The Craziest Day - racing cyclists, storms, hail and other surprises.

This was the craziest of days. The night before was one of those where it was dark and I was just driving into the mountains until I finally found a camp site. I woke up to such a peaceful and magical feel to the morning. There was a shallow bank of fog that lay about the land like a negligee. Up to ten feet it was clear and then the veil of fog frosted the view part way up the mountains. There was a good chance of thunderstorms later in the day but I decided to take the chance and head out for an 80 miler. Oddly, I saw motorcycle cops and traffic delays out on the highway before I left my camp but I didn't find out until later that it was because the United States Cycling National Championships were being held on my cycling route but in the opposite direction from that which I had planned. Before I left, my neighbor headed out for a 12 mile out and back hike with a fully loaded backpack which I though a bit odd. More would be revealed.

Out on the road I was enjoying the scenery and then I got some evidence of what was going on. I started seeing what turned out to be volunteers for the race. Now I knew what was going on and that the big boys were headed my way.
 

I stopped at an intersection where I was told that the leaders were five minutes out so I stopped and waited. There were many different age groups racing over the next three days plus women's divisions and even tandem divisions. This was the big boys coming. It started with 6 motorcycle cops and the media and then came a one man breakaway soon followed by the peloton and then a smaller group followed by a second large group. They were screaming fast and the smaller groups were so much slower. There sure is a strength and power to riding in a large peloton.

Right after the racers came by I noticed the storm clouds building and I headed south to try to get out of it's way. I had to push for about an hour to get out of the way of a large and powerful storm that seemed sure to do two things. It was going to catch the racers and it was going to catch my neighbor at probably the farthest point from her camp. I started to wonder what was in that backpack she was carrying. When i got to the point where I was supposed to turn back toward my camp I took a right instead. At this point the wind was blowing at 30 mph which I knew because it was at my back and that's how fast I was traveling and I was in a calm bubble with the trees next to me bending and shedding their pine needles all about me. I saw a cafe and headed there. Less than a minute after I got inside the rain and light hail hit.

After the storm passed through I headed out behind toward my camp and I knew I needed to hurry due to the time and the follow up storm that the radar indicated was following the first storm. The skies were stunning but my phone battery was soon dead so some great picture opportunities were lost. I'll have to take care of that problem. 

As I got to the top of Mt Bachelor and headed down the backside to my camp it had gotten much colder and suddenly I was in a winter wonderland. What looked like snow was actually over an inch of hail accumulation. The temperatures had dropped into the mid-forties and I was really not dressed for it but I just couldn't stop laughing as I rode the descent in the paths through the drifting hail on the road left by the cars. I passed right by the campground due to how different it looked in the sudden winter. After doubling back, I was crunching my way through the icy roads on my skinny road tires and prepared at any second to unclip and try to avoid the fall as the bike was slipping all around but I still couldn't quit laughing. I got a couple of shots of the camp site after the phone charged but by then the hail had been melting for hours. 

My neighbor said that she was indeed six miles out when the golf ball sized hail caught her and she had what she needed to get through it but said that many on the mountain were totally unprepared and exposed. I felt so lucky to have not even gotten a sprinkle other than what I picked up off the wet roads. 

The next day I found out that the racers had indeed gotten caught by the full fury of the storm on the final climb and raced right on through it. They really are some of he toughest athletes on the planet. 

The last little surprise came when I went to bed that night and discovered that in the dark the night before I had set up my Big Agnes tent in an area that didn't drain and I had about 1 1/2 inches of water underneath my floor. The awesome tent that survived the storm also survived my mistake and kept me dry all night, keeping the water bed below from becoming the water bed above.

The next day I took a day to run errands in town and got ready to travel to Idaho. I picked up plans at a printer in Bend and got a new battery for my phone among other things. I had lots of cleaning up to do after yesterdays messy storm and I was desperate for a shower. I got lots of pictures and videos of racers as I could see them coming from my camp site and just head out to the road to watch them pass.

The next morning I headed out for Boise Idaho. It was crazy when I was in the middle of nowhere and suddenly came upon the starting point of Cycle Oregon which is a six day supported ride that I am interested in doing some day but not on the spur of the moment when no one I know is riding with me. It seems like a great ride though and I will probably return some day to do it. 2,200 riders in the middle of nowhere on scenic Oregon roads seems like it would be fun. Some of the following pictures will give you an idea of some of the route they would be riding.