Day 4: The Little Engine that Could

92.18 mi max 41.0 6:55.42 13.3 avg

You can tell it’s going to be a not-so-hot day when, at breakfast, the second before you reach for each item – hot water, oatmeal, cocoa, peanut butter...you name it - someone whisks it away to be put on the truck. Then, of course, as you go back to the truck to fetch whatever it is you need, five more things get used up – the last of the cookies, the final carrots, anything resembling bread....

So it went this way. By the time we left out of camp, I was pretty cranky from having felt rushed all morning (I woke up at 6:45, which I didn’t think was too far out of line). That, of course, led straight into the thicket of Chris’s Little World, where I completely lost touch with reality for a while and missed the first turn of the day (how embarrassing, especially when you only take 2 or 3 turns in an entire day!). When I got to the center of a town that I knew wasn’t on the cue sheet, I asked a DPW worker where Rt. 53 was, and he pointed me in the direction from which I’d just come. Traveling back, I ran into three other guys from our group who also missed the turn. That’s when David pulled off the road behind us – he also missed the turn, although he later adjusted his story to “I just wanted to catch up with you to get you back on track.” After a short deliberation, Cristian, Steve, Bill and I chose to continue south on 101 instead of backtracking. Most of the time, we worked in a paceline that held a fairly easy 18 mph pace. I kept up pretty well.

Our first rest stop was at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Brian (BR 06) strongly urged me to stop in for ice cream there, and I’m very glad that I did! I really liked the Cows In Brownie Batter flavor. Mmmmmm ice cream.....

At that point, the guys I’d ridden with were waiting around for Alan to do some work on one of their bikes. Nearly everyone else decided to take a different route from the one we’d been given, so they would cut off about 6 miles. I chose to do the EFI plan (Every Inch) and went off on my own. The route was very pretty, with one very solid climb. Just as I started to descend, I checked my cue sheet and noticed restrooms at Cape Meares. What the cue sheet failed to mention was that the restrooms were nearly a mile off route and several hundred feet of elevation loss. Since I’d ended up down there, I decided to have a tour of the lighthouse, which made up for the ascent I’d be making shortly. Those two choices, however, put me behind the rest of the group. When I arrived at the 2nd rest stop, the three guys were waiting there. It didn’t take long for Bill & Steve to rocket ahead, but Cristian and I stuck together for the last 40 miles or so. There were two more tough climbs to accomplish, but the company helped improve my mood. Overall, the day was not as pleasant weather-wise as it has been for the past few days – mostly overcast and misty.

For dinner, there was a huge salad, cheesy pasta with a phenomenal pasta sauce, and green beans, cauliflower and broccoli. I ate until I thought I would burst (someone expressed doubt as to whether or not I’d be able to finish it all, but I don’t think they know that I belong to an eating club with a hiking disorder).