Let the Adventure Begin!

Tomorrow is the big day.  I arrived in St. George, UT yesterday and we depart for Zion National Park tomorrow.  It’s supposed to get up to 101 degrees today, so it feels good to stay inside, reorganize my gear, clean up my photo files, upload the daily route maps to my GPS, and write this.

By the big obsidian flow

Paulina Peak

As I said in a recent Facebook post, I am sooo done (aka burned out by) training.  Time for the real thing in the company of people, a support van, and new scenery.  I’m glad I invested five days last Thursday-Tuesday for some higher altitude training at East and Paulina Lakes in south-central Oregon.  Kathy joined me for the weekend, which made it a lot more fun. 

Paulina Lake, Thrree Sisters & Mt. Bachelor in background

Neither of us can believe that we've been in Oregon so long and have never been there.  At 6,300 feet elevation, Paulina Lake is over 250 feet deep and I think the 3^rd deepest freshwater lake in the US.  The Newberry Crater is the largest in the Pacific Northwest.

We were told there was a “moderate” 20-mile mountain bike trail around the rim.  So on Saturday, we puffed our way up a steep dirt road to the 7,800 foot start near the top of Paulina Peak.  The trail was anything but moderate, and like our adventure at Steamboat Springs, CO in July, our skill level, fitness, and cross bikes were no match for the trail.  Fortunately, we got to bail out after 8 stressful miles.

After Kathy left on Sunday, it felt good to be back on my road bike on paved roads again.  Monday I rode 62 miles from Sunriver around Mt. Bachelor and back via the Cascades Lake scenic highway.  Lots of beautiful scenery, elevation gain, rough pavement, and winds.  I was pooped, but feeling pretty proud of myself.  Then I realized that I will need to do more than that almost every day of the ride, and more than double that on Day 5, with even more elevation gain.

Mt. Bachelor

The Sisters from Dutchman Flats near Mt. Bachelor parking lot

That said, I am so pumped and ready to hit the road, hang my Spokane friends Ron and Barb Douglas, and make new friends over the next two weeks and 885 miles.  Let the adventure begin!