Left Eugenne at 1035 AM and arrived at McKenzie bridge at 6:50 p.m.. Only 1532 ft cumulative climb.
It started raining right from the get go after we started breaking camp. By the time we got to the outskirts of Eugene it was coming down in earnest.
Yes, the picture of me with the one eye is a self portrait because I was waiting for Charlie who was dealing with a brake malfunction.
The temperature dropped down to 42 degrees and my hands started to become non functional with wearing regular biking gloves. Switching to long finger gloves didn't do much better. Was just getting cold and wet.
We stopped at Aunt Ding's Family Restaurant in Walterville and had four cups of coffee to get my hands warm . A very pleasant group of (eldery) ladies the there who happened to live around Mckenzie Bridge and one of them gave me her number in case we needed anything or wanted some eggs and bacon for breakfast. We must have looked liked drowned rats. Don't worry, Joy, (Joy is my wife), I know that they are talking about eggs and bacon but you are smelling something fishy. :)
On the approach to Aunt Ding's I was considering WWJD. In this case, what would Joy do? The very last words that she whispered in my ear as we were hugging goodbye were : "Chuck don't do anything stupid". I was thinking that she might believe that camping in the cold rain while we were on our way to hypothermia might qualify under the definituon of "stupid". Acting on that hunch, I started doing a google search for a place to stay up around McKenzie bridge. (No, Joy, no elderly cougar).
I only had one bar of conectivity with the wireless network. I lost the call 3 times while trying to make a reservation. Persistence paid off. Kent is the manager of Harbick's Country Inn
and he was extremely accommodating.
At one point I thought that I might have dropped my smartphone 20 miles back down the road but contined 7 miles to Harbick's to off load my gear and go back and look for it. As it turns out, it had simply shifted to the very bottom of my handlebar bag and was not lost. As I was recounting this to Kent he said that he wouldn't have let me go and that he would have driven me down the road to find the phone. It is that kind of kindness that really leaves an impression on you.
For the next 36 miles of biking in the rain I switched to my mountaineering gloves which eventually soaked through but at least kept my hands warm.
It seems that almost no matter what you choose to wear eventually you will get wet (and later, cold) either from the inside or outside if it continues to rain hard or you continue to work hard and perspire.
More rain and, believe it or not, SNOW, was in the forecast. Once again I had to apply the WWJD principle and try my hardest not to do anything stupid. It seemed to be the perfect time to have a day of rest.
In case you were wondering from the picture, Charlie is Canadian and has ice water flowing through his veins. He appears to be totally insensitive to be freezing weather.
Met you two today, and wanted to read about this.
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