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A Unique Bike and Hike Adventure
(Reprint of Grants Pass Daily Courier article, July, 2004.)
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From Left, George Jones, Randy Nicholson, Sean Gulden and Steve Calvert
all bikes 65 miles to Mount McLoughlin, then hiked to the top of the mountain - all in 11 hours.
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GP quartet pedals to Mount McLoughlin, then climbs it all in the same day
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By Jim Moore
of the Daily Courier
Feel like a leisurely bike spin around town? If so, don't hook up with Randy Nicholson, George
Jones, Steve Calvert, and Sean Gulden because there may be much more exertion than planned.
The quartet of Grants Pass friends like to push things a little harder most people and
on July 11, they completed a unique day of bike riding and hiking.
They mounted road bikes in Grants Pass early in the morning and pedaled 65 miles to the parking
lot and the Mount McLoughlin trailhead. After a change of clothes and shoes, they hiked the
tough 5 1/2 miles to the top of the mountain, a climb that gains 3,900 feet.
The change of attire was possible because friends had driven two vehicles to the
parking lot. When they finished hiking, they jumped in the vehicles and headed home.
In all, they biked 65 miles and hiked 11 miles in 11 hours.
And they'll probably be doing it, or something like it, again.
The question is, why?
"It was kind of a test to see if it was something we could do," said Gulden,
32, who teaches English at Grants Pass High School.
"Randy (Nicholson) had the idea and it sounded like a good idea to me," said Calvert,
a 53-year-old apprentice plumber and bass string player in a philharmonic orchestra. "It was
a challenge, but not too challenging."
"I'm trying to put together and adventure race and I was scouting a possible leg of it,"
Nicholson, 39, said.
So, he convinced his friends to give it a shot.
Riding bikes is second nature to the quartet as they've all been doing it for years. And for
the past 10 or 12 years they've met on Wednesdays to ride their bikes and train together.
"We're part of a larger group that gets together and trains," Calvert said.
In fact, the quartet spent some time training together for their July 11 trip.
Meanwhile, the combination ride and climb was a natural for Jones and Nicholson, who
have a lot of experience with both.
"I've been climbing the mountain for quite a while," said Jones, 46, who handles rental property
and owns a Christmas tree farm.
He's scaled Mount McKinley in Alaska, the highest peak in the country, as well as Mount Ranier
and Mount Shasta several times.
"I got into climbing last year with George," said Nicholson, who builds hardwood
floors and is in the floor covering trade.
"The other three were pretty motivated to get to the summit of Mount McLoughlin," he said.
"I'm primarily someone who just likes to ride his bike."
The trip itself was an exercise in camaraderie, not a competitive event.
"It was real nice," Jones said. "We stayed together."
"We definitely talked about staying together as much as possible on the ride and the hike," Gulden said.
While the trek was challenging, it wasn't daunting.
"Running a marathon seems harder to me," said Gulden, who has one marathon under his belt.
"The riding mileage wasn't all that bad," Calvert said.
"It's a nice trip, I'd recommend it to people," added Nicholson, who has taken
rides of up to 130 miles.
the group intends to embark on another trip of some kind, but just when and what it will be is up in the air.
"We've talked about it a little bit, doing the same thing with Mount Shasta and staging
it so we spent the night or doing the same thing and riding our bikes home instead of driving,"
Gulden said.
"I think we might do it again next year," Jones said.
"I definitely want to ride from here, climb the mountain, and ride back," Nicholson said.
He's contemplating putting together some sort of challenge or adventure that could evolve into an
annual event.
"It could combine biking, hiking and rafting," Nicholson said.
Meanwhile, Calvert may have summed up the quartet's adventure the best.
"It was our version of the Ironman," he said. "We;re slow, older guys who can't
swim or run."
As for plans for future outings, you can count Calvert in.
"There always has to be another challenge," he said.
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