Hab's memories of his year in Granada and the super riding their, both the roads and the people/rides reminded me of Oregon's huge gift to we cyclists, the combination of Oregon's incredible roads/scenery and Cycle Oregon, that amazing ride that ties together Oregon's gifts, its small rural communities and the ride.  We get to experience great roads, sometimes really special roads like closed off service roads, for a week while being fed, showered and otherwise completely supported by a crew that has done this for years, sometimes decades and are truly passionate about it.  Served breakfast and dinner by local folk who are grateful we are there.  Have high school football players offer to carry our heavy bags to the campsites we choose.  (They compete for tips that will go to whatever project they have.  Hence they are in very rare best behavior!)  The cheerleaders greet us coming in to camp and run out to offer us chocolate milk.

I am getting ready to this cycling treat again.  Very different from Granada, but as special in its own way.  I am almost guaranteed at least one night where I can walk a half mile from camp and see more stars than I had ever seen my first 57 years on this planet.  Ride roads in God's country with virtually no traffic, sometimes none at all.  (CO has the contacts to get us fire and park service roads and the like.)  We will ride into Hell's Canyon and spend our rest day at the now park which used to be the Nez Perce summer camp on Wallowa Lake.

This year's ride is a not so hard one.  24,000 feet.  Day three is one hundred miles and 6000' (if you go to Hell's Canyon, half that if you don't) and the next day is the hard one, a 7500' day to Wallowa Lake at 4000'.  I partially tore both Achilles late last year, but with PT and restraint, they feel good now and I plan to to the ride on my fix gear (bowing to my age and bringing all the cogs, wrench/spanner and cog wrench and having no shame about stopping to use them.)

I am hoping that with restraint and use of the big cogs, my body will not complain too much (except those muscle things!) and if they do, my PT is along for the ride.  (Megan Mosley, the PT for CO the past 10 years.  I went to to the kickoff party last February.  Of course the various CO vendors were there.  Went over to Megan to say hi.  (I got to know her when she was seeing the guy building my bikes, then seeing her every year after at CO.)  When she asked how I was, I mentioned my Achilles.   She said "I can go something about that!" and handed me a coupon for a free consultation.  And in the first 5 minutes of that first visit diagnosed me as having one leg 1/2 inch longer than the other.  I now have lifts in or under all my right shoes and have remounted all my right cleats on 1/4" aluminum plate shims.  I can look down the center plane of the bike for the first time ever!  Megan is world class good.

I drive across the state Saturday and start riding Sunday.  Then it is a week of no internet, no big cities, lots of sky. (And maybe lots of smoke; we will be riding around the Eagle fire in NW Oregon and that fire is now big.  Two weeks ago we had a day of light like a partial eclipse from the fires in Portland.  That morning, the sun was a red ball well above the trees, like nothing I have ever seen before.  All day you could look directly at the sun easily.  Breathing was bad.  And the nearest significant fire was more than 200 miles away.)

Here's hoping this CO isn't the one we recall for decades as being "the smokey one".  Instead, let this one be about the eagles and elk we see.

Ben