Day 6 - Grants Pass, OR Optional Loop (September 18, 2009)   

    Today was the optional loop out of Grants Pass.  Many people were planning on rafting, jet boating, hiking, doing trail work, or just doing nothing at all.  I can't do that, so I was up at 5:30am (slept in!) to go to breakfast.  There weren't many up at that time, and then I went back to lay down after breakfast with a plan to get up at 7:30am to get ready to go.  The sun was coming up, but the air was chilly.  In the end I decided to skip the arm and leg warmers, but later I wished that I had them.  Until the first rest stop, it was really chilly.  I left at 8:20am since I saw others leaving too.  I just rode more slowly than normal.  We got to take a tour of a couple parks on the way out of town, and we crossed a bike bridge over the Rogue River through one of them.  Our first rest stop was at a place called Wildlife Images which takes in injured animals to help recover.  They had a barn owl out in the rest stop area, but there were tours through the rest of the facility where they had an eagle and bear.  After the animals recover, they are returned to the wild.  Shortly after that stop, we spent several miles on a freshly tarred and chipsealed road.  It was excruciating.  Very bumpy and rough.  Later in the day it would have been even harder to ride as the heat melted the tar.  I was glad when that ended.  It felt like I gained 10 mph immediately after getting off of it.  We had lunch at a Mormon church but hosted by the friends of the library.  Lots of cyclists were already there, so obviously many left earlier than I did.  The climbing started shortly after lunch.  We had 2 miles of 10% grade to the top of the hill, and then one really fun down hill.  It had whoopdy do's and nice rounded corners you didn't have to slow down for.  Just terrific.  The second climb was a shorter 1 mile 12% pitch with a nice downhill into town.  I was tempted to do the whole loop again, but I didn't want to deal with that chip seal again.  I know, weak, but I live with my decisions.  I later found out that 800 other cyclists had taken advantage of the option. 

    I spent the afternoon in Grants Pass wandering the streets.  I walked over looking for a soda fountain where I could get a good shake.  I accidentally found a fudge shop, so I bought a chocolate peanutbutter brick there and saved that until after dinner.  I found the Grants Pass Pharmacy which had an old soda fountain counter in it.  They sold phosphates and burgers, but I got a hand-dipped root beer shake served in the metal container.  It was good.  After that, I went to the record shop.  I hadn't been into an independent record shop in probably a decade.  I still like handling the CD's and look at the play list on the back.  I browsed through the used CD's and found an Aretha Franklin early hits compilation, and then I found the new Bruce Hornsby  release.  The new Pearl Jam album wasn't going to be released until Sunday, but they had the vinyl copy that they let me look at.  Back in camp, I rested in the shade.  I didn't check the dinner menu ahead of time, so I ended up waiting in line for salmon.  I had the rest of what was available, and then I had a slice of pizza.  Announcements were mostly thanking all the volunteers and folks responsible for everything that goes on behind the scenes.  I didn't stay up for the entertainment because I can hear it just fine from my tent.  It was too hot still to fall asleep that night.  Or maybe I was just excited for the last day to go home.

    Observations and logistics:  Grants Pass is very similar to Pekin.  It's about 38000 people, and it sits on a river.  Although in this case, it is nestled in the Siskiyou mountain range, and the river is the Rogue River, one of the premier rafting rivers in Oregon.  Other than that, though...

See what the Oregonian had to say about today.

Continue to day 7.