Part 10: Cycling Volcanoes of Washington – Day 2

Day 2 of the tour, and the promise was for more hot weather – VERY hot!

Had a great breakfast at the Iron Horse – it's amazing the quantity of trinkets, memorabilia, etc this place has re: trains specific to the area.

Today was a longish one in the saddle – around 120-odd kms in all, so we started off fairly early. It was also a ride with lots of turns and direction changes, which for me meant keeping someone in sight who knew where they were going!

I'm struggling to remember any specific details of the morning's ride: I recall it being a little cloudy, not too hot, and over rolling terrain, but that's about it. No pics in my camera, so I'm guessing the terrain was fairly unremarkable!

I do recall tootling along and having a nice chat with Charis – during which we tootlingly managed to get off the official route and do an extra little loop of around 8 miles or so. It was pleasant enough – thru open green farm fields. Charis is a very charming and intelligent lady, so the time passed quickly as we chatted. We both pestered a farmer about where the hell we were, and both times he muttered something which distilled down to "over there a ways – and stop bothering me!" We rejoined the offical route just behind Nick and Judy – we'd caught a glimpse of them crossing the road some distance ahead, and so did a little team time trial to catch them.

We stopped for lunch after around 55km – apparently! *shrug*

I do remember the afternoon ride to our night's destination of Birchfield Manor – it was HOT! Erm – 105 degrees F I believe!

Most of the afternoon's ride followed the Yakima River, which flows through the Yakima Valley - here's some pics below:





The Yakima Valley snakes its way through rather sandy and dusty terrain for what I can attest is a considerable distance. The valley is a sizeable 'V' trench at which whose bottom the river resides. The road follows the valley, cut into its side. On a sunny and generally windless day, one would imagine that the heat inside the valley floor would rise up and generate air movements which, flowing across the river surface and taking up its life-giving moisture, would be cooler than the surrounding air. You can imagine that all you like, but apparently things in the Yakima Valley work differently... Here, the entire energy of the sun concentrates into the narrow space of the valley, compresses the air into an impenetrable barrier, and then proceeds to cook all that dwells within: plants, animals, man-made structures etc. Brown was the prevailing colour – except for the river, which appeared to be a molten-lava red, and the road surface, which was a shiny liquid black.

At first the group comprised a nice little pace line – but that wasn't going to last long. It soon became apparent to me that the only chance of survival was if one got out of there as soon as possible – i.e. pedal for your life. So I did.

Lynn and Richard, a stellar pair of cyclists, had also independently arrived at that conclusion and started to draw away into the distance, so I quickly decided that they were salvation and must be followed at all costs. Best decision I made all tour – we rolled along together winningly, and soon were progressing out of this hellish landscape, dodging molten pools of asphalt as we went.

At one point, it was decided a short trip down to the river was required in order to get wet. We duly scooted down to the next parking area, ignoring the many 'Yakimarians' doing laps of the parking lot in their huge trucks, lying about on the small river bank searing their flesh, or bobbing about in the river on tire tubes which appeared to be being swiftly carried away by the rapid flow. Parking my bike beside the brick structure which was presumably a toilet - well it was, coz the toxic fumes emitting from it proceeded to melt my jersey! - I slid down to the river and dunked what remained of it into the water and drenched myself. Walking back to my bike I dried nicely, and by the time I'd remounted and made my way back to the road I was moisture-free and unhindered by whatever cooling effects I may have experienced! Truly frikkin' pointless!

Saddled up, we squinted our eyes, hunched over our bikes, and commenced the slog to a mythical 'Fruit and Cider' Shop, which apparently signaled the end of the torture. This shop was, on paper, some 55 kms from our lunchstop: in hindsight, I think they meant 'light-kilometres', as in how far light travels in said distance. It just seemed to take forever: the road was sticky and the air heavy. Luckily, at one point the van materialised out of the haze ahead (it passed us?) and I salvaged some cool water out of the back and dumped it on my head! Not being totally brain-fried, I also drank and refilled my bottle.

Eventually, after many years of toil, we reached the 'Fruit and Cider' Shop and retreated into its shaded and air conditioned interior. Lynn, being the gracious and kind-hearted person she is, bought me a cold can of Coke, which saved my life, and fueled me up for the final 16 km journey to Birchfield Manor.

Yes, this wasn't our stopping point – we'd been told the van wouldn't be here for a considerable period of time, as its role today was one of saving lives (an admirable goal), and so we decided to make our own way to the Manor as it possessed the Holy Grail of the parched cyclist – A POOL!!!!

