Too Exciting To Sleep Through & Beyond!
Larry Diffie
Hello GEARs,
Fancy meeting you all here! And speaking of meetings – last Tuesday evening, 14 of us met and started talks about future GEARs Adventure type rides! It was a very successful and fun meeting – wish you would have been there. And since you weren’t there – I will not be sharing anything that happened at this meeting – it’s a secret! Hahaha!
Ok, just kidding!
First, just a reminder about our new page on our GEARs Website, under “Ride Schedules”, Sam is collecting and adding Tour and Overnight Rides to this page. Mike will be adding Signup Genius slot opportunities to this page as well (as I understand it), so we can get Riding credit for the effort. A goal is to have as many of these rides posted out far enough so that we have time to plan to ride them. This is a work in progress! And thanks to Sam and Mike for helping this to move forward.
So, with Tours and Overnights in mind, I’m going to remind/inform you about a couple of important local rides first:
This Saturday, April 18th, we will have a Memorial Ride for Paula Erickson, and we will combine it with our “Yearly Cinnamon Roll Ride”. Please sign up now, indicating in the comments section if you want a Cinnamon Roll or not, so we can hopefully make sure there are enough available.
Second:
On May 30th, we will have another Memorial Ride – this one for a Great Rider, Great Person, a Great Encourager and a Great Leader from the ranks, who was listened to and readily followed = Joe Castino. Professor Joe just loved Riding and loved Riding with his friends, and he had many in GEARs. We want to honor him as well.
Check out Signup Genius for more information.
Ok Tours and Overnighters:
We’ve got a couple of Amtrak Adventures in store: (NOTE: Amtrak can only cart 10 bikes on any trip)
Tours:
On Friday, May 15th, Jackie will be leading a Group of GEARs Riders from Albany back to Eugene. The Train leaves at 7:45 am from Eugene, and bikes will be departing the Albany depot near 9:00 am to return to Eugene, kind of via the Willamette Scenic Bikeway Route (WSBR), with a slight detour to the “Hiatt Farm Bakery”. This will be at a 10 to 12 mph pace, about 75 miles, 1600’ gain. There are still 7 slots available.
On June 3rd, I’ll be leading the same Ride, except without detour. We will follow the W.S.B.R. the whole way – with a lunch stop in Brownsville at “Randy’s Main Street Coffee”, where they have morning treats and some pretty tasty sandwiches! This is about the ½ way point. This Ride will be an 11 to 13 mph pace, about 67+ miles, 1222’ gain. There are 2 slots available.
Due to a Road Closure, at this time there is no Siletz Loop Ride planned!
Tentative = On August 8th, there is a plan to go and Ride The “Wild River Scenic Bikeway” out of Port Orford, 61 miles, 3028’ gain. There are hotels and campsites or 6 hours’ worth of one day driving to go with the 5+ hour Bike Ride. Details are coming soon!
Overnight & Tour
On the weekend of June 26th, 27th, 28th, we will be heading to Schwarz Campground down Cottage Grove way for 2 nights of bike (or car) camping and 3 days of Riding! Friday and Sunday will be our “To/From” days. Saturday, we will probably find ourselves Riding the “Row River” Routes or a “Two Lake Loop” route. Check out the page for further details. Who knows, Bruce may come up with another great Crossword Puzzle for us to work as a group at our campsite once again!
Tentative = starting Monday, June 20th and ending on Friday, June 24th, there is a plan to have a Bike Packing Mixed Surface Extraviganious Ride on the Aufderheide, also part of the Oregon Scenic Bikeway….. planning and logistics are still going on, so stay tuned and refer to the Webpage.
What else you ask? Well, what do you want and are you ready to be an active participant?
Where do you want to Ride in September or October? Or in 2027? Step up, tickets for this train are going fast and inquiring minds want to know!
There might be a chance to Ride the “Spoken Hostel” Ride – mixed surfaces and it really looks cool!
I want to thank Sam McCament, Mark La Page, Richard Hughes, Kentucky Bob Lewis and Mike Cantrell for their help and excitement in getting this Rolling for GEARs!
Peace,
Larry