It's been 3 months since I last wrote something on my first Iron Butt ride (1000+ miles in 24 hours or less). Time for the next chapter.
I had planned on getting up around 5am and leaving by 6am. I went to bed early (around 8pm) so I could be well rested, but was so excited that I couldn't get to sleep. I finally decided not to fight it anymore and got up at around 11pm. I quickly got ready, got on my bike, and went to the corner gas station to fill up. I made sure I kept the receipt for time validation and was on the road at 11:26pm on March 29, 2003. Here goes!
I took a CD player and headphones but quickly realized that it just wasn't going to work. I made a quick stop in Hood River at 12:22am and took off the headphones and stashed the CD player deep in my tank bag. This was the last time I ever tried to listen to music while riding. I really enjoy just listening to the sounds of my bike and the road. It might sound strange, but the sounds are reassuring and relaxing to me.
I made my first gas stop in Biggs about 45 minutes later. I started to get a little cold around 2am and stopped at a rest area just west of Boardman.
By 3 am I was starting to wonder if I had made a mistake. Driving at 70+mph on the freeway at 3 in the morning in late March is REALLY COLD!!! This was before I had any really good cold weather gear (I bought a heated vest shortly after this ride). I had a set of worn out winter gloves that didn't really do the job anymore. I stopped thinking about how many times I had to pull over to try and warm up. I was stopping about every 30-40 minutes and I started to worry about if I was going to be able to make the trip in under 24 hours. I wanted to go faster, but I knew that would be a bad idea and would probably make things worse. Between Boardman and Ontario (about 280 miles). I ended up stopping 4 times (once while getting gas at LaGrande) to try and warm up. I started taking my gloves off and shoving them in next to the engine to try and warm them up. That usually lasted only a few minutes, but it was so nice to have warm gloves even if it was only temporarily. I wasn't allowing myself any coffee because I didn't want to deal with the later energy crash that would inevitably happen.
I made my last warm-up stop at just after 5 am near Plano. I remember there was a cement plant there. I felt horrible and wanted to cry. Instead I ran around, jumping up and down, flapping my arms like an idiot trying to warm up. After about 10 minutes of this I noticed the sky getting lighter. This was encouraging. I decided to power on through to Ontario, my next scheduled gas stop, and not stop again before I got there.
I finally got to Ontario (on the OR/ID border) at about 5:50 am. I pulled into the first gas station I saw. They didn't open until 6am so I had to wait a few minutes for them to turn on the lights and the pumps. The guys inside were giving me funny looks, but I was too cold to even care. I just wanted to get my gas and get back on the road. I could barely feel my fingers by this time. This is likely the coldest I have ever been. My whole body was cold. That deep down kind of cold. The sun was just starting to come up over the mountains. I have never been so glad to see a sunrise. Even so, it took another 8 hours before I started to feel warm again.
Since this part of my trip was in darkness and I was on the highway, there really wasn't much to see. I'm glad I put the majority of my highway miles on at the beginning of this trip. Made it less boring. Like I would have been bored on my bike.
So, that's 370 miles down in the first 6 1/2 hours, only about 700 to go. I was amazed that I was able to average nearly 60mph with all of the unscheduled stops that I made. I really wasn't going all that fast. Honest. That part didn't come until later.
Here is a Google Map of my route for this part of the ride.
Portland to Ontario
Next: Bodily functions go wild!
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