Fact and Fiction
Pole Pedal Murder strives to represent the
Pole Pedal Paddle Race as accurately as
possible. But it was written in 2020 and
2021 when the race wasn't held. Some
things were different in 2022.
In the book, the weather was mostly fair,
as it usually is for the race. But in 2022
the top of the ski run was cold, misty,
rainy, and sometimes windy.
Sheriff's Detective Carl Breuninger finds
the Kapka Butte Sno-Park virtually empty
during the Pole Pedal Paddle race. But in
2022 the lot was almost full of cars
parked for an entirely different race - a leg
of the Cascade Gravel Grinder off-road
bike race, a 44.3-mile race of which 63
percent was on gravel with a 3,357-foot
elevation gain.
The book imagines a gaggle of volunteers
directing cars (with some exceptions) off
the bicycle course and toward Sunriver. In
2022 there was only one lonely deputy
sheriff aided by a multitude of traffic
cones.
The convenience store where Roger
fatefully stops to buy cigarettes in the
book has steps leading up to the door and
there is no mention of the Basecamp Grill
in the same building. In reality it's the grill
that has the steps.