Sunday, May 15, 2011

Flyin Solo

We had some impending news as of two days ago. It turns out that Fletcher had hurt his knee during the first two days of riding. He ended up having to go to the doctor on Friday. The doctor had good news and bad news. Good news: the knee isn't severely injured but (bad news here) he had to take 9-14 days off the trip. Without those 9-14 days there is no way the trip would be finished. So after an off day of hanging out with our OSU friends and playing disc golf, I decided to carry on with the trip by myself.

So, before you go all freakout mode and yell at me about it not being safe, here is my argument against you.
1.) It isn't as safe as riding with a partner, you are right in that.
2.) We changed the route so I am riding safer roads that have a good amount of cellphone service and are trafficked enough.
3.) I don't care that you don't think it's not safe, you don't have to do it.
4.) I met a girl who did it solo. (no offense to girls, obvi, but inherent risk of danger is obviously more imminent with a solo girl rider.)
5.) I still don't care that you don't think its safe.

So with that said, here is the blog from yesterday.


I left Corvallis yesterday at 9:30 for Eugene, OR. We changed the route, as I said, to make it a little safer and easier to travel. It was 40 something miles of long gradual uphill. If you are curious, this is my least favorite road type. I was strugs the last 5 miles. But Eugene was cool. I remembered that is where Hayward field is (where Steve Prefontaine used to through down back in the early 70's). So I took a couple mile detour and headed over to see it. There was a masters track meet going on. I talked to this guy, Mark, about running and my trip. He was super cool. He gave me directions to get to highway 58. Turns out that you are legally allowed to ride on the INTERSTATES in Oregon. What an awesome state. I got onto I-5 and found a small group of people riding from work. So I hopped in behind them. They have a little section on the far side of the shoulder that is used for bikes that they keep clear.

Highway 58 might be my new favorite highway in the US. It was long gradual uphills winding from the foothills up into the mountains. The entire time you are next to either Dexter Lake or a whitewater river. The mountains here aren't quite the rockies, but they are much more severe in steepness compared to the apps. Dexter reminded me a lot of Lake Burton out in Clayton, GA. It is one of the prettiest places I have seen in a long while. I can't wait to see more of these mountains today.

For dinner I went to a local Mexican restaurant in Oakridge, OR. I put down an entire fajita's meal and two baskets of chips. Ravenous was an understatement.

There weren't any campgrounds in Oakridge, so by the time I was finished with dinner, I just wanted to go to bed. I found a hill by a railroad track and posted up at the top of that with the hammock and rainfly. I thought that I would be cold at night, but I ended up being way overheated. I slept on top of my bag for most of the night.

This morning, legs are pretty sore. I biked around 90 miles yesterday. I didn't realize how far that was until I got finished. Today I am looking to just get out of Willamette National Forrest. After that it should be a breeze.


Let's Ride....(that's for you Pete L.)

1 comment:

  1. You did the right thing to continue on. Trust me...safety is way over-rated!

    ReplyDelete