Day 74 - August 16, 2013 - Baker City, OR - Rest Day

Well, we got virtually no sleep last night, so we stayed in Baker City again.  Didn't do much outside of eating and resting.  Annoyed to not be moving forward!

 Found beanie baby Badtz at the local grocery store!

 

No idea what these articles are about...

Day 73 - August 15, 2013 - Baker City, OR Rest Day

After 6 days back in the saddle, and before a tough 70 mile day with three mountain passes to climb, we determined that a rest day was in order.  Sleeping in, even until 8:30, was a great luxury!

We had a leisurely breakfast at the cafe attached to the hotel, vegged out to the History Channel, then got ready to hit the Baker Heritage Museum.  We briefly contemplated unloading our bikes to get there, but chose to walk instead.  It was a hot one again - surprise, surprise. 

The museum was neat, very well done, especially for a local museum, and they have an impressive rock collection, donated by a couple of sisters who devoted their lives to collecting them.  The museum is housed in what used to be a natatorium before World War 2, when the pool was filled in and the building converted to a factory creating vehicle trailers for the war effort.  Most of the folks on the museum board happened to show up, and we had a good chat with a few of them about our trip.  Nice people.  I bought a diary of a young man who traveled on the Oregon Trail to read in the gift shop...I've been missing a good book, and the entries are short so I might have time to actually read it in the coming week or so.

We decided to hit up historic downtown Baker City afterwards, and enjoyed the walk past the pretty city park, with the Powder River running alongside it.  The city has a nice feel to it.  We found a Chinese restaurant for lunch, and followed that up with a stop in at a cute ice cream parlor.

After a toasty walk back to the hotel, we lounged a bit more, I took a dip in the hot tub, and we started to settle in for an early night, in preparation for getting up early to tackle those mountain passes.

Of course, what we can only imagine are a herd of elephants has checked into the room upstairs, and they wanted to see just how squeaky every square inch of floor is.  Then a large and loud family arrives in the parking lot just outside our window, chats for an hour, and is, naturally, staying just steps away from our room.  They continued to have a loud, seemingly hilarious conversation in the hallway before retiring to their respective rooms, ensuring that they slammed their doors no fewer than 5 times each.

So it's nearly 2am Pacific time, I need to be up in about 4.5 hours, but sleep eludes me.  I'm not so sure those passes will be tackled tomorrow after all...

Here is the only other photo I took today - a creative bike rack downtown, if you can make it out.

Day 72 - August 14, 2013 - Richland, OR to Baker City, OR

Miles - 40

Total mileage - 1,957

We went to sleep so early last night, around 8:00, but still didn't get up until after 7 this morning.  Our bodies are telling us we need a break, methinks.  We stopped quickly for breakfast at the Shorthorn Cafe, where another westbound cyclist stopped in as well.  Sounded like he was German.  The guys we ran into yesterday were across the street at the post office.  

Today's ride appeared to be gradual uphill for about 24 miles, topped off by a steep climb at the end, and a gradual downhill into Baker City.  After a few short bit slightly steep climbs, most of the morning seemed almost to be downhill.  We were confused as to why this was, but weren't going to question it!

The ride transitioned from ranch land back to a desert canyon.  At one point we passed a crew doing roadwork, who turned out to be inmates from a local prison.  I always am torn in these situations...I start saying hello and having those short conversations with them, but I'm sure they probably aren't supposed to be talking to any passerby.  I'm always interested in their story - it really got me thinking about The IF Project (www.theifproject.com).  

We passed an interesting site describing a landslide that happened in the late 80s - you could see where it buried the old highway.  Interesting stuff.

There were no service stops angling the route at all today - luckily we found a "rest area", aka put toilet in the desert, almost halfway in.  And not too long after that, we found the first steeper climb of the day - short and sweet.  I only to be followed by the big one.  It didn't seem steep, but went on forever.  We walked up some of it at the end.  More nice mountain views most of the way up, obscured by smoke from all the recent fires in the area though.

After all the climbing, we met a less than exciting downhill, which we had to pedal down due to the headwind that found us!  We really wanted to stop in at the Oregon Train Interpretive Center, about 7 miles out of Baker City, but they put the damn thing at the top of a big hill!  Some other time I guess...

