A friend of mine, Par, whom I've been riding my new bike with recently had a birthday this week. He decided that for his birthday he wanted to ride what's known as Larch Mountain near Portland, OR. 4,000 feet of fun.
Okay? I don't know about you guys... but most people I know want to go out and party, drink, maybe get arrested... Not ride up a mountain.
Well... It's what he wanted to do so how could I say no. We started out around 8:00 in the morning in Troutdale, OR to kick off our ride. This was my first time doing such a thing and the other guys that were with, Kurt and Jim had both done this before... Nothing new to them. I was warned to bring the proper layers of clothing as well as enough nutrition. I didn't really understand the layers part at first, but I would soon find out. I gathered up the riding jersey, the windbreaker, the fingerless gloves, the full fingered gloves, the head gear and of course... extra tubes and air... There is no way you want to ride 23 miles away from your car and get stuck with a flat... I'm not walking back!
The ride was basically up hill 1/2 of the way and down coming back... we simply retraced our steps. There really didn't seem to be much of a reprieve the entire time heading up the hill with the exception of a quick rest 8 1/2 miles into it before we headed up "Larch Mountain Road". A 14.5 mile climb up the mountain.
While towards the bottom of the ride the weather was pretty nice. Dry roads, about 55 or 60 degrees and partly cloudy. Of course since we were going to be riding to a considerable elevation the weather was going to change (remember the layers from earlier?) As we got about 10 miles from the top the roads started to get wet, the temperature started to drop and inevitably by the last mile we were seeing snow on the side of the road! Yes... snow! I didn't think I would see this again until next winter!
Before I continue... If you'd like to see a quick map of the route; Click Here to view it on Google Maps.
We got to the top... I thought I was going to die the last 1/2 mile... Of course it didn't get any easier at the top... It just got steeper. It was the closest I've ever been to just getting off and walking. It was cold up there! Maybe not quite freezing but pretty close!
Now the reward. What goes up, must come down!
We put our layers on and started on our way. Of course it was so wet and cold for about 10 miles that we had to take it a little easy. At times we were well into the 30 mph range and as you can see from the images below it took a heck of a lot less time to get down than it did up!
All in all it was a great, super challenging experience. Maybe next is the Tour De Blast?
As usual I collected some stats along the way with my Garmin Forerunner 305. Check them out.
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