Day Ten - Deadman's Pass

Day Ten – Deadman’s Pass

Daily Brief

Riding through pine tree’s with snow on the ground, you would think it was November, not May. Surviving the coldest day yet, the only thing to warm us was the hope of a hotel and the golden beams of mercy lighting up the sky in front of us as we passed through dark skies and merciless weather.

The Ride

As we started the day there was a little bit of a drizzle. Winding through the mountains we stated to climb, and climb, and climb. As we forged our way upwards we entered a pine forest, and moving up found snow. It was hard to believe, but scattered all around us was white, late may, snow. Chris and Parry made it to the top and waited for the others at the van. Everyone else was a little late coming up to the top because Chandler had a flat, and no one else with him had a tube. Taking a moment to break at the top, and changing the tire it got colder, and since we weren’t moving, we all got really cold. What really chilled us off though was the downhill on the other side. As we descended it started to rain. We descended a ways then it was back onto highway 84 to ascend up again.

Moving up 84, it continued to get colder, and with the rain we were soaked and muddy. Riding up we saw a sign for “Deadman’s Pass”, not the most comforting sign when you’re cold, wet, and the winds just picked up again. We took a moment to rest at Deadmans’ Pass rest area. I took the moment to use the hand dryers to dry myself off. Kregg missed the turnoff, so the rest of us didn’t stay long and went to catch up with him. Moving the last of the way up the mountain we saw golden beams of mercy up ahead, sunlight fighting through the dark clouds overhead. At first we couldn’t tell how far away the light was, but it meant warmth, so we pushed for it. Coming over the peak we saw that the light was beaming through over into the next valley, but even if it was that far away just seeing it gave us some warmth.

The Sign at the top was another classic, 6% downgrade next 6 miles. The final descent from the peak was awesome, a bit hard to see with the rain and a tad windy, we still clocked in at a max speed of about 40 MPH.

Flying into the valley below, we came to Pendelton. Chris and Chandler had gone ahead and, not knowing where to meet us, had done a lap of the town. Kregg, Shaun and I (Parry) found them again and we all went to a hotel. We cleaned the mud off our faces, and peeled off the wet dirty spandex and rain gear. Then we got dinner at a Chinese place that had pretty good portions, probably in part due to the fact that Chris talked to our server in Chinese. Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Daily Stats

Distance: 80.95
Time: 6:44
Avg. Speed: 12.0
Max Speed: 39.1

Total Distance: 687.55

P & C Pushups: 120