Very much enjoyed spending a wonderful couple of days with Bill Burk. Days that brought rest to this old body. Days that brought much laughter and interesting conversations/memories. Days that found joy in watching Kim and Bill create a wonderful new friendship. Much happiness experienced by all.
After leaving Bill's home, we rode south the 60 miles to Chemult ... Chemult can only be described as a very small wide-spot on the highway that is slowly becoming less wide. The following day we rode the 47 miles up to Crater Lake.
The ride is most definitely "up" ... two lengthy climbs ... but the payoff is well worth the work. The weather was very forgiving as the temperatures were mild and the wind non-existent. At the Lake's elevation (7,000' +/-), the air is very clear, the sky is very sky-blue, and the Lake is an incredible shade of deep blue ... awe inspiring.
As mentioned, the Lake is at around 7,000'. 7,700 years ago, or so, Mt. Mazama towered over the area that now encompasses the Lake at 12,000'. During a series of small volcanic eruptions, the upper 5,000' of mountain collapsed into a molten magma dome that had formed under the mountain leaving the current ringed formation (warning: as stated in previous postings, I was, and am, a "C" student, so take that explanation with some skepticism). Knowing that this part of North America was inhabited by Indian nations going back 12,000 years, I wonder what those folks thought when the mountain collapsed. I also wonder what colorful swear words were in their vocabulary that were included in describing the event. Ah, the questions that muddy an often befuddled mind.
After a cold night of camping at Mazama Village, we headed down toward Medford, OR (76 miles). The key word here is "down" ... gloriously down ... 36 miles of down. Kim shot a video with her iPhone that shows a tamer section of the downhill ride; other areas resulted in speeds often reaching 30 mph ... sweet riding indeed. If that link does not work, I am sure that she will be including it in her online journal. Unlike my postings which typically include one photo, Kim includes many photos, so if you are interested in seeing more of where we are riding I suggest you go to her journal.
Yesterday we rode the wonderful Bear Creek Greenway multi-use path the 20 miles from Medford to Ashland. So nice to have a leisurely care-free/car-free (stole that phrase from Living Streets Alliance) ride.
Today we are taking a rest day here in Ashland staying with Kim's friends, Suzanne and John, whom she met on their Camino de Santiago trek last summer. Very interesting and gracious people. My only complaint is that their house is located just above the Ski area here in Ashland (just a wee bit of exaggeration). The streets up to their house are incredibly steep (think the scenes from the Steve McQueen movie "Bullet"). Over the past eight summers of bike touring I have only once needed to get off the bike and push my way up ... now its twice! But as I say, Suzanne and John are very gracious hosts, so meeting them and staying with them is well worth the pushing (maybe).
So today is a rest day, the weather is beautiful, my level of fitness is greatly improved ... life is good.
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Side note: When we were riding up to Crater Lake, we stopped at the Crater Lake National Park entrance sign for a quick rest and some snacks. While there, a young lady from Denver (Carolyn) stopped, and in the course of conversation, asked us for our journal names so she could follow our travels. She is on a six-week car tour of Western U.S. National Parks and is keeping a journal of her travels.
Of course I got caught up in us talking about me, and neglected to ask her for her journal name. Carolyn, if you are reading this, please send me your journal url ... to: randallgarmon@gmail.com.
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