Day 11: July 2 Baker City to Hell's Canyon 70 miles

Thursday, 7/2/81
Hell's Canyon campground

I'm at the bottom of Hell's Canyon! Biked 70 miles from Baker today. I'll start early so I can climb out while it's cool. It's only 4:30! The reason I made such good time is it was downhill almost all the way. Except for one hot, long, steep five-mile stretch after lunch.

Two of my fellow travelers have caught up with me. I'm not as fast as I thought.

Baker City & Blue Mountains.

Oregon Trail monument.

The two other riders who joined me were Jack, 63, and Bret, 34. They belonged to a bicycle club in Michigan. They had flown to Portland with their bikes so they could ride the TransAmerica Trail (It's just a route--not really a trail.) to its end in Yorktown, Virginia. (It starts at Astoria, Oregon.)

Rick, 19, joined us too that evening. He had ridden up the coast from San Francisco, across the trail and, upon reaching Virginia, planned to ride up the east coast to Boston. Quite an undertaking! I never met anyone who knew maps like Rick. People from anywhere in the country would tell him their hometown and he knew it, the towns around it, and the highways approaching it. The only town that stumped him was Clifton, Kansas, He knew how the streets were numbered in Seattle and he had only been there once, as a child.

From here on, the four of us rode together, more or less, all the way to Denver.

Due to the canyon walls, the sun set at about 6 PM.

Day 10: July 1 John Day to Baker City 80 miles

Ghost town of Whitney, Blue Mountains, OR.

Wednesday, 7/1/81
Baker City, OR

Crossed the Blue Mountains today. Also picked up a letter drop from my girlfriend in Prairie City. She sent route books for the next section of the trail. Crossed three passes in the Blue Mountains today. Only the first one was bad. The last 30 miles into Baker was all headwinds, though. Exhausted me. Camped at YMCA for 50¢. I'm leaving my friends Rudy, Pauline, and Joe behind tomorrow. They won't follow my tight schedule.

I rode two days with Joe, Pauline, and Rudy, all novices (they started in Prineville) from LA. Sadly, we split the next morning ‘cause they had to wait for a bike shop to open. We exchanged addresses.

Strawberry Mountain Range.

Day 9: June 30 Mitchell to John Day 71 miles

Sheep Rock, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

Tuesday, 6/30/81
John Day, OR trailer park

One of the men last night was 71 and one was 76. He'd done the trail going west last summer. An inspiration to us all.

We all headed up the hill between 6:30 and 7:00 this morning. The rest gave me boundless energy. I was over the top first for the 25-mile downhill. At the bottom was the beautiful Painted Gorge and the John Day Fossil Beds. I took a two-mile detour to view the fossils at the visitor's center, so ended up behind everyone else. We all gathered again for an early lunch in Dayville. And grouped within three miles for a liesurely, if hot, ride into John Day. We're all staying at a trailer park. $1.25 for a tent site and showers!

Picture Gorge, John Day Fossil Beds.

I was the only one who visited the John Day Fossil Beds that day, because it required a two-mile side trip. Crazy people! They missed seeing a Mesohippus skeleton. Seriously, when riding cross-country, it is very hard to leave your route to ride any distance. Your energy has to go toward moving yourself on down the road.

I don't recall if that exclamation mark is because the tent site & showers were so expensive at $1.25 or so cheap.

Picture Gorge.

Picture Gorge.

 

Day 8: June 29 Prineville to Mitchell 47 miles

Monday, 6/29/81
Mitchell, OR

After fighting the sprinklers last night (with two other bikers) I climbed a gentle 2,000 feet to Ochocco Summit. The ride down the other side was very long and it grew hotter by the mile. (I had lunch at the summit.) I stopped in Mitchell with some bikers because the description said no water till John Day, 70 miles away. We're all taking the day off and climbing the eight miles in the morning. We're having a great time--nine boys, one girl--trading biking tales. Only 50 miles today!

Black Butte.

Abandoned chimney, Ochoco Summit Road.

When I stopped at the park there in Mitchell, I joined two other bikers who were debating what to do. Two more came in behind me and in one hour, we had ten cyclists there, all trying to talk each other into not going further. It worked. Only two brave souls ventured forth. (As it turned out, those two brave souls were Bret and Jack, the two guys I ended up riding with all the way to Denver! That story develops...) The rest of us stayed and had a party of sorts. We wrote postcards and told cycling stories and cycling jokes and cycling lies. Someone bought a watermelon, which quickly disappeared. All in all, it was the most sociable time I had the entire trip.

