We tried to outrun the rain today. But the rain won.

We had two route options prepared for today. One was essentially the ride we did last time, relatively short and to the point. The other was a longer way around, hitting some new (to us) roads. We decided to go for the longer ride.

The morning had us weaving through many roundabouts through Bend. One intersection was closed for construction, so we had to find a detour. Cities always take longer to navigate.

Finally we made it out of the city, and descended down into a valley. It was a mix of farms and ranches, fancy pants houses, and gravel quarries.

We were riding around one of Oregon’s scenic bikeways. But this one at least was only signed in one direction of the loop, making it clear transportation/touring isn’t a goal of the bikeway.

We paused for lunch just after passing highway 126. This was one of our bail out options. 126 would lead directly to Sisters, shaving some 20 miles from the route. The morning had already been long. The weather was nice, if a bit chilly, but we knew there was a chance of rain in the mid-afternoon. We decided to take the direct, if less scenic and busier, option.

126 was much like 58, but straighter and with a consistent shoulder. It was a shallow climb much of the way, with a few dips along the way to keep it interesting. Since this was off our prepared route, we had no cuesheet (just keep going) or elevation profile to watch. Anne’s bike computer kept trying to reroute us back to the prepared route. We had to navigate Daddy style, by watching mile markers.

We could see grey clouds ahead. It grew cooler and darker. The mountains disappeared in the clouds. More of the oncoming traffic had their headlights on.

On the climb out of the last dip, with seven miles to go, it started to rain. Just a few drops, at first. We decided to finish the climb then gear up.

By the time we got there, it was properly raining. As we raced to get the kids in rain mode it got even more intense. My pile of gloves and booties blew off my bike, but Ruth rescued me. Max was quickly safe in the green torpedo, but Ruth had a harder time. She’s exposed on the tandem, and no amount of gear really keeps you totally dry. I ended up giving her my arm warmers to use as bonus gloves.

By the time we were good to go, the rain had died down. But we weren’t about to stop again. Until we heard a scraping coming from the rear of the tandem, that is.

After a brief investigation, we determined it was a wire that had become embedded in the tire, scraping against the fender. Anne pulled it out, didn’t see any bubbles suggesting a leak, and we continued on. I watched the tire for the rest of the ride, and it’s still good. Score another for Schwalbe Marathon Plus.

As we rode the last few miles, the rain intensified again. I could hear Ruth cackling ahead of me, so I knew she was in good spirits, or at least the right kind of crazy. Passing cards occasionally splashed us, but we managed to avoid any walls of water.

As we rolled through downtown Sisters, the rain slowed again. By the time we stopped at the motel, it had stopped. The bikes had mostly dried by the time we were checked in, though I still wiped them down with the rags packed for that purpose.

Fortunately, the room has a lot of hooks we can hang the rain gear on. We picked up pizza from down the street with no jackets, even though it was really too cold for that, since the jackets were still too wet to be useful.

Our plan had been to take tomorrow as a rest day, before concluding the tour over McKenzie Pass. The road is technically still closed, but cyclists can ride it. Rumor has it construction crews operate Monday through Thursday, so we were going to wait until Friday. Plus a day of rest would do everybody good.

But, the weather looks much better tomorrow than Friday. It’ll be warmer and much less likely to rain. So we’re probably going to skip the rest day. Hopefully we can get the rain gear dry enough so it can keep us warm again.