Oregon Randonneurs Brewpub Populaire

How negative could I possibly go in the spousal points bank?  Open house this Sunday, and I thought I'd go on a bike ride Saturday.  Plus ride to and from.  In my defense, I had been cleaning and preparing the week prior.



Put the remains of last weekend's permanent cookies in my bag, along with a dark chocolate bar with speculoos filling (Trader Joes.  Looked promising).  And a banana.  Plus some water and Gatorade-Tea.  I knew there would be ample food opportunities on the route.

Up way too early; I wanted to be on the road at 6:45, to get there in plenty of time for the 8am start.  Heading west through the slowly lightening sky, I did get there.  Lots of folks to visit with.  I found Smitty, who had posted on the Google Rivendell group that this would be his first-ever rando event.  He was pretty excited.  Also met Hazel with the other Sweetpea bicycle.



Tom turned us loose right at 8am, and we all headed out west and north, through North Plains, and up Dairy Creek Rd, to the turnaround and control at the end.  Lots of "high water" signs, but they'd been moved aside;  the road was clear.  Smitty and I chatted for several miles.





Arrived at the control, got my card signed, ate a couple of Susan O's EXCELLENT cookies, and fixed myself a rando mocha while chatting with Asta.  Stayed as long as it took to finish the rando mocha and headed out.  11 minutes total.



Back down Dairy Creek, right on Mountaindale, and... how had I missed that pretty pond to the north at the curve?  Maybe it usually isn't there?  Had to stop and take a picture.



Over the rollers, quick crossing of Hwy 26 at Frogger Junction, and started wondering if we'd have a secret control. The route can be abbreviated here, but you'd pay for it :-)  Heading along Mountaindale Rd, lots of bikes stopped at the St Francis Cemetery because... Secret Control!





Andrew signed cards and offered snacks.  I took the opportunity to remove the jacket and heavy gloves, and move on.

Through Banks, out Cedar Canyon.  There was an interesting bit at the Killin Wetlands - water over the road.  Easily navigated.



In the interest of not digging myself into a deeper hole, I planned to have expedient stops for the rest of the ride.  Rode along with Ed on Thatcher on into Forest Grove.  I stopped at Mama Jiah's (the Kwicki-Mart); he went on to Maggies.  Sigh.







Last push to the end.  Headed into Verboort on Porter, only to be buzzed by some idiot who had the entire empty road in front of him. Turned from Long onto Susbauer and... wow that's a lot of water over the road!  The road was closed, not that it was stopping anyone.  I paused to watch a truck navigate, just to get an idea of how deep it was.  I could see cyclists on the far side.  And started wading.  A truck drove by, rather quickly, so I got even wetter.  It must have been about a foot deep in the middle.  Very wet shoes.  My bottom bracket went under.  Stupid.  Maria allowed as how it was really rude, the truck driver swamping me and Little Pink Bear.  It was.  Or at least thoughtless.



Then finished it off.  4:56 total elapsed time.  Philippe was there to sign my card at the end, but I didn't stay to socialize.  Next time.

81.5 miles for the day.  Plus some cooking and setting up.

Sweetpea visited Mechanic Michael - rear hub overhaul (not a bad idea anyway).  He figured the bottom bracket would be fine.  Nothing to be done for the front hub, and a careful reading of Peter White's page indicates it will probably be just fine.  I was instructed to open the frame and let it dry out, in case it was wet.  Brought the bike home today and took the frame apart (3 cable splitters, 2 S&S couplers, removed the seatpost, easy).  No water dripped out, and it is hanging to dry inside (isn't that what you use YOUR living room for?) until tomorrow night.