Day 87, John Day to Mitchell, Oregon.

First of all I want to apologize for the quality of these pictures. It was over cast all day, and I did not have time to edit any of them. I loaded them onto the hard drive straight from the memory card and re sized them for this blog. Any way, this is a shot coming down from my brief detour to the fossil bed.
At the top of the thirty mile climb looking back. We came through that gap over there.

It's hard to see, but this rock formation stood out like, like, well, like something weird.

This was the sight I saw on my diversion on highway 19. Pretty cool huh?

We rode through that narrow gap in Picture Canyon.

Another shot from above the route on my way down from the detour.

Green pastures in a dry desert like place. That's because they water the darn thing.

I didn't make it to the fossil bed, so I took a picture of this instead.

Everybody needs a break sometime. Today we met up with a bunch of young riders all headed to Florence. We had a group of 21 at one point.

I really liked the way they worded this sign.

At the grocery store picking up snacks and stuff before heading out.

We ate dinner here at the Little Pine Cafe.

I've never seen a tandem three wheeler recumbent before. Have you?

Entering the town of Mitchell.

We stopped to figure out how much further a 30 mile climb can be after 20 miles.
You might have to click on this picture, but those are shoes hanging from this tree. hundreds of them.

A deceiving deception. It looked like we were going down hill, but we were still climbing. I could tell because I was in my middle ring and when IO stopped pedaling, I quit moving forward.

If you click on this image, you can see some of the amazing rock formations on the hill.

The whole canyon was just plain awesome. i could have spent a whole day there just checking it out.

Cars were very courteous when driving through these canyons. We never had a problem all day.

The stream runs lazily along the bottom of the canyon as it makes it's way to the John
Day River.

You just got to be here to really appreciate the beauty of this place.

I don't know what5 happened here, but it looked interesting to me, so I took it.

A farmer harvesting his field. Looks like hay, but to me, everything looks like hay.

More mid Oregon scenery.

Leaving John Day this morning.

Now this is cool. I took this shot as we were leaving John Day at a lumber plant. I think they were building a display or something.


Day 87, John Day to Mitchell, Oregon. “Cool Over Cast Day”. 72.02 miles. Total= 4,133.86 miles.

Thursday, August 6, 2009. The town of John Day would have been a great place to have spent a rest day. There are fossil beds in the surrounding area, and some of the neatest rock formations I have seen yet..

It was over cast this morning with the chance of thunder showers looming in the mist. It was very cool, bordering cold, and we dressed accordingly. After a healthy breakfast at a diner across the street from our motel, we were on our way. We stopped at a grocery store on the way out to pick up some snacks for the road since there would be no services today, other than the next town which was only seven miles away. The Adventure Cycling group showed up while we were inside, and we ended up riding together through out the day. The sun never came out once, and the road ahead looked like rain may be in store for us at one point. I do what I always do. I thank God for everything, good and bad, because I believe He is in control, and allows things to happen accordingly. Then I asked if He could hold back the rain. If it is within His Will that is, and left it at that. If it did rain, I was prepared. I did have my rain jacket handy, and I knew that at one point or another I would be riding in the rain. We’ve done so in the past, and although it was unpleasant, we survived.

I took a slight detour and decided to go up to this view point that over looked a fossil bed. I didn’t realize though that it would be quite a bit out of my way, and up a really steep climb. After a quarter of a mile or so, I gave up, it just wasn’t worth it at this point. Since I was up there, I took a few pictures of the valley below, and made my way back on route. Lisa had gone ahead since she wouldn’t know how long I would be gone. I followed our planned route, and entered Picture Canyon. This place is amazing. I was mesmerized. I found myself stopping at almost every turn to gaze in amazement and take pictures. I must have spend almost an hour just going the two and a half miles through there.

At the end of the canyon, the road forked. Highway 19 to the right, and our highway 26 route to the left. I was curious to see what was around the corner on 19. So I crossed the bridge, and rode on just so I could get a glimpse of what was on the other side. There was an Information Center describing the fossil beds, and a great view of some of the rock formations this place is known for. I then turned around to go back, where I met Chris. One of the Adventure Cycling riders who we have been seeing on a regular basis for the past couple of weeks. We stopped and talked a while and took more pictures. I we then decided to ride together, since I didn’t have a map, and didn’t know where the hell I was going. As we rode along, I stopped occasionally to take more pictures, Even though the sun was not out, the scenery was just too good to pass up. Almost immediately, the 30 mile climb we’ve heard about began. A gradual climb, so not like we were killing ourselves. And the cool temperature almost made it a piece of cake, if there is such a thing.

The rest of the day was spent climbing. We were averaging between 5 to 6 miles an hour, so it took some time to reach the top. But let me tell you, once there, it was “Hold on to the handle bars and don’t blink!” for the next seven miles. Lisa was waiting for me at the entrance to Mitchell. The town we would be staying at tonight. Mitchell is a small town with a population of only 160. This means one store, one gas station, one hotel, and one bar.

Tonight we are staying at “The Oregon Hotel” in down town Mitchell. It’s an old rustic wooden structure with charming accents. A real nice place. Tomorrow our destination is Redman. About 70 miles from here. Thank you all for your continual support. We are almost there, and can not wait to be back home again. Aloha, Ted.

