Sunday Bicycle Ride

My daughter Kathryn and I went for a bike ride around Hagg Lake today. I haven't done any real riding since I ended up in the hospital five or six years ago. I tried this once a year or two ago, but I gave out after a couple miles. This time we made it all the way around (ten miles) and it wasn't even that tough. It's not like I've been training or anything. I go for a 20 minute walk most evenings, that's about it.

I used to do a lot of bicycle riding. I went on RAGBRAI in 1998 and Cycle Oregon in 1999. The last time I was unemployed (about that same time) I would ride out to Hagg Lake, ride around it, and back home a couple of times a week. Or I would ride to the top of Bald Peak and back. I used to ride my bicycle to work (15 miles one way) a couple of times a week. But being in the hospital put a stop to all that.

It was not that I couldn't ride anymore. It was more that I was angry about the whole affair. I used to ride my bike a lot, but more often than not it was a flipping struggle. Some days I would feel strong and I could go like gangbusters, but most days it was a slog. Maybe it got worse towards the end.

For years I had been going to doctors complaining that I didn't feel well, but they could never find anything wrong with me. When I checked into the hospital they put me in a room and took my vitals, and immediately moved me to the ICU. Seems my pulse was 160. I was feeling a little tired, well pretty tired, I didn't object to going into the hospital. They put me on an IV for four or five days, prescribed a bunch of pills and sent me home. Atrial fibrillation is what they call it. Erratic heartbeat. Very common, not very dangerous, as opposed to Ventricular fibrillation which will kill you in short order.

So I take a handful of pills every morning and I seem to be doing okay. But I hadn't gotten back on my bike. All those years I had been struggling to get in shape and listening to people tell me I just need to work a little more, a little longer, a little harder, just thinking about it made me angry. Here I had been suffering from this handicap and I wasn't even aware of it. No wonder everything was a flipping struggle.

But today I got back on my bike. The ride around Hagg Lake is a good, moderate ride. There are about ten little hills to climb, but you get to coast down the other side. There is not too much traffic, though it is mostly of the 4x4 pickup variety. There were a lot of other cyclists today. We probably saw about a dozen.

Here is a fancy map with elevations. You will have to pan to the Southwest to see the lake. Notice that there is a big hill you have to go up next to the dam to get to the road that goes around the lake. That hill is a mother. We did not climb that one. We rode up in the truck. Cost $5 to enter the park.

Here is another map of the lake:


View Larger Map

P.S. Cycle Oregon XII (1999) except from the Baker City Herald:

The 2006 tour revisits a local mountain road that, when it was included in the 1999 tour, rendered hundreds of riders cold, thirsty and exhausted long before they had reached the day's overnight stop in Haines.

That road is the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway.

As they did seven years ago, cyclists will have to ascend the west wall of the Elkhorn Mountains to 7,392-foot Elkhorn Summit near Anthony Lakes, the second-highest point reached by a paved road in Oregon.