“We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone, it will still burn on
And on and on and on and on and on and on and on”
- Billy Joel
One last (hope to God!) redirect handed to us at the last minute today. After spending some time in Los Gatos (aka The LG) with my family - oldest daughter, brother, sister-in-law, nephew, mom and stepdad - for the last day and a half, Kelly and I took off for the last little section of the journey. According to plan, it should be around 300 miles from just outside of Klamath Falls, Oregon to the house. We spent $135 twice today putting gas in the van at California’s exorbitant gas prices but we were feeling good until we got about 20 miles outside of Klamath and saw the sign we’ve been dreading for the last week. The highway I was planning on taking to get over to the west side of the Cascades is closed due to a forest fire. Kelly had checked for road closures when we were leaving the LG and there were none at 2:00 this afternoon. By 7:00 tonight, a 65-mile stretch of OR-58 was closed. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common occurrence in Oregon in the summer. We thought we would get lucky this time, but clearly, that was never going to happen and ruin the bad mojo I’ve had with my trip planning!
For those not familiar with the PNW and the Cascades, there are very few ways across them, and they pop up every 50-100 miles. In fact, once you get past Crater Lake in southern Oregon, there are really only 3. The first one is closed and the last one, through Warm Springs involves a massive downhill followed immediately by a massive uphill on a very heavily trafficked highway on which I’ve never seen anyone on a bike in all the many times I’ve driven it. That leaves one option, through Bend and Sisters, adding about 40 miles to the total for the next few days. I’m determined to ride these last few days and not arrive back at the house in the passenger seat of the van. We will make it work.
Meanwhile, I got out early and did a 19-mile trail ride dodging approximately 500 (no exaggeration) walkers, runners, other cyclists, skateboarders, and even someone cruising along on one of those ridiculous one-wheel balance things. Of course, there was also a 5k and 10k on the trail and bikes had to yield to pedestrians. I’m pleased to say I did not hit anyone, although there were a few very close calls.
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