Oregon Trail....

Day 9 (6/7/07): Baker City-REST DAY! Today was our first rest day and it was much needed. WE went shopping and I got some stuff fixed at the bike shop and did laundry. It was nice to not have to bicycle today, but we'll be heading into Idaho tomorrow, so it should be fun to go into a different state! Oregon was beautiful, but I've heard good things about Idaho too. I'm not sure we'll have any more internet access until Missoula, MT, so until then, Happy trails!

Day 8 (6/6/07): Prairie City, OR to Baker City, OR: ~68 miles. Three 7 mile climbs over 3 pretty high (5000ft+) passes, it was another cold day. It was snowing up two of the three passes. Once again, no pictures, and we finished with a strong headwind through Baker City.

Day 7 (6/5/07): Dayville, OR to Prairie City, OR: 45 mile day. I took NO pictures today because it was about 48 degrees and rainy. Luckily it was a short day, but we were soaked and cold and my computer broke so I had no idea how far I'd gone. It was the first bad day, so I can't complain too much. Cydna got the RV in a bit of an accident at the RV park so we had to stand out in the rain a little more, but it involved a tow truck and the Prairie City water department...


Day 6 (6/4/07): Prineville, OR to Dayville, OR:
86.5 mile day. Two passes to climb the Ochoco pass, which was a 30 mile slight grade, and a drop into Mitchell, OR and then a steep and hot 7 mile climb to the Keyes pass. Then a 35 mile downhill along a creek into Dayville. The downhill was through what looked like canyons in the beautiful basalt. We saw deer today on each side of the passes.

I'm not sure why, but it seems to be popular in Eastern Oregon to throw shoes in a tree, I thought they were mushrooms at first, but they were nice shoes, probably not even worn all the way out! I kept my shoes on, however, earlier in the day I had problems and my cleat lost 3 of the four screws attaching it to my shoe (insert joke about screws loose here...). Luckily I'm wicked handy and was able to fix it, but I'll have to find more screws soon.

We biked by John Day Fossil beds where they once filled trainloads with fossils. Dayville is another small town, approx. 130 people. WE saw Steve again and had dinner with him and I had a creamcicle from the Dayville Mercantile for desert.

Day 5 (6/3/07): McKenzie Bridge, OR to Prineville, OR

68 mile day started off with the remaining climb to the top of McKenzie pass. IT was spectacular! The road itself was closed to vehicular traffic, only cyclists and pedestrians could be on it for a two week period, so we lucked out! There is still snow on the pass, and near the top there are tons a basalt lava flows ~300-400 years old, so relatively new! At the top there were 360 degree views of snow capped peaks. We could see two of the three Sisters, Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson and ever-so-faintly Mt. Hood. WE met a local cyclist who acted as our tour guide which was really nice of him.

On the other side of the pass the terrain was dramatically different-it was arid and hot. I guess this is the Oregon desert. It was amazing how quickly the terrain and climate changed in a few miles!