Day 3 - Ride the Ridge

(Dateline September 17)

• time on the bike
• miles
• average speed
• maximum speed.

We went to bed last night after hearing a forecast of possible frozen precipitation after 2:00 on the ride day. So we wanted to start riding by 9:00 at the latest and beat that by about a half an hour.

We unpacked the three bikes out of the back of the Subaru at the lodge parking lot and went to take our obligatory starting photo. We ran into these guys from the Bay Area that were riding the whole route on fixed gear bikes! Awesome! Katie took their photo for them and they took ours.

Katie, John M and John G

So today was not going to be the crystal clear blue sky blue lake day. We were geared for the cold as temperature at the campground was in the mid 30s.

But nonetheless, the magnitude and scope of Crater Lake was amazing! These pictures in this format won't do it justice but here's a sample:

Here's a map of the rim ride and below that, the profile of the ride. You may be able to zoom in and see the mile ticks at the bottom of the graphic.

We started at The Rim Village, halfway between checkpoint 5 and checkpoint one. Not a good idea as that leaves us that first climb at the end of the day. But we didn't know that..

Climbs warmed us pretty quick despite the cold air, and the downhills were downright brisk. Yet after checkpoint 2 we started taking off extra clothing because we were just getting too hot climbing.

 

As we got to the north and east sides of the lake we could see some hazy smoke moving in from the north where the Cedar Creek Fire is still being engaged. And the forecast clouds were getting thicker in the south.

All in all a well supported ride. Last weekend's ride hit 90° temperatures. They have the water trucks to cover that! Thanks to Leah from Discover Klamath to find me a spot to park the car.

The downhills on the back side had some rough pavement patches. Nonetheless you can see my max speed.

Clockwise leaving from checkpoint 5 would be the preferred route for me next time. The last downhill with limited scenic views leads to where one would park the car.

Katie and John at the official finish

At this point John went back to the campground and Katie and I biked up the hill to complete our path. As I was going up the switchback I got hit with a couple little hail balls. We got up to the top and took the obligatory "this is how bad we look at the end of the ride" photo. Katie went to the car while I took a photo or two. I intended to the bike down but then all hail broke loose. I got almost as wet putting the bike in the car as I would have biking down, but I didn't get hail balls in through my helmet.

All in all, the Ride the Rim is highly recommended.

( although this is 24 hours late, I'll do another wrap up post later today or tomorrow.)