Running on autopilot, I followed Lynn and Richard as they navigated their way along a bunch of twists and turns to the Manor. At one point we cruised on a bike path alongside a river – it was under 100 degrees I'm sure, so really pleasant!

Turning into the drive of the Manor, my senses were on high alert looking for any indication as to the direction and distance of the pool. And then, it appeared! And then, I was in it! Amazingly enough, I'd actually taken the time to get off my bike and remove most of my gear before I crept in. I say crept because the pool was comparatively cold, and required the 'centimetre by centimetre' entry technique – if I'd have jumped in in one hit, I'm fairly certain my heart would have exploded through my chest and fled. As it was I reached a 'certain' level (round about one's waist) and then just went for it. Here's a pic:



It was Nirvana! Later, as others started to filter in, and then the van with its all important cargo of beer arrived, it was Nirvana plus Beer! We alternately swam and sat for what seemed like hours – it was just so good!



At one point, we were joined by the Manor's dog – a young Rottweiler who's name I've forgotten - who was a charming brute, and mooched around stealing food, playing and eating ice!: the beast loved ice.

I took a pic of a number of the bikes (mine included) acting as clothes hangers whilst their parched owners frolicked about in and around the pool. There were more titanium bikes in this group than I'd seen in my entire life – half a dozen, which I thought was noteworthy.



After hours in the pool, I eventually decided to make my way to my room, a wonderful second story one with view over the pool, and a SPA! So, I spent another hour or so in it!

Dinner that night was at the Manor itself. An award winning dining establishment, the food was magnificent: the Manor was an absolute god-send after a scorching hot day. Everyone was in good spirits – I guess you get grateful when you travel through Hell and survive!

Part 9: Cycling Volcanoes of Washington – Day 1

Part 9 and onwards of the blog will cover my tour of the Volcanoes of Washington running from the 16th-23rd August.

Once again, all my pics can be found at:

Volcanoes of Washington Tour 2008 Photos.

And for details of the trip itself, please visit:

Bicycle Adventures.

Friday 15th was the final day of my previous Tour, and there was a fair bit of travelling involved in order to make the start of the Volcanoes trip the next day! Luckily for me, Bicycle Adventures had been extremely co-operative in getting this to happen: it involved riding back in the van from our finish point of the Crater Lake Tour all the way back to Olympia, Washington (the headquarters of Bicycle Adventures) and an overnight stay there before being picked up bright and early by the new van and guides, and making our way to Seattle, the start proper of the tour! Phew!

The van ride back from the Crater Lake Tour to Olympia was spent in the company of Head Guide Mark. Contrary to my early instincts of Mark, he proved to be a great personality and guy – clearly my issues with him were more of my own doing: I'm not big on planning to the nth degree (at least not whilst ON tour!). He and I chatted pretty much not stop for the 5 or so hours the trip took. This included a stop off a a fast-food Mexican place somewhere (the names escape me – both the locale AND the food-place!) which was wonderfully clean, and had great food. Pity I can't give 'em a plug by name!

So, after a long journey and amusing stories from Mark re: the life of a guide (and he's been doing this sort of thing a long time hence there were plenty!), he deposited a grateful me at my overnight place of the Phoenix Inn in Olympia. Thanks Mark!

It was getting on by this time, so a shower, a quick organisation of my stuff etc, and I was ready to hit the sack for the early rise tomorrow. I rose a LOT earlier than needed – just couldn't get back to sleep after waking in the early am's. So, it was a little wait before I trundled downstairs with my gear and the Dean in tow in preparation for pickup.

On the dot of when it was meant to (7am? Maybe), a familiar silver van pulled up, and I met Diane and Derek, the Guides for Volcanoes. Only two guides and 1 van this time, as travel size restrictions within some of the parks means only a max of 10 people can do the Tour.

Now, I could be wrong, but I think there were 2 couples – Lynn and Richard, and Ron and Barbara – also aboard/boarding at this time. My lack of clarity says nothing about their memorableness, and everything about my somewhat brain-addled state!

So, myself plus an indeterminate number of others (but I'm guessing 6!) piled in (us and the luggage) and on (the bikes) the van for the 90-odd minute trip to a hotel in Seattle where we would pick up the remaining 5 (or thereabouts) guests. I'm confused now, but it improves! Let's just say by the end of the trip to Seattle and just prior to us heading off to our first point of call, there were definitely 10 guests (Judy and Nick, Randy and Cheris, and Kathy rounding out the guest numbers) and 2 guides in one van towing one trailer!