We crossed over I-84 - the first major highway we've really seen in days, and stopped at the first tiny has station/RV park we saw for cold drinks.  We were nearly out of water, and so happy to see this place!

Mel's parents are generously putting us up in a hotel tonight - thank you guys!  We ate the slightly melty and toasted sandwiches we had packed but not eaten for lunch today for dinner.  Baker City water is currently contaminated with some sort of bacteria, so we are trying to remember to not drink it or wash our hands in it.  At least the hotel is handing out bottled water for guests to use until the problem is resolved.  Even the slushy machine at the grocery store is down until they fix the problem!  Thanks to Adrienne for forewarning us of this days ago!

We are taking a rest day here tomorrow. We've had 6 days of tough riding and high heat, and it's starting to catch up with us.  Thinking we will visit the Baker County Museum.  And eat Chinese food. And relax!

Day 71 - August 13, 2013 - Oxbow, OR to Richland, OR

Miles - 30

Total mileage - 1,917

After a very warm evening in the tent, alternately removing the rain fly because it was incredibly hot, and being awoken by raindrops on our faces and having to put the rain fly back on - packing went a little slowly this morning as we waited for the tent to dry out.

We stopped at a little gas station/convenience store for breakfast, talked to a group of folks getting ready to take a guided raft trip in Hells Canyon for four days.  Sounds hot and remote, but I'm sure they'll have fun!

We had a good mix of climbing, flats, and downhills this morning - and it was hot already before 10.  More dry, desert-like surroundings, but we are starting to see more pine trees.  At one point, we came around a bend in the road and saw startlingly beautiful granite peaks in the distance.  A welcome sight after more than a few desert days.

About 18 miles in, we went a little off-route to a town called Halfway in search of lunch.  On our way there, we passed an enthusiastic lone female eastbound rider - cheering, and clearly still feeling very good about her trip, at what must be less than 2 weeks in for her!

We ducked into a little bar and grill, and ordered up a small cheese pizza to share.  A few moments later, two guys who passed us back in Kansas came in to eat.  They were shocked at what good time we are making - we had to break it to them that we had to cheat to get back on track.  Hah.

After lunch, there was nothing left to do but begin the gigantic climb up the pass that would lead us to Richland.  We always get to these things in the heat of the day, argh.  We pedaled, slowly and with many breaks, up the first third or so, then walked most of the rest.  It was a 3-4 mile 6% or so grade.  These are deceiving because they don't look that steep when you are going up, but when you turn around and glance back, you see just how steep they really are!

The only saving grace of this thing is that we had sweeping mountain views on three sides.  Pretty amazing really.

We finally arrived at the summit, and were faced with a 7% downhill grade.  These are fun, but also frustrating because we have to stop a few times on the way down to let our rims cool.  More beautiful views on this side though.

We almost flew down into Richland, found the grocery store which also conveniently rented out the rooms in the one motel in town.  We needed some air conditioning in our lives!  We picked up sandwich stuff for dinner, grabbed cold drinks, and bummed around for the rest of the evening.  Not a bad day, all things considered. 

Day 70 - August 12, 2013 - Cambridge, ID to Oxbow, OR

Miles - 40

Total mileage - 1,887

We were totally looking forward to 12 miles of climbing first thing today!  Oh, and to add to the fun, the wind decided to whistle through the canyon we were in directly at us!  And, by the way, the wind in a canyon changes direction with you, so no matter where we turned, it was still a headwind!

We finally summited the climb, met up with the cyclist who had camped behind our motel last night - he had to hurry off because he planned to do about 30 more miles than we had planned - and we headed down the other side at a 7% grade.  Good times!

We stopped at the one cafe on route today for a quick lunch, and then began our afternoon of riding beside a couple of reservoirs.  It was very hot - I don't think where we are is considered Hells Canyon, but it's pretty darn close.

The road today was lined with blueberry trees, cherry trees, and raspberry bushes - the smell was delicious!  I stopped and tried a couple of the cherries...yum.  Mel decided not to eat any, in case they were somehow poisonous - at least one of us would make it out alive!

