Christmas Eve Epic

The winter solstice has passed and, to celebrate the infinitesimally longer day, an epic (for a middle aged guy like myself) Saturday ride was in order.  An email sent out to my cycling enthusiast friends advertising spectacular wine and orchard country scenery, several categorized climbs and glorious descents yielded only two hardy souls willing to spend early Christmas Eve morning on their bicycle.

Since I was the ride leader, I selfishly chose a loop starting near my house with a starting point at Metro Perc.  So, with two cliff bars, two water bottles, wallet, and iPhone, I saddled up on the aging Trek US Postal machine and rode to the coffee shop to meet my friends.  Had they whimped out?  It was a 36 degree late December morning after all.  After two miles of soft pedaling, I arrived at the coffee shop.

The friendly folks at Metro Perc were thankfully open on Christmas Eve and, to my pleasant surprise, serving free coffee to cyclists,compliments of Sunset Cycles!  My ride buddies had not yet arrived, so I settled into an espresso machiatto and once again marveled at the creamy smoothness of Stumptown coffee.  Checking the iPhone I learned that Mark was on his way, 10 minutes late.  Paula arrived shortly with her bespoke, freshly built up MB1.  After a few moments of admiring Paula's handywork, Mark arrived with his classic, first generation Kestrel.  The group wasn't interested in free coffee, they came to ride, so we rolled out.  After a few miles, we turned right and started our ascent of Chehelam Mountain, and thus began over 20 miles of almost constant climbing.  Climbing brings views, and with a sunny, by Oregon standards, day, this ride didn't disappoint.

I chose Mountain Top Road to connect Chehelam with Bald Peak over the saddle to avoid having to climb both hills.  Mountain Top is not paved, but it's hard packed and passable by road bike.  Nonetheless, I was concerned for Mark's lightweight tires.  We made it through without a flat or a crash.  However as we connected with Bald Peak road, and the climbing didn't ease up, there were some mutinous rumblings brewing among the peloton.  We finally reached Bald Peak State Park, the summit of our climb for the day.

After that many miles of climbing, I drained my water bottle and choked down a cliff bar.  All of that elevation is lost in a very short time on the west side of Bald Peak in fast and glorious descent before a 10 mile long relatively flat roll-in to the coffee shop.  Mark had family obligations, but Paula and I enjoyed the hospitality of Sunset Cycles at Metro Perc one last time before heading back home to our respective families to celebrate Christmas.