Our destination was our accommodation of that night – the Iron Horse Inn at Cle Elum, Washington. From there it would be an out-and-back cycle thru' the town and along the Teanaway River.

The Iron Horse is a historical house with a railway theme: the house itself is chock-full of interesting train memorabilia, and further in service of the theme, has a number of train carriages spread throughout the property which serve as lodgings.

Here's some pics of the place, including one of the carriages:







Pretty cool – I wanted one, but given that I was to be rooming by myself this tour, I was in the house itself (still extremely nice!)

So, after an excellent and much needed lunch (I'd skipped brekky!) and socialising (I painstakingly put to memory all relevant names by incessantly repeating them in my head ad-nauseum), we got set up to hit the roads. But first – the route talk! I skilfully appeared to listen whilst having a little nap – why stop now? Pretty difficult to get lost on an out-and-back, even for me!

One little hitch about the day – it was warm: REALLY warm. And getting warmer. MUCH warmer. Apparently it had been high-ish 30's Celsius the day before, and was tipped to go even hotter! Hmmm! Just to be safe, I backed off the tire pressures a bit whilst the tyres were cool, and filled up the water bottles with ice and water.

Tootling out of the Inn, we set off through downtime Cle Elum, which looked and felt surprisingly like some of the country towns in my State's wheatbelt where I'd spent some years as a kid: 1 large, wide main street, square layout, railway tracks tracing one edge of the built up area, etc.

This day, Cle Elum was host to a car show, so the main drag was closed off to traffic, and lots of cars of various vintages lined the street. We figured the closure didn't count for bikes, so ambled up the middle of the drag, checking out some excellent rods, mods and restores as we went. At one point there was a really loud bang, and I assumed it was a firecracker, backfire, celebratory gunshot! or something – I later found out that it was the inner tube of one of our party's bikes exploding! On checking, Nick found not only his tube dead, but a rip in the tire carcass as well – luckily a bike shop was nearby so repairs were effected eventually! This was the start of a run of flats for Nick and his wife Judy throughout the tour.

Once thru' the cars, we picked up pace along the route – I was doing the usual 'I don't have my route map visible so follow others' trick. At some point I knew we'd get onto a road which simply went 'out-and-back' and then I was safe – as long as I remembered the route back from that point.

Because basically everyone else on the tour was a couple, I felt a bit weird about crowding them. It was also clear that the riders on this tour were used to riding in groups, but weren't sure about others, so they weren't all that keen on mixing it immediately with unknown quantities, which is fair enough. So I did the old hover around but not too close thing – depending on the pace I could stay in gaps or get out front and hang by myself.

As we got into some nicer rural horse ranch type stuff, the road became a little rougher (but still OK) and the temperatures became hot: hot enough that I decided that, rather than let the water in one of my bottles superheat, I was going to drink it now! Which is fine, except for when you still have a way to go before the return! But thinking is not my strong point.

After around 16km, we hit the road that went out-and-back, so I thought I'd take off. It was a nice road – undulating with a decent surface, and shade in places. From here it was going to be a 36km or so return to the same spot, which seemed fairly short to me. Apparently the road turned to gravel at some point, so I wasn't going to get lost!

It was a nice ride out – hot but not hugely so, and with enough rises and dips to get a good rolling pace going, plus some nice farm-and-fields type views. And bugga all traffic! Plonking along, I was enjoying myself, although the heat was noticeable, particularly when a couple of bits of the tarmac got a little wet and softish looking!

Reaching the gravel, I dutifully turned round and grabbed a quick drink from my remaining bottle, which I just as dutifully spat out: it was hot as! Hmmm, 34km back to the accommodations with boiled water and not much else. Oh well, best take it slightly easier! I'll just stay in the shadier parts of the road.

Fine in theory, but this was real-life, and in this realm, the sun changes angle in the sky and past shade on the road disappears! As I cycled back, passing others on their way out, it got increasingly hot, decreasingly shady, and suspiciously head-windy! Plus my sunscreen felt like it was about to give out!

OK – dilemma: do I take it easy and slug it out, or try and run like a vampire from the rising sun? After another tentative taste of my water bottle, I decided I'd rather die of exertion than exposure, so I doused myself with half of the hot water that remained in my bottle and made a run for it!