We crossed into Oregon, the last official state on the TransAm route!  It's a little bittersweet to start thinking about the end of the trip, but it also sounds nice to live normally again and have a little bit of time on the west coast before heading back to real life.

And in true TransAm route style, we had a tough uphill right before we ended our day at the Oxbow dam.  We stayed at an Idaho Power park, with plenty of camping for RV's and tents, and nice restrooms and showers, all for $10.  We were close to the river too - I decided to take a quick dip while Mel cooled her feet in it.  We got to watch a doe and two baby deer drinking from the river and eating near it, just downstream.  Pretty neat.

And I think we had an illegal campfire, oops.  I think there is a burn ban in effect, we had some leftover firewood at our site, so we enjoyed a little campfire before turning in.  It was difficult to sleep because it was so hot, and it sprinkled on us off and on all night.  

Day 69 - August 11, 2013 - Council, ID to Cambridge, ID

Miles - 14

Total mileage - 1,847

We got a very late start at the B&B this morning!  Our room was so cozy, and then Debra made us a fabulous breakfast of sausage, scrambled eggs from her chickens, toast, fried potatoes, and coffee.  Roma and Debra's friend John who was going to help her pick up hay later in the morning joined us for breakfast.  Sage the Weimaraner let me cuddle her while breakfast was being prepared - she is such a sweetie!!

We didn't leave the B&B until around 11. We knew we were going to make this a short day, after getting a late start, and knowing that after the first 14 miles, we had a steady climb of 12 or so miles.  Ugh.  So 3 miles in, we were already stopping for a drink and ice cream!

It was mostly downhill to Cambridge - we checked in to a motel so we could work on some laundry, grabbed lunch at the one cafe that was open on Sunday, did some blogging and other random things, grabbed dinner at the same cafe, and are now relaxing before falling asleep and hopefully getting an early start tomorrow!

We have reached the point in the trip where we have to start thinking about what our next steps are after we get to the West Coast...pretty unbelievable actually how fast time has flown by.  We have no idea how to get from Florence, OR to a more major metropolis yet, and eventually to Seattle (biking is probably out, lol).  Everything is all up in the air now, but we will iron it all out!

For now, sleep.  Goodnight all :)

Day 68 - August 10, 2013 - New Meadows, ID to Council, ID

Miles - 38

Total miles - 1,833

The smoke and haze has really been messing with our ability to wake up early. It looks much earlier than it is lately, so we were surprised to look and find it was 8 a.m. when we woke up at the campsite in New Meadows. We started to pack and get ready to leave when our kind camping neighbors, the Webers, brought us some coffee made in their spiffy RV. They were such kind people and we really enjoyed talking with them! It's such a blessing to meet kind folks throughout our journey. 

We got out on the road and stopped in at the A&W in town for a brunch that was more of a lunch. 

Today's ride was a lot of uphill and downhill, with some really nice downhills for the most part. We rode through the town of Tamarack, where there was a giant logging facility...and might be the only reason the town even exists.

 There were decent roads today and the traffic was pretty light, which we always appreciate, especially in the mountain passes with small roads.

 When we rolled into the town of Council, we were really looking forward to a night at an amazing bed and breakfast that Jaune S. had sponsored for us...a million thanks will never be enough to you, Jaune! We had such a great night and enjoyed our stay at the Elkhorn Bed and Breakfast so much! 

But, in order to get to the bed and breakfast, we had a gnarly 2 mile, curvy hill that really tested us. It was one of those gradual hills that seems to never end. I kept watching the cars go by just to make sure that there was an end to the hill! 

When we reached the B&B, we were greeted by the goats, who were half scared and half curious about what were doing. Soon, the owner Deborah and Roma pulled in and helped us get settled in. Deborah was kind enough to let us borrow her Mercedes Benz to drive to find food at the local cafe, where we ate salad, a BLT, and some strawberry shortcake, all under the watch of a very interesting portrait of Johnny Cash. 

When we got back to the B&B, we watched the goats "mow the lawn" and played with the dogs...a pretty awesome evening for us. We even got treated to an amazing massage! What a great way to end the day!