Given my astonishingly low threshold of boredom, I started thinking about what I was going to do in the interval between completing the High Country 1200K in July and the Natchez Trace 1500K in September while I was driving home from Colorado. My choices were:
- An extended motorcycle trip where I'd roll from one brewpub to the next, eating pub fare and swilling beer.
- Another brevet somewhere.
I have to admit, the first option sounded pretty good but I gave in to the "better angels of my nature" and began looking at the available brevets in August. My search lead me to the Raspberry Ramble 600K put on by Richard Stum and the Salt Lake Randonneurs. The pictures of Bear Lake looked nice, a "near-ideal raspberry climate" and "world famous raspberry shakes" sounded pretty good and the timing was right. The only downside was the 1300 mile drive (one way) after having already driven to and from Washington for the Cascade then Colorado for the High Country with a drive to Tennessee still in the offing. Oh well, what else have I got to do?
I signed up.
Not too much to say about the drive out. Left early in the morning and drove to Rapid City, SD the first day. To console myself for not taking the motorcycle trip we had dinner at the Firehouse Brewing Company and sampled the wares:
Smoke Jumper stout
My wife and I arrived in Logan Utah on Wednesday with the brevet starting on Friday. On Thursday, we previewed part of the route and did a short ride at Bear Lake. We rode on the western side of the lake with a fair amount of traffic on the roads. I found later that the eastern side has much less traffic but we had a nice ride just the same.
I was rather surprised at how much I felt the altitude which was roughly 6,000 feet. Although I knew the time I'd spent in Flatistan (the midwest) after the High Country had cost me a good bit of my acclimation, I didn't expect it to have disappeared as fast as it did. Hopefully this short ride would do me a little good anyway.
On Thursday night my wife and I had dinner with the Salt Lake Randonneurs RBA, Richard Stum and Kent Holmberg. The Ramble would be Kent's first 600K and the three of us spent dinner talking about the upcoming ride and trading tales about rides past.
The ride started at 5 AM and, as is usual for me, I didn't sleep particularly well the night before. The ride started at the Super 8 and despite the fact that a 300K and 400K were offered in addition to the 600K there were no takers for the shorter distances and seven riders lined up for the start.
The usual pre-ride milling about
The weather for the ride was forecast to be very nice although a little warm on the first day. We left at 5 sharp. Once we left Logan, the ride out to the first control at Preston was generally flat through quiet farm country. We encountered and were passed by a couple of very large groups of cyclists out training for the upcoming LoToJa race. A little disheartening to be passed so quickly but I consoled myself with the thought that they probably weren't going to be riding 260 miles that day.
We got to the Preston control more or less as a group. Since I knew we'd start climbing soon and the group would split up and I didn't really want to stop all that long I got my card signed, had a quick drink and left. The climbing started not that far from Preston then a quick descent before turning onto UT-34/ID-36 for the longer climb up Emigration Pass. Here's me at the start of the first climb:
Starting the climb
After going a few miles up the pass I noticed Richard behind me so I slowed a bit and waited. We rode the rest of the way up the pass together at a moderate pace chatting about life in general. It was starting to warm up a bit but was a lovely day and the scenery was stunning. This is typical:
Emigration Pass
Richard and I reached the summit together to find Janene Holmberg there. A word about this. As most randonneurs know, support on brevets ranges from "you're on your own" to controls staffed by volunteers and just about every point in between. On the Ramble, Janene had volunteered to provide all the support on the ride. This meant:
- going to a particular point on the route
- setting everything up
- waiting until the last rider was through
- breaking everything down and loading it back into the car
- driving to the next stopping point
- PLUS dealing with any on course issues
She did an absolutely fabulous job. I'm actually convinced there were three of her as it seemed she was at every summit, taking pictures along the route, at a number of controls, etc., from the 5 AM start to the finish. At each stop there was a wide range of food and drinks served up with unflagging cheerfulness and enthusiasm.
Super support by Janene!
Richard and I stopped at the summit, refueled and chatted with Janene about the progress of the other riders on the climb. While we were there, Kent arrived so a group shot was in order:
Me, Richard and Kent at the first summit
The Emigration pass summit was at 7400 feet and was followed by a descent down to Bear Lake. The route did a counter-clockwise loop around Bear Lake into the next control at Garden City at mile 96. I was starting to feel tired at this point, much more so than I felt like I should at that point in the ride and other than my advancing senility I can only put it down to the altitude. Bear Lake is at about 6000 feet and we'd stay at that altitude until Soda Springs at mile 180. Richard did a lot of the pulling to Garden City (thanks!) with a couple of stops for photos on the way:
The Paris Tabernacle
Yep, they sell raspberries
We made it into the Garden City control in good order. It was really starting to heat up at that point, headed for the low 90's. The ever present Janene was there with lots of goodies.
Greg and Janene at Garden City
Richard and I left Garden City with another rider, John Ingold from Flagstaff. We were heading into increasingly strong winds on the south end of the lake as the warm air off the lake hit the cooler air off the mountains at the end. We continued our loop around the lake and fortunately had a bit of a tail wind for the start of our northerly leg. Not long after the turn I reached down for a water bottle, not there! I'd left them at the Garden City control like an idiot. Fortunately I had a Camelbak so I wasn't completely out but by now it was really hot. Richard and I stopped at the info control at Cisco Beach to call Janene and ask her to bring my bottles to the end of our lake loop (saved again!).