Suffice to say that I made it with dry bottles, mega-sweaty clothes, a killer thirst, and my sunscreen on its absolute last legs! The day had turned into a bit of a scorcher! But, as per usual, the saving grace at the end was a cold beer: well, coldish. There were a bunch of bikes already stored in the gazebo, so it looked like some people had smartly turned around earlier at a point just short of irradiation: not-so-smart-me plopped my bike in with the rest of the herd (see below) and scooted upstairs to my shower!



After a chillingly cold shower (I hope we weren't meant to be observing water restrictions!) and a nice read on the bed, I put on my sartorial best (which is pretty shabby!) and headed off with the rest of the guests - apparently all had survived - to the eatery of the night.

Post a lovely meal, Head Guide Diane suggested we crash a little cafe which had great icecream. Drooling in anticipation (it was still very warmish) we shuffled off to the cafe – which was closed! Well, according to the sign on its door it was open until 9pm, but clearly no sign was going to stop this place from closing at 8:40pm!

So, given that pretty much everything else in the place seemed to follow the same convention, we were resigned to going without icecream.

Until someone suggested Dairy Queen – or 'DQ' as it seems to wish to be known as now. I think the corporation shortened the name so as to remove the spurious mention of the word 'Dairy', because as far as I could tell, there was nothing remotely resembling dairy products in what squeezed out of their dispensers!

I've never had 'DQ' before – I never will again. If I was roasting in the fires of hell and in unspeakable agony, and someone offered me a 'DQ' to chill out, I'd refuse it. Quite apart from the fact that it doesn't taste like any icecream I've ever had, I'm pretty sure that icecream isn't meant to taste anything like it does!

Having all purchased some variation of the same white stuff, we'd wandered outside to consume it (which soon proved to be a grand folly!). Richard, an older chap with a killer sense of humour, and an awesome rider to boot, set off a chain of witticisms which had me choking with laughter, on top of choking on this stuff. He spoke about 're-purposing', which appeared to be a naval term for resurrecting something past its use-by date for another purpose, and it went from there. We arrived at a plausible theory about why there was no-one alive who knew the formula for making this stuff, ergo, there was no longer a need to know, as the huge bin outside the place (which was full of 'DQ's' in various states of unconsumed decay) had a pump and piping at the bottom of it which sucked the sorry mass back into a tank where it was chilled, it multiplied and was re-dispensed! Richard was to have us all laughing many more times throughout the tour.

We ambled back to the Iron Horse and went off to our respective abodes. After a very hot first-day ride we were all interested in sleep. I hit the sack and nodded off to images of robot cows hooked to massive machines extruding lines of a substance whose ingredients are forever a mystery...

Part 8: Cycling Crater Lake Oregon – Day 7

Day 7 – final day of our adventure!

On my previous tours last year, I'd got a little blue on the final days: stuff about leaving a group of people you'd come to regard, the finale of the occasion etc. Although it's still a little sting, this time I felt good, focusing on the positives rather than what I'd really miss. One thing on this trip I'd learned is that occasionally, amazing things happen, and you get to see people you admire and appreciate again: the appearance of Steve and Amy, my friends from the 2007 Glacier Tour testified to that. If you read this Amy and Steve, my eternal gratefulness for your presence on tour: it was such a bonus to have you there.

OK, that morning I'd decided to cement my immortality (or some such foolish notion), and follow thru' with an earlier idea that Steve and I had had re: swapping jerseys. I'd spied a jersey that Steve had worn several times thru' the tour – a great looking iradescent white, green/yellow one I'd admired from afar. We decided we'd swap and I'd give him one of my Perth specific ones.

So that morning at breakfast, I took my 3 Perth-specific ones down to breakfast and let Steve choose which one of mine he wanted. Murray, another cool guy on tour, decided to get in on the act, and wanted to exchange one of his unique ones for mine! Cool!

So, Steve ended up getting my 2007 Perth Great Bike Ride jersey, a 53km cycle around the Swan River foreshore from Perth to Fremantle and back – check out the website below:

Perth Great Bike Ride Website.

The cool thing about this jersey is that it has a map of the route on the back – so not only will Steve have a jersey which no-one he's ever likely to ride with in future has ever seen, but he can market Perth to the world! In return, I got his gem of a jersey which commemorates the 2007 charity ride from Tiberias to Jerusalem in Israel for the Children of Alyn Hospital – a wonderful prize.

Murray scored my 2008 Perth Freeway Bike Hike jersey, another great ride in Perth along the freeway system – website is below:

Perth Freeway Bike Hike.

