Busy weekend for SOU athletics
Nearly nonstop sporting action will be happening on the SOU campus from Friday through Sunday. New students are moving in today. Other students will be returning to campus for classes beginning on Monday.
Ashland Daily Photo - A picture a day from beautiful Ashland, Southern Oregon USA in the Rogue Valley
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Football gameday
Tra Forrest with the QB strip
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @Tra_MF_Forrest
As mentioned last week, the Raiders 0-3 start does not mean postseason hopes are over. Although SOU isn’t ranked in the coaches’ poll, Massey moved the Raiders up in their rankings to #16 after the narrow loss on the road to #4 College of Idaho. Massey gives the Raiders at least a 42% chance (individually, not in total) of winning their remaining regular season games despite the 0-3 start.
For today’s game, even though it’s at Montana Tech who beat Eastern Oregon easily on the road, Massey favors SOU by 1 point. A win will go a long way to righting the ship and propelling the Raiders onward and upward as they begin an easier portion of their schedule–the hardest schedule in the NAIA according to Massey.
More details on today’s game here.
Gameday and birthday
Shelby Young
@SOURaiders @RaiderVB #NAIAWVB
Happy birthday Shelby Young, and good luck in tonight’s important match up in Salem.
Crater Lake Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel
During my ride around Crater Lake last Saturday I pulled over to take a photo of the lake, and this little one came scampering up the side of the caldera, seemingly for the sole reason of getting its picture taken.
SOU @ Corban volleyball this Friday night
@SOURaiders @RaiderVB #NAIAWVB @HoytMakayla
More details here.
Although the Raiders have the #5 ranking and Corban is #11 (according to the coaches’ poll), Massey has things reversed with Corban at #6 and SOU at #13. Massey ranks Corban’s schedule as the most challenging in all of the NAIA. Corban barely lost to undefeated #2 Northwestern (who Massey has as #1).
The winner on Friday will grab first place in the conference while the loser will fall back into a 2nd place tie with Eastern Oregon (who Massey has as #3).
Ride the Rim (of Crater Lake)
@CraterLakeNPS
I once tried to ride around Crater Lake on my bike. It didn’t go well.
Fast forward many years to yesterday. I heard they were closing the road to vehicles on two Saturdays this year. Maybe this has happened in recent years as well. In any event, I did it!
Anyway, let me share a few observations for those of you doing it on September 21, 2019 or in future years…
Get there early! Before 8 is good; before 7 is even better. When I left Crater Lake for home at 11-something, after finishing my ride, the car traffic was crazy. People were circling forever and not finding places to park their cars. In addition, the roads may not have cars on them, but do you really want to ride around the lake when the roads are crammed with bikes? The ride was very pleasant, congestion wise, between 7 and 9. Things got a little crowded after that and seemed to be getting very crowded about the time I finished. Besides the crowd size issue, the lake looks fairly different between 7 and 11 a.m. with the sunrise but not so different between, say, 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Bring gloves and a face shield. The shield will help with the temperature and wind chill–especially before 9 a.m.–and it will also keep the bugs from entering your mouth and nose at 20+ MPH.
There is plenty of water at the five rest stations so you don’t need to carry too much. I brought three bottles which was two too many.
The ride is over 33 miles (not including Cloudcap) and includes a ton of elevation. Basically, there are no flat spots. You are either climbing or coasting downhill. Therefore, you will want to do some training to make sure you can ride uphill for at least 15 miles.
Cloudcap viewpoint adds an extra mile or two and is a big climb. Feel free to skip it unless you want the extra workout. I did it only because I didn’t realize I could skip it, and the bikes in front of me were heading that way.
You can go in either direction. West Rim Drive (not closed to autos) is best done early, IMO, before the car traffic arrives so if you park at the lodge or visitor’s center a clockwise direction is advised.
I would love to do this again, earlier in the year, when there is still some snow on things. It would be nice if they closed the roads to autos as soon as they open the East Rim Drive some year. I suppose a flexible date, based on the weather, would make planning more difficult though.