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Big Bike Ride: Lorane - Siuslaw - "Buck Creek" - Upper Smith R - "Yellow Creek" - Oxbow - Siuslaw - Wolf Ck - Territorial/Crow - Erickson - Pine Ridge/Spencer Creek w/CA

April 11, 2020 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Bike

Weather: low 50s to low 60s, sunny

Comments:
Though we got a late start, we had a GREAT ride today.

Building off the loop Bert and I did in November (Siuslaw-Wolf Creek), CA and I made it longer by looping down to two old timber towns (Gunter, Alma). And it included some sketchy-ass gravel riding!

Parked at Spencer Creek and Lorane (cutting off about 6.5 miles on the bookends). Easy ride - with two small hills - down Lorane/Territorial to Lorane, then west on Siuslaw. About 2/3s down, we took a south turn onto a tiny, rough (but still paved) BLM road ("Buck Creek") that connected us to Upper Smith River Rd, which took us to "Gunter" -- a non-town with only a pioneer cemetary remaining.

Stopped there for a bit of water and a snack. I forgot our filter bottle, so all we had was a total of 3x 20oz bottles.

The second half got interesting: several miles west of Gunter, we had to turn north onto a pure gravel road -- UPHILL. The gravel was mostly good, but at times was really big and chunky. Nevertheless:

* my road tires didn't blow
* I was able to ride 99% of it

Once we got up and over the gravel climb, it was a cool, open (logged) ridgeline that led mercifully to a paved road and an amazing, open, winding descent into Alma.

By then, we were pretty tired (and nearly 50 miles in) and...low on water. And we still had one more big climb: out of Alma.

Surprisingly, it went pretty well for us both and the paved downhill (unlike with Bert, when we were routed onto nasty gravel!) was really fun and fast.

The "flat" along Wolf Creek was OK...but tough: pretty hard headwind and like 2% incline. I "pulled" CA along, but it was really hard for us both. But - just as the fatigue was building, we once again had a sweet, long descent to Territorial.

From there...it was mop-up: some light rollers and country miles near Crow, then east back over to "the neighborhood".

FUN RIDE. 76 miles -- close to the top 10 longest rides ever (The approximate list of longest one-day rides):

124 - RF to La Crosse (5/2009)
103 - Eug to Yachats (3/2019)
99.x (+/-) - "Lost Coast Century" (3/2009, 4/2019)
90ish - Beartooth Lake (MT) to Lake Lodge (Yellowstone) - 9/2010
70.x - Dorena/Sharps Creek + Big Creek/CG Lake loop (7/2010, 4/2016, 11/2019)

(Not even sure if I have any rides in the 80-mile range. I'll have to think about it).

Felt flat (allergen'd) early, then pretty darn good for the duration of it. Never had "down" period, which was great. This was CA's longest-ever ride, and she did great!

PM:
* ordered beer to go from Coldfire
* grocery story for Easter candy
* to Alexis'/Micah's for said beer
* home for a delicious meal
* GoT doubleheader