Murray reciprocated by giving me an extremely unique jersey for the Harrisburg Bicycle Club - awesome! Turns out this one has done a fair bit of travelling with him, so I promised that whenever it travelled again, I'd take pics to show its journeys are continuing!

Finally, because of all the help he'd been to me on Tour with chasing down some equipment (plus being such a nice all-round fun guy), I gave guide Wilder my 2007 Freeway Bike Hike jersey. He'd already payed me – his continuous outrageous flirting with female wait-persons had shown me techniques with the ladies I'd never dreamed of! (Unfortunately, I doubt they'd work without the user also possessing Wilder's boyish charm and personality!)

I've resolved from now on to try and make this exchange a tradition – hopefully it will continue!

So, exchanges and brekky over, we saddled up for the last day's ride, which nicely, was almost all downhill! (Lucky for me, as I was starting my next tour, The Volcanoes of Washington, the very next day!).

I took a last look around the Crater from the first pull-in near the Lodge and then set off downhill after the others. The following 24kms rolled very quickly under our wheels – after an initial few little climbs around the Rim road I think I might have pedaled casually once or twice, but only to remind myself that my legs were still attached to the cranks.

Most of us stopped at the sign indicating the North entrance to the park – below is a pic of Steve, myself and Murray in our exchanged jerseys (obviously I'm only wearing one of mine – Steve's – as it was a little hot to put on two!). Also below is a pic of me holding my bike over my head – a tradition with me. Exhibiting rare intelligence, I'd removed my water bottle from my bike prior to this feat – the last time I'd taken such a picture ( 2007 Glacier Tour at the Canadian Border), the bottle had detached and bounced of my head!





Turning right off the main road, we transferred to the bike path running around a beautiful body of water named Diamond Lake. The pace slowed right down and we pleasantly ambled our way around the lake, stopping at various points like a boat ramp, and a little stream:





It was all lovely forest/meadow style growth – an excellent way to wind down the tour.

At one point , we came across three men in camouflage gear with huge bows: fortunately they weren't hunting cyclists. They told us to 'watch out for the bear' – Umm, OK? Later we learned from Karen that she had had a baby bear cross the bikepath right in front of her – of course, she wondered where 'Mummy' was!

After trundling around the bike path to Diamond Lake Lodge, we exited the path and hopped onto the last 16 kms of roads we'd travel on this Tour, our destination the lunch spot and finishing point of Clearwater Falls. Those last 16 kms were pretty much another downhill fang, so the Falls came up pretty quick. Here's a pic of me at the falls in my newly acquired jersey from Steve:



One final lunch (as per usual delicious), a quick trek around, and then the 'Graduation Ceremony'! In a lovely surprise, Head Guide Mark handed out a commemorative 1859 Crater Lake quarter, minted in 2005 and encased in plastic. Wow! Here's the guides at the Falls – (l to r, Wilder, Stevie and Mark):



So, just like that, it was over! We still had a van ride back to Eugene and then Portland, where we'd drop off various guests and say our goodbyes, and I was in fact staying in the van all the way to Olympia, Washington for an overnight stay in preparation for my pickup the next day for the start of my 'Volcanoes of Washington' Tour. (I'll cover those details in a following post). But, that was it!

Doing this blog is such a great way of recalling all the great experiences I had on tour – during the hectic days on tours, things tend to blend and blur into each other, and the chronology and details of the various tours get swapped around and generally inter-raveled. Viewing my and others pics (thanks to all those who put up their pics online) clarifies the events, and brings many memories into life that are otherwise missed. Of course, I'm not saying I can accurately recall EVERY detail of the tour, and a certain license is employed occassionally, but I think what I've outlined is a pretty accurate description of the great times had and wonderful people met.

To ALL those on the tour, thank you so much for the camaraderie and good times: the group experience is what makes the tour so fantastic. Special acknowledgments to my roomy Robb – you are the man! - and to Amy and Steve for their friendship and presence: it meant so much to have you there!

Also major thanks to the wonderful guides Wilder, Stevie and Mark: the tour was the success it was because of your tireless work, cheerful dispositions and unique personalities.

Finally, thanks to all at Bicycle Adventures: 4 down and a lot more to come!

If you want to find out more about the Crater Lake Tour, any of the tours Bicycle Adventures does, or the company itself, head to their website! I sincerely believe you won't forget a moment you spend on one of their tours!

Bicycle Adventures Site.

Coming up – my hazy recollections of the "Volcanoes of Washington" tour!