Ernest Hemingway wrote that “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.”
Today I felt the contours of the country. The cross-country route includes a handful of long relatively gentle climbs and several days with lots of up and down, but only two climbs that have sustained significant climbing: Teton Pass going into Jackson Hole and today’s climb up and over Santiam Pass in the Cascades.
The climb was gentle for the first ten miles, and temperatures in the high 30s made for a cool start to the day. But after about 10 miles the temperature increased a bit and the gradient increased meaningfully and I warmed up as I approached Santiam Pass. The view below shows South Sister across the valley and down the road I had just come up.
South Sister from Highway 126
I had a last look at the McKenzie River (now more of a creek than a river).
McKenzie River near its source in Clear Lake
The Cascades show substantial evidence of their volcanic nature, including Fish Lake, which was formed when a lava flow blocked the path of a creek.
The final climb up to Santiam Pass (just under 5,000 feet) was a bit harrowing, as several highways converge just before the pass, resulting in lots of traffic. The shoulders were reasonable, but still had a fair amount of cinders spread during the snow season.
I was glad to reach the top. I still had to contend with traffic and marginal shoulders on the way down, but at least I wasn’t working as hard.
Santiam Pass, just past the top
One of the highways that converged just before the pass was US 20, which I mention because i will encounter it again throughout the trip. i’m not following Highway 20 precisely, but it runs from Oregon to Massachusetts and I will often be close to it, on it or crossing it, all the way to Boston.
The end of the riding day came early in Sisters, just 20 downhill miles from Santiam Pass, and we had time for a leisurely lunch, a bit of a rest, and dinner in Sisters with our good friends from Bend, Carl and Lori Hellis.
When I first started riding around my home in La Canada I tried to find rides without much climbing — similar to what I had known growing up in Minnesota. La Canada is in a valley nestled between the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Rafael Hills, and I soon learned that limiting myself to flat rides would quickly get boring. Rather than avoiding the hills, I learned to embrace the challenge of the hills. On days like today, that attitude paid off making the climbing relatively routine, if not exactly easy.
The technical stuff:
49.2 miles
4,142 feet of elevation
Average speed 13.5 miles per hour
Weather: Bright sunshine all day; high 30s to start, around 70 by the end of the ride. Winds calm except for a few breezes at the top of the pass.
You might ask why I didn’t take Route 242, a more direct route with less traffic. The answer: snow. The road won’t be open until about May 20.
You can see the entire route to date here.