Oregon Randonneur's Three Capes 300 K

Miles: 186.63
April Miles: 487.09
Year to Date: 2142.74

The weather forecast for the 2007 Oregon Randonnuer's Three Capes 300 K was rain. Not showers, not a chance of rain, but rain pure and simple. Well, the forecast was wrong.

I woke up at 3:00 am with just four hours sleep. The night before, I attended the Oregon Symphony concert in Salem 'John Pizzarelli Sings Nat King Cole'. We had very good seats and the concert was very hot. But, I did not get to bed until 11:00 pm.

After waking and loading up the van, I picked up Mark Janeba and we headed north up to the start at Forest Grove. Along the way, we drive through one strong shower, but most of the drive was dry. When we arrived, the sky was cloudy, but there was no rain falling. John Spurgeon rolled up on his single speed. We spoke and he advised that his training for Race Across America (RAAM) was going well.

Promptly at 6:00 am, we were off. The first control was at the foot of the Timber Road climb. It was here that Mark realized that he had forgotten his brevet card. What could he do? He simply advised the control and they did check off his name.

We reversed our route and returned to Hwy 6 and turned toward the coast. And it began to rain. Now that our fears of riding 10 hours in the rain were realized, we could only zip up our rain coats and continue peddling. But, in twenty minutes the rain stopped! Just then, I came upon a tandem suffering up the climb. As I passed, the sun broke thought the clouds. I turned to the tandem team and said "It is always sunny when you are riding a tandem." They agreed.

Mark and I continued up the climb and then descended into a slight headwind toward the Tillamook. After the Timber Rd control, our first real stop was at the Safeway in Tillamook. We only had 14 miles to the Netarts control, but there was a significant climb to overcome to get there. So we stopped and refueled.

As we climbed Cape Mears, the first of the Three Capes we would climb, we were treaded to our first views of the Oregon Coastline. If I had to choose a single word, I could only choose "spiritually spectacular". Ok, so I can't choose a single word.

We spent a lot of time at the control at Netarts was well stoked and well participated. Greg Olsen, Sal Ortega, Jon Wolf, Dennis Wolcott Michael Wolf were all there enjoying the sun, the Oregon Randonneur provided sandwiches and good conversation.

But the road was calling and Mark and I headed to climb Cape Lookout. This one is steep and long, but Jon Wolf rode with me as I suffered up the climb. This was the second time that I have climbed Cape Lookout this year, and as such, I knew the descent down to other side is fast and fun. I followed Jon down through the curves toward Sand Lake. It was on this descent that I obtain my maximum speed of 39 miles per hour.

As Jon, Mark and I rode toward the last of the Three Capes, it began to shower. I attempted to ride thought without stopping to put on our rain jackets, but finally we had to. Back on the road, we found that the rain soon stopped making our rain jacket stop needless. Mark and I stopped at coffee shop in Pacific City, a unmanned control where I enjoyed a Latte and Mark enjoyed a very hot Earl Grey tea.

Knowing that the day was passing, and hoping that we could finish by sunset, we had to say goodbye to the young woman barista who wish us nice riding and get back on the road. We climbed up Sourgrass Summit passing the same two riders who we also saw on the Cape Lookout climb. We would play tag with Peg and Charles for the rest of the ride.

This years route took us off of Hwy 18 and through Willamina and Sheridan. While the traffic was less, the harassment was greater. First there were the two drunk(?) rowdies in the beater AMC Hornet who shouted at us several times. (Note to rowdies: If you plan to shout at us, please speak distinctly so you can be understood. Otherwise we will take it that you are shouting encouragement). The second incident occurred at a sharp angled railroad crossing where we slowed to cross safely. However, this annoyed a large, blue, diesel pickup truck who advised us with a long sounding of it's horn and excess acceleration, and wasting of precious fuel, after it passed us. I am please to say that these two were the only examples of rudeness that we saw on our ride.

Now that we were in the valley, the strong tail wind pushed us toward the Grand Ronde store where we stopped for fuel. I really wanted a corndog, and there was just one left. But, the woman in front of me purchased it and I had to do without. Leaving Grand Ronde, the wind pushed us to the small town of Amity where I did manage to snag the last corndog in town. Yum!

The last 37 miles back to Forest Grove were uneventful but we soon realized that we would not make our goal of finishing in daylight. 14 miles out, we came upon Peg and Charles lighting up, so we joined them for a relaxing ride back.

We finished in the 300 K (186) route 14:20, which was a bit slower that our 2006 finish of 13:54. But, I felt much better the last quarter ride of the ride. I learned the difference between suffering and just being tired.

Posted 10:17 AM by John Henry