Agness, Oregon

Saturday, July 13, 2002

Whew... where should I begin? Perhaps at the beginning. (A very good place to start...)

This trip began early, as in, the day before. I ducked out of work a little bit early and hit the road right into rush hour traffic. The local temperatures around the Portland area have been unseasonably high and that day was no exception. Cooling systems (both mechanical and biological) were working at their maximum as STraddle and I crawled out of Beaverton and through Wilsonville along Interstate 5.

After about thirty minutes of this, we were able to attain sufficient speed to bring the heat under control. I rode non-stop to Roseburg (about 180 miles), checked into a hotel and called it a day.

The skies provided a wonderful light show that evening (followed by a much needed downpour).

A light show in Roseburg

Cheveron provides a lightening rod

Bright and early (I think it was 7:00 AM) I began the adventure. I headed more or less for the coast along SR-42. The air was cool in stark contrast to conditions the day before. I found it necessary to close two of my suit vents somewhere along the 60 mile segment just to keep my body heat at somewhere near normal.

I continued on through Coquille, turning south on SR-42S to meet up with US-101 (the Pacific Coast Highway). The ocean was beautiful to behold and it was just as blue as it had been the last time I viewed it. As the sun rose higher into the sky, the temperatures began to climb and I found it necessary to open the suit vents. Thanks to the on-board hydration system (a water bladder and bite valve equipped drinking tube), I was able to sip at the wet stuff as I rode. At Gold Beach, I took a left just south of the bridge to begin my search for Agness.

According to my AAA map, which is fantastic in almost every detail, only one 27 mile long road leads to Agness and it is marked "Closed in Winter." The road is known by several names: Agness Road, SR-595 and, uh, Fire Road somethingorother. I wasn't the slightest bit concerned that the road would be closed (the snow has melted) but I wasn't sure just how passable the road would be. The answer was, more or less, "not very."

Despite some very pleasant sweepers at the beginning, increasingly the road surface was broken up, upsetting the suspension and messing up my lines as I came around corners. Gravel was a problem as well; especially the quarter mile segments of it. I hadn't anticipated riding through such material on my tall, heavy street machine. A rock slide had taken out a lane in one direction and had heavily polluted the other but I was able to negotiate it all with relative ease.

I arrived at the Cougar Lane Resort, collected my stamp and then worked up the courage to make my way back through the gauntlet -- 27 miles of bliss. The good news was that, as I rode west, the conditions improved as I approached US-101.

Maps

Beauty

A Sunny Day at the Coast

Cougar Lane Resort

Turning south along 101, I found it increasingly difficult to stay cool. Despite all of the water I had been drinking I was sweating very little and... "nature's call" hadn't yet rung me up. In hindsight, I think I was suffering from the early stages of dehydration, but I didn't give this possibility due consideration at the time.

I stopped in Bandon for lunch and a tall cola. (Cola is a bad choice when trying to replace body fluids.) Then I proceeded into California to meet up with US-199 headed in a more or less northeastern direction.

The Plan for the second leg of today's trip was to make my way to Klamath Lake, CA. I had a couple of choices: the first being to cut down another one of those "closed in winter" roads into Happy Camp, the second was to ride around, meet up with I-5 at Grant's Pass and to ride south. As I passed the turnoffs for Happy Camp, I made a decision to stay off the questionable road in favor of the well-maintained highway system. This would add about an hour to my trip, but I reasoned that I had had enough "off roading" for one day.

The air was turning hot and humid and I still wasn't sweating enough to stay cool under all of my armor and -- finally -- it dawned on me that something was wrong. Upon reaching I-5 and turning south, I stopped at the first available rest stop to replenish my water supply and to soak my T-shirt. This helped a little, but I was still very uncomfortable. I began to fear that the stress would cause my reactions to slow and so, with some regret, I pulled off at Medford and checked into a hotel.

The riding was over for the day and I was safe inside an air conditioned room with all the water I could possibly want to drink. I took a three hour nap, found some food and drank water until things started, uh, "flowing" again.

In the week following this fiasco, I have done some reading on the subject of dehydration. The lack of bathroom breaks should have been a clue to me that there simply wasn't enough water in my system; my lack of sweat should have been a gigantic red flag. Hot people sweat and, if they don't, there is something very wrong. Tanking up on cola was another mistake. Instead, I should have taken large amounts of water regardless of thirst and, along with that water, I should have eaten something salty (to restore vital body minerals.)

The old phrase says "Live and Learn." It is, of course, necessary to live long enough to learn. I did... and I did. There remain two more "in state" rally stamps to collect and I'll pick those up in August.

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