Roped Jeff, Kevin, Bill, and new rando Greg P into riding.
At 5:50am on day of ride, Fitz woke me up, asking: "when are you starting your ride?" OOPS (which is why I get most everything set up the night before) He woke up wondering why I hadn't been rustling around. Kind of like when your baby sleeps through the night for the first time, I guess.
Down to Jim and Patty's, where I had time for a Pig Newton and Mocha. We started only 10 minutes after the official start.
It was cool, but not raining. We didn't stop until Banks, and not for long. Then no stops till Vernonia. As we were on the trail, no places to stop :-) Except there might have been a bit of walking up Tophill.
We all ended up in different spots for the control in Vernonia; Jeff and I stopped at the Shell Station. It also being Worldwide Spin in Public day, I had packed my Trindle and some fleece, and got in a few minutes of spinning there.
From there, we headed on to Birkenfeld. We thought we might encounter the riders from the Hammerhead 100 along here. I was a bit worried, because their lunch stop was The Birk. The sag driver saw us and asked if we were on the ride. Nope.
Arrived at Birkenfeld to find all the event riders long gone. Greg was there; the ride staff had gifted him with some excess Gatorade, which he shared. Ordered a sandwich and foraged for info control questions, since the Birk is now a "Music Venue", and is only open from 11am to not so late on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They no longer have a store, so be prepared for that. The food is really good, though, and service is quite reasonably paced.
Got in some more spinning.
We then headed back. And it started to rain. Ok, not bad. Not pulling on all the raingear... Then quickly pulled over at the Mist Fire Department and pulled on all the raingear! First excursion with the Rainlegs.
Rained all the way back to Vernonia; another pass through the Shell Station for the control.
Headed back on the trail, the rain let up and finally stopped after we summited.
And eventually we finished; Kevin and I about 15 minutes behind everyone else. I had recommended we finish at YoPop, so that is where we found them. The owner was giving out free samples of Thai Iced Tea! Yum!
Miles: 135
Pace: 13.12 mph
Total time: 12:48
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