Excelsior!

This weekend, I got over the "recumbent climbing thing". I may not be quite as fast as I am on the upright - yet - but it's not bad. I survived 50 miles in the West Hills with Dr. Chris "The Face Of Death is Pink" Young - we climbed everything that presented itself. He'd advertised it as a 1/10th-scale Race Across Oregon - 50 miles, 4600' of climb. It bore a certain resemblance - I never once got to an intersection and had to question which way we were turning - it was the way that went...up. Thanks, Chris!

Sunday, I went to Hood River and faced down the RAO finish line - rode from Hood River up to Parkdale, then up to Cooper Spur and up Cloudcap road to the RAO finish. Crept around the "Road Closed" sign, kept going. The pavement was even more broken and weird than I remembered it - and I remember the last few hours of RAO as being plenty broken and weird.

When I got there, I just kinda stopped. Looked around. Nothing to see here, really, but it was quiet and I stayed a minute or two anyway. Got chilled, a little, coming down. Had dinner at the Elliot Glacier Public House - a burrito, a glass of stout, and a half a piece of really good apple pie.

This weekend I'll head out to Maupin and double-check my gearing against a couple of the bigger hills in the Ring of Fire timetrial. With a finish at the 12-hour there, I'll be the first woman to complete the Northwest UltraCup - an official finish at all four local ultracycling events in the same year.