As those who've read earlier blog posts will know, I've been struggling with the heat on brevets for the last few years which is more than a little ironic since I rode for years in the Texas heat. I started to feel the heat on the northern leg of our lake loop and by the time we rejoined the highway I was feeling pretty bad. Janene was there with my water bottles and we stopped to fill them with ice water and had something else to drink. Richard and I left together and it was clear pretty early on I was just holding him up so I told him to go ahead which he did. I rode by myself to the control at Montpelier Idaho. John and Kent had passed us while we were stopped at the lake and were there at the control. I'm actually rather surprised John was still there because his ability to get in and out of a store stop quickly was really impressive.
John at Montpelier
We left for the next control at Soda Springs (181 miles) as a group. The weather looked fairly ominous to the north and the storm winds were building. It turned out that we were just keeping pace with the receding storm, just enough that it stayed really windy! Richard and I pulled ahead of John and Kent and rode together until we got to Georgetown when Richard said he was going to wait for them.
I rode the rest of the way to Soda Springs by myself, still not feeling all that great. Although I'd looked at the route profile, I was surprised by a fairly lengthy and stiff climb up to the Georgetown summit which was a real struggle given how I felt. Heat problems always manifest themselves in my stomach. I get to the point where I feel that anything I put in it is going to come right back up. I knew I had to eat something at Soda Springs but really didn't want anything. Soda Springs was an open control but there was a Subway and I made myself order a fairly salty sandwich coupled with a bag of chips. It did the trick! The first few bites were tough but then I started to feel better and ate it all and this really made me feel a lot better. With benefit of hindsight, I'm certain I needed more electrolytes than I was getting.
I left Soda Springs with Richard and Brent and Beth Myers on their tandem.
Brent and Beth Myers
I'd forgotten to plug my Garmin in when I left Soda Springs so I stopped a few miles out of town while the others went on. I'd later pass Brent and Beth while they were fixing a flat (one of three!). About 6 miles from Soda Springs we turned south. The next 20 miles or so were great fun - downhill with a tail wind! I thought "at this rate, I should get to the overnight at 10 PM" then I looked off in the distance and saw mountains looming - oops! The only bad thing about this section is it started to get dark and I couldn't enjoy the scenery which was really beautiful while it was light enough to see it.
I got to the Preston control at mile 231 and left roughly at the same time as Richard and John though we didn't leave together. The stretch into Logan for the overnight was on US-91 which was fairly busy despite the late hour. There was a lot of traffic but a nice shoulder. Normally I wouldn't enjoy riding on the highway but it fit the mood - I was ready to get to the overnight!
One bit of drama unfolded enroute to Logan. Janene stopped Richard on the road and told him she'd waited at the Soda Springs control but one rider, Tammie Nakamura had never arrived. She'd driven back to Montpelier and not seen her so she wasn't certain whether she should go on to Logan or keep looking for her. They decided she should go on thinking that if Tammie needed help she'd call. It turned out that because Soda Springs was an open control, Tammie had stopped at the first place where she could get water, a Chevron station, rather than going on to the Subway and that's where Janene had missed her. She'd eventually arrive at Logan after 3 AM, stopped to get her card signed and rode on through the night. At the finish, Tammie said she'd gotten about 20 minutes sleep total - lots of ways to get these things done!
Tammie Nakamura gettin' in done
I got to the control at Logan in good order with 260 miles done. By the time I showered, got something to eat and was ready to go to bed it was almost 1 AM. I decided to "sleep in" and not get on the road until 6 AM.
Day Two
The second day took us west and south of Logan out to the Golden Spike national monument. When I left the hotel the clerk told me everyone else had left between 4 and 5 so I expected not to see anyone all day because of my late start. Much to my surprise as I was turning toward the "Spike" at 306 miles I saw Tammie coming the other way. On the ride up (and I do mean "up") to the Spike I saw John, Richard and Kent and Brent and Beth arrived while I was there. It turns out they'd gotten a bit lost and decided to stop and have breakfast. They ended up leaving the control before I did.
Richard at "The Spike"
Following the screaming descent from the Spike, there was a lengthy grind into the wind to the next control at mile 338. Beth and Brent were still there when I got there as was Kent. Here's a shot of Kent and I with 37 miles left to go:
Last control!
As always, Janene was at the control and she said John had his GPS stolen from his bike while he was in the store for less than two minutes. That means it was someone familiar with cycling GPS devices and how they mount on bikes in order to be able to remove it that quickly - in other words, a cyclist. Any cyclist who steals from another one deserves a special place in Hell in my opinion.
Richard had caught Tammie between the Spike and the last control and they'd ride the rest of the way together.
Richard and Tammie
It was starting to really heat up again. Given my experience the previous day, I'd started taking electrolytes on a regular schedule right from the beginning and would have no heat related trouble today. The four of us were on the road at the same time though not really riding together. There was one big climb left before Logan with a convenience store right before the climb started. I stopped there as did Brent and Beth but Kent pressed on. I made a quick stop, only filling my bottles and started the climb. I passed Kent and rode the rest of the climb solo.
Last summit!
I rode the rest of the way into Logan by myself into a fairly strong wind finishing in 33:42. It turned out that all of the riders finished within an hour of each other!
John, Kent, Tammie, me, Beth, Richard and Brent at
the finish
So all in all, a great ride. Good weather, awesome support, beautiful scenery and great people to share it with - does a brevet get better than that? The only thing that remained was to drive the 1300 miles home. I did require a couple of stops along the way though:
Recovery drink!
Thanks to Richard and Janene for the use of their photos. I've got a nice waterproof pocket camera that was resting comfortably in my desk at home during the ride. Major props to Kent for finishing his first 600K!
I never did have that raspberry shake though. Guess I'll have to go back!
