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.