Folks at Michell, waiting for morning.

Two of the bicyclists there, by the way, were in their 70s. Scotty, 76 years old, had traveled the TransAmerica Trail in 1980 going east to west. This year, he brought along a friend of his who was 73 years old and they were going west to east. They traveled slow, ate at restaurants, and stayed in motels and hostels. 
 

I’m only 58 now, so I guess there’s still time for me to relive my youth! Bret is doing it!

Guy at Mitchell.

Day 7 June 28, Leaburg to Prineville 122 miles

Wild Rhododendron near Proxy Falls

Sunday, 6/28/81
Prineville, OR City Park

Got up at 6:00 and climbed McKenzie Pass. Took five hours, 22 miles. Great scenery on top, see the pictures. 

Ride into Sisters was nice, but short. What a change! From almost rain forest to almost desert in one day. Fantastic! Lunch in Sisters. Camped in Prineville City Park. Sprinklers came on twice during the night.

McKenzie Pass was the worst climb of the entire trip: twenty miles of steep switchbacks up and over McKenzie Pass. There was a less steep alternate route over Santium Pass, but it was longer and less scenic. I never even considered it. A couple of weeks later in Montana, I heard about a guy who climbed half way up McKenzie Pass, gave up, turned around and took Santium Pass. Talk about doing things the hard way!

Three Sisters, McKenzie Pass

I stopped half way up McKenzie Pass to hike in half a mile to two of the prettiest waterfalls I have ever seen. That helped. I did some climbs later on that were shorter and less steep than McKenzie Pass, but were nevertheless much more uncomfortable. The difference was the weather. McKenzie Pass was on the west and therefore the cool side of the Cascades. All the other climbs were on the east and therefore the hot side of the Cascades. The difference was most noticeable.

McKenzie Pass lava.

At the top of McKenzie Pass, surrounded by the snow-covered peaks of the Cascade Mountains, is a huge black lava flow with a complete absence of life, which is a characteristic of relatively fresh flows. It was quite disconcerting to see it up here in the mountains instead of down in eastern Oregon where one expects that sort of thing.

That night in Prineville City Park, I was with with two other bikers. The mayor said it wasn’t policy to allow camping in the park, but they’d let us do it just this once. What he forgot to tell us was that the automatic sprinkler system comes on at 1 AM. I never hopped out of a sleeping bag so fast in my life! I managed to wedge my helmet in the sprinkler closest to me and thus averted disaster. The other bikers were all right because they had a tent. It was a bit noisy since the sprinkler nozzle was only four feet away from the tent and was spraying water with a force that would normally send it 25 feet. Eventually, the water subsided and we drifted off to sleep again, only to be awakened at 3 AM with a repeat performance. It was generally a bad night.

Llamas outside Sisters, Oregon.

Looking back at the Cascades from Central Oregon.

Day 6: June 27 Junction City to Leaburg 39 miles

Goodpasture Bridge, McKenzie River.

Saturday, 6/27/81
Leaburg, OR church

Got a late start because I watched a tv movie last night. A fellow cyclist showed me some neat bike trails in Eugene and directed me back to the trail, A bridge was out because they ere building a new one. I had a choice between a 7-mile detour or a railroad bridge. I half walked, half carried the bike over the bridge. [I have no recollection of this whatsoever—ha!]

In the evening, a family in Leaburg showed me where I could use a picnic table down by the river behind the church. The boys even brought me cookies. McKenzie River  is one of the prettiest west Cascade rivers I've seen. I'm very tired but I have a 5,000-foot McKenzie Pass to climb tomorrow.

Day 5: June 26 Neskowin to Junction City 70 miles

Willamette River, Corvallis

Friday, 6/26 81
Motel in Junction City, OR
 
I crossed the Coast Range this morning without even realizing it. I kept waiting for it to get steep when, all of the sudden, I was going downhill. Great! It's only a 700-foot pass, though.

After that, it was downhill to the Willamette River valley. A strong tailwind, and well-maintained bike trails led to a 100-mile day! Stayed in a motel in Junction City, off the trail. Cooked with my stove in the room. and watched MASH twice. Very nice.

I stayed in a motel that night. I had always planned to stay in a motel once a week for a little luxury and a long hot shower. It was weird keeping my bike in the room and spreading my crap all over. I got off to a very late start the next morning. I never even considered staying in a motel room again. It turns out showers are available when you’re on the road—for example, we would go into any KOA Kampground we passed and use their pay showers.

I rode 103 miles that day—quite an accomplishment. I averaged 70 miles per day overall.