To Bend and Back

Last year we took 3-weeks, but this year we only had 1 to get away in the Tortuga before school, work, cyclocross racing, daycare, all kicked in and Fall gets down to its dirty business. Instead of heading North as we are so want to do these days, we went straight into the eye of the sunshine -- the nearest reliable sunshine that we could find on the Doppler radar in the entire Northwest: Central Oregon.

Day 1 was to be Daddy's day. All summer I've been wanting to hit the roads around Mt Rainier National Park to find out how many vertical feet that I could log in the fewest horizontal miles. I once climbed 18,000' during a 100-mile mountain bike race and so I've set a goal, perhaps a bit naive, of 20,000' on a road bike, but according to my calculations this just isn't possible on paved roads this side of the Bramaputra and that side of the Indus (but its debatable whether or not the roads in the Himalaya region can be called paved). Roads just aren't steep enough. Anyway, after a grueling 88-miles in which sunlight and my energy faded at just the same time, I had only climbed a measly 11,100'. Twice up Sunrise, Cayuse and Chinook, then up Paradise via Stephens Canyon. I'll try again another time and I'll pace myself a little more wisely next time. Starting before noon would be a good thing too, especially during the waning daylight hours of September.

Day 2 was Annies, although it didn't quite turn out as planned. We got to Smith Rock by midday but due to the intense sun and heat, and Kian requiring a nap, Annie had to rely on the graciousness of other climbers rather than me to belay her. She set off for about 4 hours on her own in which she managed to hook up on a couple cool climbs, although not quite satisfied since there were ones that she had already done in years past. We'd hoped to spend more time at Smithie, but Kian decided that we should head to Bend because Day 3 was his day.

The rest of our trip was shared pretty equally although we spent a good portion of our time playing with Kian in various parks. He was all about his Big Bike and logged a ton of miles. Here's a few pics of our trip.

Hanging out near Smith Rock.

Another park, another great day.

Sunset from Paradise, Mt Rainier.