It’s kind of nice when a ride plan comes together and way more people than you figured show up. I started Thursday with a text message to a couple friends about a gravel ride from my house and out to the Carlton area. That turned into a post on the OMTM google group and about 15 of us rolling out from Forest Grove High School on mid Sunday morning.

I had ridden about 90% of the loop on various other rides. There was one re-route required on Old Soldiers Rd, instead we had to drop down to Mcbride Cemetery Rd. Everyone seemed to take it in stride. Perhaps I’ll need to add to some of my loops the comment about “not fully vetted yet”.

I had expressed to everyone at the start that I did not plan on hammering today. I was looking for more LSD type ride (long slow distance). For the most part this seemed to work out until we got to about the 45 mile mark. At that point we all got a bit spread out. In general if I build a loop and people show up I kind of feel obligated to make sure they make it back.

I feel like we may have “lost” 3-4 people around 40(ish) miles. I waited at the intersection of Pike/Gerrish Valley for about 10-12 minutes and didn’t see anyone else. So I hope they made it back in one piece.

I started to fall apart myself coming back down into Gaston. Mark and I ended up taking a shortcut back to my place. Coming up one of the final pushes both quads and my left hamstring decided it would be a great time to all cramp up at the same time.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s my first 5+ hour day in quite a while. I for sure wish I had one more bottle with me. It was a live and learn day I guess.

Weather turned out rather nice. A lot of us had some cabin fever with how wet it’s been lately.

I’ve adjusted the route to include the correct re-route. You can find the public GPS file here:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31769109

Thanks to all who came out. Hope to get a few more of these in as winter moves along.

Thanks,
-Pete