Once we finally got to Chemult in the early evening, we stopped right away at Loree's Chalet for another round of burgers, beers, and Cokes. There's something about a Coke at the end of a long day in the saddle that just... yea. After eating, we rolled to the Dawson House Lodge for our resupply boxes. Since the impromptu hot springs cabin accommodations worked out so well, we decided to try to get a room here. There was one. room. left! We super lucked out here. Aliza, Karey, and I would sleep here, and Deann and Bill got a room at the Chemult Motel 2 block away. After settling in, opening our resupplies with much joy, and jumping in the well needed shower, we were off to do some laundry... at a laundromat... with detergent! Karey treated us all to a bottle of the worse champagne we've ever had, and we drank this sitting in and outside the laundromat
. So far I've learned a few important tips or lessons on this trip. When you are doing a trip this big... Treat yourself to a bed, electricity, and plumbing every 3-4 days. This is best on days when you are sending yourself a resupply, so you have room to organize and the ability to send what you don't need home. You also have space to throw away packaging you don't need. I'm sure as the OTT becomes more popular, places will probably host rider boxes for folks to donate what they are not using. Also if you can plan to have a long day on your last day before the resupply, a bed, a kitchen-cooked dinner, and such, that makes for a light bike on the big days. And visa verse, be nice to yourself on the days right after resupply when you have more to carry.Also, EAT! I was eating all the time. We all were. Every time we stopped, we were stuffing something into our mouths. You burn so many calories, you want to stay fed, and never feel hungry. This ride is hard enough with bonking. You will get tired because it's long and because it's hard. Don't get tired because you food bonked! You will get sore. My hands, my back, and sometimes my shoulders were sore. This is hard enough without getting hungry! Use hydration mixes, like Skratch Labs or similar. Use electrolyte tablets. Treat this as a stage race because really it feels a lot like that.
Our course was almost all gravel. You know how in the northwest, we have multiple words for types of raining and cyclocross racers have multiple names for types of mud? Well, there are many types of gravel. We had rocky gravel, sandy gravel, washboardy gravel, red gravel, orange gravel, grey gravel, purple/red gravel, white gravel. We were so tired of it by mile 50, we actually chose to ride on paved highway 97 for 2 more miles than necessary in order to avoid more sandy gravel frontage road.
Chemult is an interesting little place. You can hold your breath while driving through the entire town on Highway 97, south of Bend and not lose your breath. You get the instant feeling that the entire town knows each other well. I did not get an overwhelming feeling of welcome from the various folks, but more of a polite tolerance. Maybe it was more of an eyebrow-raising curiosity. My favorites, however, were the fun 2 ladies working at the Double D Mountain Market. Everything we bought (bug spray, Benadryl, laundry soap), one kept saying, "If only I knew, I have some of this at home!" Eventually we joked about just staying at her house that night. She also gave us the intel on the laundromat situation and who to talk to if we needed more quarters after we left, since they were our last customers. There is a Pilot truck stop in town for your travel needs too, but I'd prefer a visit with these ladies!
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