by other cars loaded down with bicycles headed toward the start of Cycle Oregon in Elgin.

We might have been late to get on the road, but with the camp site at Elgin high school's baseball and football fields, there were plenty of places to pitch our tent and we had plenty of time to get settled in and relax the night before the start of the ride.

Among the various check-in details (wrist band, t-shirt, bag labeling, etc.) each rider had the chance to fill in a faux-Oregon license plate for the back of their bike. Some people put their name, some their hometown, others a nick-name, etc. etc. I was "Honey" and my Christopher was "Moon." Throughout the week most people got it, but when we weren't riding right next to each other a few people didn't quite understand. I got a lot of "hey honey" calls and people thought Chris was either a hippy-child or maybe making a threat. I suggested he drop his shorts half-way on the big hill climbs (live up to the name and all), but he was too modest for that.

Quick dispatch

Dio mio - so many changes these last few weeks. And soooooo busy. Too busy even to post here.

Let's see... we got married on a Saturday. Friends and family departed Sunday/Monday.

Tuesday I got a call from a company who'd had my resume on file for a while (a pretty sweet, fantastic, exciting company I might add.)

Wednesday I interviewed for a job. Friday I interviewed a second time. Monday I was offered a job. The following Friday I started the job. For the last few weeks I've been totally consumed by getting up to speed with my new job. Oh, and I was also still interviewing candidates for my previous job and in the evenings training the person we hired.

And we've been riding our bicycles like crazy getting ready for Cycle Oregon - which starts today! (Within the training there are sagas of broken bicycles, heat stroke and more, but no time right now!) So I'm going to flee now - finish packing, take the puppy dog to camp and drive 5ish hours to Elgin, OR for the start of our honeymoon adventure!

And if you want to see photos from the wedding....

Go to Brooke's Picasa for most of the photos, or Christopher's Picasa for the remainder!

And when we get back from Cycle Oregon I promise to give a full account of the trip and fill you in on the new job!

TTFN!