Windy Ridge Ride

Saturday morning ten of us rode from the club in Camas to the Mount Saint Helens area and down to the town of Carson and then to Beacon Rock. The Headhunter van would be used for support and anyone who didn't want to ride the whole distance would switch out driving and riding. The ride started out along the Ride Around Clark County (RACC) route until about 20 miles and then we turned and went up a long 3 or 4 mile hill that finally crested and then a fast downhill into the town of Amboy where they were set up and waiting for a parade to start. So we rode down the parade route. (top picture) Then many miles of up and down and a short stop at Jack's store where you go to get a climbing permit to climb Mt St Helens. Then to the town of Cougar past a reservoir that had tons of ski boats on it because it was a sunny 80+ degree day. Then to a bridge over the Swift reservoir and a long climb up towards St Helens with good views down to the reservoir. I have driven this many times to go hiking in the area and it looked like a hard riding hill- but turned out to be not bad with lots of down also. Then we turned down forest road 90 and headed toward the Lewis river campground, but turned before that at a sign for Carson. We had stopped to regroup and there was a steep hill after the turn, but it looked short. We started up it and I ended up about third in line going up and we all spread out as it kept going and going. Each corner would revel more hill, all at a very grueling grade. Then it would get stepper and you would have to stand up and pedal for a tiny bit. I kept it between 7 and 8 mph the whole time. Some of the others said "you climb really good for a big guy." About the 4 1/2 mile mark of the hill there was a viewpoint with one of the best views of St Helens I've ever seen, so we stopped and had a water stop with the van and took an amazing picture, but I won't post it because I didn't get permission for some of the people and some were new who don't know me or that I blog. Then what looked like the end of the climb just past the viewpoint wasn't. It wasn't as steep after that, but we climbed for a couple more miles and the computer someone had in the van said we climbed 1400 feet to the viewpoint. Finally after passing some snowparks that I had used to cross-country ski before, we finally got the downhill. I stayed back and braked alot because of the sharp curves and screaming speed and not knowing what was around each corner. Miles of down later we came out by some hot springs and tons of motorcycle groups. Then the long slight descent into the town of Carson, but there was a headwind at that point. Then we were in the gorge along the Columbia river and we headed to the town of Stevenson where we hit the 103 mile mark on the ride. People training for ironman decided to do 10 more miles, everyone else got in the van. Some 5 of us rode along the river for 10 miles, but with the headwind we ended up in two groups. A girl training for Ironman Wisconsin and her husband were doing the ride with us and I had ridden with her about a quarter of the ride, so we were in front by ourselves and I went in front of her to break the wind for her and the two of us slogged the ten miles at 15-16 and then 21 on the downhills. She said I made such a good windbreak that she wasn't working that hard back there. We got to Beacon Rock state park and piled in the van at 113.1 miles at a 16.1 average speed. I had drunk uncountable bottles of Accelerade and water and Diet Pepsi- I'm so glad we had the van every 10-15 miles. Ate 7 e-caps for the heat, a pbj and one protein bar. The first thing everyone said in the van- "food". So we stopped at the Lakeside Chalet restaurant and ate dinner.
Today was long run day. A group was doing 14 miles, but they were all faster runners and hadn't done the ride, so coach Denise and I went on a separate 11 mile run at a moderate 9:30 pace. At one point towards the end I said, "can we slow down a little?" and she said "thank you, I was trying to keep up with you"- I had been trying to keep up with her- the viscous circle. It took us 1:44 for that run.