| Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Time | Elevation gain |
| 71.01 miles | 17.1 mph | 41.5 mph | 4:08:33 | 4192 feet |
Another cold morning with temperatures in the low 40's. Breakfast was back at it's normal time of 5:30am, but a lot of people didn't know that, so there was a line already when I wandered over there at 5:15am after my morning potty stop. They still served up breakfast at 5:20am which was nice. This was the morning that I didn't put on the chamois butt'r, and I didn't put on a head band for the sweat under my helmet. The former I was able to rectify at the first stop with the travel one I keep in my camelback for just such an emergency. The latter ended up not to be much of a big deal after all.
I started out slow, but after a fun little downhill, I hooked up with a guy who was doing a similar pace along highway 199. We rotated pace-making responsibilities well all the way to the rest stop averaging 23-25 mph. It was fun. Highway 199 was a tight road with lots of truck traffic while I was on it, and there was apparently a bike on bike accident later in the day with some inexperienced pace line riders. Yet another reason I like to leave early. I was on my own again after the rest stop as we got into some nice rollers over rough roads as we got into the Rogue River canyon. The road conditions were not ideal to say the least. I rolled into second breakfast at 9am, but I wasn't the first. After lunch the road surface got really bad with some narrow back forest roads overlooking the Rogue River. There were some tough, punchy climbs and descents. Lots of fun. I saw 3 dear, 1 wild turkey (it was huge!), and 1 eagle as I approached a water stop flying through the canyon. One of the guys I rode with for a while had seen a bear on the side of the road just before I joined him. I lost my flicker light due to jarring bumps in the road. Luckily it was just one of those cheap ones that get handed out at parades or bike rodeo sort of things, and I had an extra in my bag. Along Wolf Creek, we saw several gold mine claims. They allow panning, but not dredging. There's still gold to be found in them thar hills, and there are many who make their living this way still. This was another day where we got to ride on I-5, but this time it was uphill most of the way. That was okay since the road surface was nice and smooth, and we did get a little downhill run to the Glendale exit. The saw mill was going full steam as I rolled past it into town. It's interesting to watch the logs get picked up by the machines like their toys and dropped into the conveyor belt to get cut up. I was one of the first to roll in. The trucks were there, but my bag hadn't been unloaded yet. I found a place to setup camp and came back to get it. This was the first time I had someone carry my bag back. The teams that unload the trucks take donations to their programs, so I gave him some money since I had half the team looking for my bag before we figured out it was on the other half of the truck.
I set up my tent, showered, and went over to the ranch across from the school to get a pizza slice for lunch and call Jada since we finally had cell coverage again. I got to talk to her for a while as I relaxed under an umbrella near the beer garden. There was a guy giving horse rides, and they stopped by the beer garden for payment. Apparently, he was giving rides in exchange for a beer at that point. I don't know if he was just out there anyway or not. The school we're staying at is for the Glendale Pirates, and they have the prow of a pirate ship sticking out of their school. The other interesting feature of the school was the lack of windows. It almost looked like a bunker. This was the only day I stopped by the Ben and Jerry's ice cream truck. They make smoothies all afternoon, so I had one of those while I read the paper. It was starting to get cloudy in the afternoon and a little windy. I went back to my tent to sit down on my camp chair. I shot the breeze and people watched with folks who were camped on either side of me who were also just sitting back and relaxing until dinner time. The townsfolk put on an entertaining decade by decade musical giving a brief history of their town through the years along with music that was popular at the time. It was really good. I started sprinkling before announcements and continued through the entertainment. It's the first time I got my raincoat out all week, and it wasn't all that necessary since it never got heavy. The entertainment that night was Bike Rodeo. This is when the mechanics who have been working 16 hour days all week get to let off steam by knocking each other over and doing other stunts. It's really hard to describe if you haven't seen it, but it has events such as foot down where the object is to be the last one that hasn't put a foot down. By the way, you have to achieve this while other riders are actively trying to knock you over. THey have bike limbo, tractor pull, etc. It's amazing what they can do with their bikes. I only stayed for half of it.
As I came back in the dark, I realized I had made the error I had made back in Yreka of not looking for over head lights. Not only was a under a lamp, I was way too close to the blue rooms. I was awakened around 1:30am to someone puking. This is probably when the stomach virus started rolling through CO.
Observations and logistics: AT&T coverage is not good. I had 2 days in a row where I got no coverage at all, but people who had Verizon were getting fine coverage. It's like this every time I go on these trips. Perhaps it's time to switch. Also, there are lots of horse ranches through this part of the country. Every time I see one, I hear the neighing that Phoebe and Ellen do when they see horses on our rides on the quad. I have Jada and the girls to thank for a big reason I am in good a shape as I am for this ride.
See what the Oregonian had to say about today.
Continue to day 5.