Cascade Cream Puff adventure

It is Monday morning, things are drying out, and my head ache is dissipating. Quite an event this race and compliments to the promoter, Scott. Time moved on and chores occupied most of my days. Saturday started @ 7:00AM and finished @ 9:30PM. Just things to prepare for the race to support the racers. Racer count was limited to 200 plus a few.

Late Sat afternoon I did get a shuttle to top on Jedi part of Alpine trail along w/ 3 locals and a later pick up. The locals were younger and better riders than me I assumed. Young bucks dropping the hammer at the start of Jedi which swoops thru big old growth and regrowth, it is special deep forest. We stopped @ aide station 2 @ Windy Pass and help set up a tarp shelter and picked up last rider. As we started out I was sure that there were maybe 2 if not 1 rider ahead of me and I pedaled frantically thinking I was being dusted. I stopped to stretch @ 1 point and after awhile nobody caught up to me. What the hell. Only solution was to get back on my bike and pedal like heck to catch up w/ riders perhaps ahead of me. I flew. My right hand went to sleep which hampered the subtle rear braking. i switched to 2 fingers that gave more brute power but less control. The Turner really gets down the trail. At the bottom of trail there was no rider ahead of me. I needed to be ready to leave for my help @ aide station 3 by 7:00 and I needed a shower and dinner prior. I pedaled hard back to school. the dinner line was horrendous so i took a shower and rigged van for travel. And Ben, one of the riders, arrived and said there he is. I was first down and everybody was behind me and my hard pedaling just got me down first.

School parking lot was camper and mtn biker city.

Drove 35 miles to aide station back up in hills. Worked on setting up a few things by flashlight. Finally bed.

Up @ setting up @ 6:00AM. It started raining shortly on & off during race. Fortunately it was never very hard.

And the racers started arriving. This aide station saw the riders  2x. They were muddy, a bit of bloody bodies, bikes were a mess. We watered, fed, & cared for almost 400 racers. Second lap was even worse. Drive trains were gunked up from woods dirt which was was less than the mud Grace experienced in her GA race earlier this year. At least the bikes still pedaled. I brought my plant sprayer that I use to clean my bike out and washed off quite a few bikes. Cleaned many pedals also. The Eggbeaters were tops in cleanliness.

Late afternoon we tore the aide station apart, packed up and drove back to Westfir. Racers continued to cross finish line till just after dark w/ no lights. Riding down hill in rain darkened woods on slippery tread must have been a handful.

I looked @ the racer sign up and saw just 1 racer from Spokane, Tracy West. I didn’t place the name at that point. At the aide station this racer calls me by correctly pronounced full name and it was Tracy. i immediately recounted our history from back @ N Division bike shop from like ’91. We chatted again on his second stop. Wow.

Awards were scheduled @ 8:30 @ bridge and it started raining in earnest. No fun standing out in rain for a raffle. Got wet but scored a feedbag that was thrown to crowd. Drank 4 beers which is head ache cause today.

Spent almost entire day on my feet and I felt it. My back was stiff. My leg hamstring cramped in bed last night for the first time in a long time.

Today I am at the school to help clean up. I am sort of hoping for a ride shuttle to ride down the trails pulling out the signage but I would sure hope it could be down on drier trails. No plans. If Bend got rained on the trails would be super there. Umpqua trail up high has mosquitoes as does Waldo Lake. Hanging here eliminates moving.