Downhill AND a Tailwind!

Rest day yesterday at Crater Lake.  Stayed at the Lodge, built in 1915.  It is only open May 20th until October, so I think there were a lot of new staff just finding their legs.  Sometimes the mom&pop places are easier for us to stay at..........   After Tuesday's climb it was really nice to just hang out yesterday.  Got up early to check out sunrise and then back to bed for a few hours.

Here are a few pics of the lodge that we stayed at, including the panoramic immediately below with the lodge at the far left on top of the snow.

Although the lodge itself is closed for the winter, the road up to the lake is kept open as much as possible.  I thought this was interesting...... instead of shovelling a pathway to the toilets, they just build an enclosed walkway from the road.  Looks like Linda's gotta go.......

Oh............  life is tough............  More views of Crater Lake yesterday.  Sure glad we had blue skies.  Apologies in advance for the quantity; I really have done a cull........

And, finally, Mike wrote us a welcome in the snowbank.

A ride in the van down the hill to Annie's Creek for dinner.  Wonderful service from Chris and then back up, truly appreciating the work our legs did yesterday to get us up there!


Bye, bye Crater Lake............  Breakfast in the lodge dining room.  I got away shortly after 8AM.  We started out with about 6.5 miles along West Rim Drive.  A bit of climbing involved and we peaked at 7604' before the descent began.  Lots of snowy views and some nice views of the lake...............

The second-last picture above is pretty much at the highest point.  and the last picture above is our last viewpoint of the lake before the descent starts in earnest.  Wheeeeee.......

At 11 miles there was a viewpoint for the Pumice Desert.  This is a remnant from the eruption of Mount Mazama 7700 years ago.

Then out of the park at 15 miles and onto a sweet ride on SR 138.  A short climb and then 13 miles of downhill with the wind........

At 30 miles we turned north onto US 97.  Not much to remark on for the next 45 miles.  Lots of traffic - mostly trucks and RVs.  Not my favourite ride, but at least the shoulder was wide enough to be safe although not always very smooth.  The wind was from the west and we were going mostly NE, so benefited most of the way from a bit of a push from Mother Nature.  I would like to know just how many different National Forests we have travelled through so far on this trip.  Probably another 4 or 5 today alone.

Stats for the day:
122 km / 76 miles from Crater Lake OR to LA Pine OR
1568 feet up
4389 feet down
Weather:  For a change we had a cloudy day.  Not really dark, but not the bright sunshine we've become used to.  Started out cool.  4C at the top near Crater Lake, but warming up as we descended.  Up to low 20sC by early afternoon.  A bit of a tailwind for much of the ride - woohoo!