Elkhorn

This weekend didn’t go quite as I had planned.  I woke up last Tuesday feeling very sick.  Sore throat, achy body, stuffed up nose, and feeling very tired.  I slept all day, hoping that it was either allergies or just mild cold that would go away quickly.  I was still feeling like crap the next morning, Wednesday, when Mike and Will and I were to drive out to Baker.  There was no way I would be better to race by the weekend.  But Mike needed me to at least drive him up to Portland so that Will could drive them both over to Baker (Mike doesn’t have a drivers license and we were meeting Will in Portland at his parent’s house).  So I decided I would drive up to Portland and stay at my parents house, while Mike and Will continued on to the race.  

I arrived at Mike’s house in Karey’s car with half of my biking gear.  In my delerious state of mind, I had packed my bike and half my race gear, but had left items like my helmet, trainer, TT bike, and most of my clothes.  I was hoping Mike would convince me to go anyways.  He did.  He said it was probably just allergies because no one gets sick in June…twice.  It didn’t take much to convince me, and we went back to my house to get the rest of my gear.  

That night the car began stalling out 100 meters before we got to Tony’s cabin in Baker City.  We hadn’t gotten gas since Tualatin.  The car started up again and it limped the last few feet of the dirt road up to the A frame cabin.  We had a bit of a party out there this weekend: myself, Tony, Will, Mike, Orion, David Kuhns, and Quinn Keogh.  

The next day we went on a pre race ride (my first ride since Sunday).  Will and Mike both crashed coming down the dirt road, which put a smile on my face (they were going slow).  But after that I was all frowns, realizing that racing the next day was out of the question.  I turned back after 20 minutes and went back to the cabin to sleep.  

I spent the next day sleeping and reading a great book called Cougar Camp–found at the cabin.  If you ever have the chance to meet the author of this book (JR Stoddard), please kick him in the groin for writing such a piece of crap book.  

Staying at the cabin was much better than being sick at home.  The view was great and I had a good time, but it was amazingly frustrating being out there and not being able to race.

The best result from the cabin’s crew this weekend was Will, yesterday, who won the cat 3 stage of Mt. Dooley.  This was his first cat 3 race.  

Three weeks until Belgium!