WHAT A FUN DAY!!!!!
First of all, a huge thanks to my boyfriend who drove separately with me an hour to drop my car off at the base of Grey Butte, then drove me and my bike to SIsters Bakery then to Black Butte, then drove an hour back home all before he had to work. What a hunk and a babe.
Second of all, thanks to Ryan Weald for making this fun little spicy number. Surprised no other Bend fasties has nibbled on this one yet. Guess it doesnt fit into the training plan.
I think I might have chosen a perfect day to do this. Temps were super cool all day, topping out at 60. I experienced momentary flurries at the top of Black Butte (such cool iced over trees but alas, I was chasing a time so I didn't stop to smell the frozen roses as they say). A couple weeks ago, BB was still pretty slush snowy the last 1/2 mile but today it was hero dirt from bottom to top! Plus going midweek meant I didn't have to "coming up behind you" to a zillion people... just about one dozen humans and 2 dogs.
I chose to go the dirt way, same as Ryan and rode my gravel bike with some chunky tires cause nothing like working harder on the road to be more cush on the trail (albeit the trail is less than 20% of the total ride mileage haha). Despite the hero dirt on the single track up to the summit, the forest road was squirrelly, deep and loose regularly making the speedy descent parts a little, how do say, eek! Not sure how many downed tree's Ryan dealt with, I only had to bike around 4. The road was ** chefs kiss ** delightfully untrafficked. I think less than 3 dozen cars passed me in the first 30ish miles, until crossing over 97. Just a few punchy climbs but otherwise, a really lovely ride with almost entirely excellent road conditions.
Grey Butte similarly was sparsely peopled, leaving me to grunt and mumble my way up and down without breaking my flow (well... flow on the down)
Ryan mentioned he "faffed" (nice word!) quite a bit on the transitions leaving a lot of space for a faster time. He's definitely a faster cyclist and runner than me, so I just had to keep the faffing to a minimum and remind myself to push harder than I'd like at times to put up a spicier time than his. Stoked on how the day went considering how little of time I'd spent on the bike this year (longest ride for 2024!!)
logistics: left my car at grey butte with water and tailwind. Got dropped at Black Butte with my bike, helmet and bike shoes + 6 soft bottles (3 water, 3 tailwind) and 2 bike bottles (both water). Ran with a vest carrying food and soft bottles. Stashed a bag with the bike that had my outfit change (soft padded butt suit for biking, gloves, helmet, sunnies). Thankfully no one ruined my day and after lapping BB, changed into my bike kit, put all my runnies n sneakers into my bag, restocked my vest with tailwind and croissants and took off. Once at Grey Butte, left my bike n accessories in the car, changed back into my runnies, restocked my vest from a cooler in my car with a bottle of water, tailwind and a kind bar took off for the second summit.
7h24m total, with about 7h10m of moving time and 14 minutes of faffery. 2 pees. no poops. no flats. no sprains. no falls. all fun.