Fun Ride!

Lisa, Gale and Nancy had a great ride yesterday.  We started at Ona Beach State Park located near Seal Rock, OR, and rode the Beaver Creek "loop" which comes out on the north side of the bridge going into Waldport.  We rode into Waldport, stopped at "Green Bike" to say "hello" to Roger who was working on a bike for the Green Bike program, then climbed the hill on the east side of Waldport and rode to the golf course and then to Hwy. 101.  We rode Hwy. 101 south to Yachats with a great tailwind.  At Yachats we turned onto the Yachats River Rd. and took it until the road turns to gravel ending at Keller Park (a small day use park with no facilities).  The return ride on Hwy. 101 gave us a strong headwind.  Lisa, our strongest rider, was wonderful and led a pace (letting Gale and me draft her) back to Waldport (Thank you, Lisa!).  After crossing the bridge north of Newport we took Beaver Creek back to Ona Beach.  Our ride totalled 57 miles.

Two problems came to our attention on this ride:  On the way back, climbing a hill on Beaver Creek, Gale's chain dropped off as she was shifting; this has happened to her before and we need to figure out what is causing the problem!  The other problem was Nancy - Twice Lisa saw her struggling up hill (of course, on the 2 steepest climbs of the ride!), looked down at Nancy's cassette and noticed that she still had 3 gears left; Nancy needs to learn not to let this happen as there is no way she will be able to climb the Rockies without using her biggest gear!

The good news for Lisa:  The day before our ride she had spent four hours working on the bike she will take on our tour, taking much of the bike apart.  She was anxious to try the bike and see how it performed.  It was perfect!  Good job, Lisa.

Lots of Miles, Good Routes, and a "Close Encounter"

We have all been training hard and enjoying some different routes.  Lucinda and Dana recently rode 40+ miles together on Sauvie Island (near Portland); this is a relatively flat ride through beautiful farmland. 

Lisa has been riding some familiar routes - Newport to Toledo on the Bay Road (a beautiful 25 mile ride, mostly flat but with two major hills), and Newport to Taft (south end of Lincoln City) over Otter Crest and back to Newport (about 50 miles).

Gretchen is planning on riding the 80 mile route of Reach the Beach this Saturday.  You go girl!  That will be quite a ride!

Nancy rode from Waldport to Yachats then up the Yachats River Road last Wednesday (about 38 miles round trip) - a truly beautiful ride on a spectacular sunny day.  She also has ridden a couple of times this week from her house up to Kernville then east towards Siletz on Hwy 229, the Siletz Hwy for a distance each time of 50-60 miles.  Today on that route Nancy encountered a coyote!  Fortunately for Nancy, they looked at each other then the coyote decided to run back into the woods.

The Oregon weather is finally getting warmer and drier opening the door for more riding opportunities.