Day 7: Suttle Lake

Distance: 48 avg: 9.1

Today was the first day where I brushed with death. I knew today would be intense but it turned out to be extremely dangerous.

The day started well enough. It rained through the night, but the clouds released and a beautiful morning shined through. I got on my bike and headed over to the Rusty Skillet, where I had for the first time banana-nut bread French toast. I also had some fun conversations with the locals. One guy had done some long distance biking and we chatted a bit. I asked him about the roads through to Sisters. He told me ‘no big deal’ and there’s not a lot of snow etc. The waitress corrected him that the snow line was 3500ft.

I had another fun conversation with Dora and Desiree, a couple local gals just back from the hot springs. We talked about college and Oregon and hot springs and banana-nut french toast. Then the older gentleman came back and gave me his phone number ‘just in case’. Perhaps I should have taken this as a sign.

I left and picked up enough supplies to make it through the night, just in case. I met an ex-fireman who used to do rescue on the mountain. We talked with the shop owner and I dug for some info on the mountain roads. I’d be fine they said. I mentioned the phone number I’d received and the ex-fireman gave me his number too. Just in case.

And I was off. The day was gorgeous. I had 4000ft of climbing ahead of me but that’s nothing I hadn’t done before. I climbed and climbed. It rained. ‘haha,’ I though,’ I’m wearing my new awesome wet gear. I could bike through this all day.’ and I proceeded to bike through rain all day. And then wind. And then two highways merged and traffic became intense. And the side of the road became a stream. I changed my clothes out and tried to stay as warm as possible. I was above the snow line, and the freezing rain was pouring down. I ran out of dry clothes.

I was wet but I wasn’t cold. I was moving and that kept me warm. I saw the summit and I was so happy I could cry. I almost did, to be honest. The rain had added a ton of weight to my gear. I was probably pulling another 20 pounds in water. The extra weight and cold made it a grueling climb.

Finally I had 26 miles of downhill to Sisters. I started down the hill and this was when my problems came to a head. The extra weight and rain was too much for my brakes. Additionally the downhill chilled me to the bone. The side of the road was still a little stream, filled with whorls of dirt. The traffic whizzed by. This is exactly the kind of situation I didn’t want to be in. A number of things could happen. I started shivering. I could shiver and accidentally swerve into a car. My brakes could give out completely and I’d lose control. But most importantly I could feel myself slipping into hypothermia. I had to warm up. I probably would not make it to Sisters alive. I had little time. I had to camp or I had to find a hotel.

My map showed nothing but downhill on the way back. I was next to a lake tho, and there happened to be lodging there. It was the only place between here and Sisters. At least I could get a cup of coffee.

I took the turnoff and within a mile I was dripping inside the gorgeous vaulted ceiling of a log cabin lobby. Somehow they had a cabin on a Saturday night for $89. ‘did you say the cabin was heated?’, I asked. The concierge nodded. ‘I’ll take it.’

And so it goes full circle. From sunny morning to shivering on a mountainside to eating rockfish in a rhubarb-port sauce with polenta risotto. Sometimes I can barely believe all this is happening in one day!