Day 86, Baker City to John Day, Oregon.

This painting was really impressive. I just had to take this picture.

I shot his on one of the descents.

The terrain and views are getting better. This is more of what I envisioned Oregon to look like.

All the valleys seem to have large meadows with streams running through them.

Some were drier than others, but they almost all look the same.

We stopped at this rail road station that is now a museum. It was closed, but we got to walk around and by ice cold soda.

This is the Sumptner Rail Road. I think that's how you spell it.

Yeah right, we never seen any of these.

This is the lower part of the forest. As we got higher, the trees got bigger.

A nice place to camp, don't you think?

Check this out. One eagle actually landed on top of another one.

Heading out of Baker City just before the climbs.

I think this is a house. It almost looks like a barn.


This is how we knew about the train station thing.

That's the man made lake from the dam.

We ate dinner in this Mexican restaurant made from an old train car.

More mountains and meadows.

I took so many pictures today, I just didn't know which ones to post,

How cool, a log cabin barn.

Leaving Baker City this morning.

There's that lake again.

And there it is again.

This eagle was making a nest on that telephone pole. It flew away when I tried to get closer for a better shot. That's the one that was on the bottom of the two.

If you click on this picture, you can see all the bones and stuff on the side of the barn.

I bet you could rent this place for cheap.

Welcome to Baker City.

Baker City Hall.

Another red barn.


Day 86, Baker City to John Day, Oregon. “Out of Hell’s Canyon”. 84.48 miles. Total = 4,061.84 miles.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009. Our rest day in Baker City was a welcome relief from the previous day’s hell ride. We really appreciated the day off.

This morning we woke up refreshed after a good night’s sleep. With in a half hour of getting up, the power went out, and we were left in the dark. Not exactly, it was light enough to see, and the hallway had emergency light. But no lights in the room, and, no Internet. Even the breakfast room wouldn’t be in operation for obvious reasons. We hung tight, wondering how long before the power would be back on. In the mean time, we packed our stuff, and as luck would have it, the power came back on, but still no wifi. This is when I found out I had a flat tire. Luckily it held after re-inflating it. So we were good.

Before heading out, we stopped at the Mini-Mart to stock up on snacks since we did not expect any services for the first 70 miles. I grabbed two 32 oz. bottles of Power Ade, and filled my Camelbak with ice. I then filled the two Power Ade bottles with water, along with my other three water bottles. There, that should do it. I then picked up some energy bars, and a couple bottles of Power Shot. We knew we had three big passes to climb today. Each one over a thousand feet, and one of them would be quite steep, and take use over 5,200 feet. As we left Baker City, we enjoyed the bike friendliness of this town. Drivers would stop and allow us the right of way, even in heavy traffic. All we needed to do was signal a turn, or look their way, and they would signal us to go.

Once out of town, we took highway 7 headed south. The Adventure Cycling folks were leaving about the same time, and we met some of them on the road. The first climb came after about 15 miles of fairly flat road that followed a small stream through the valley. Even though we were headed up stream, the climb was so gradual, that we almost didn’t notice it. However, once the real climb kicked in, things changed. Lisa heard a hissing sound coming from her rear. Wheel that is. And stopped to see what it was. At first, we couldn’t tell where it was coming from, so I pumped it back up, and we were again on our way. No sooner than getting up to speed, the hissing sound again caused Lisa to stop. This time we decided to take the wheel off and find what the problem was. It turned out to be a hole in the tire that we had patched way back in Virginia that had finally wore through, allowing the tube to be exposed. We replaced the tire with the last spare we had, and put in a new tube.

As we made our way up the narrow valley leading to the pass, the terrain changed from dry, arid, almost desert like conditions. To forested and green mountains. The temperature was much more pleasant that it was a couple of days ago. Once over the top, it was the usual long, winding descent down into the next valley. There are national Forest Preserves with camp grounds and recreation areas. Man made lakes formed by dams are a great place for boating, fishing, and just plain lazing around.

The next climb was a little longer and harder than the first. But still manageable. In fact, because of the pleasant conditions, I don’t think we stopped but once on the way up. We did have to stop at a road construction site where a road woman was directing traffic. She told us the wait would be about 20 minutes. We figured this would be a good time to use their porta potti. When it was time to go, she usher4ed us to the front, and made all the cars follow us. We felt like we were in a parade. Once over the top, repeat the same long down hill descent. As always, the last climb is always the steepest, the longest, and the hardest. Lisa said to go on ahead, as she would be stopping now and then. I proceeded up the climb. Boy, this thing was long. About midway, there was a bridge construction. By then all the workers went home, but there was a stop light. And it was red. I waited there for about ten minutes, but it stayed red. I’m guessing either the infrared eye, or whatever they use to detect the presence of vehicles did not recognize me as anything important. I was afraid to go, since it was up hill, and very narrow, and I couldn’t see if any vehicles were coming the other way. Finally a car pulled up and the light turned green. I motioned for the car to go, and then followed him. It was still a long way from the top. I stopped on occasions to drink water and take pictures. Near the top, highway 7 intersects with highway 28. 28 goes east to west. The sign said: John Day 28 miles. After about a mile more of climbing, I was over the top. Repeat again the long winding descent. This time it took me all the way down into the town of Prairie City. I saw the Adventure Cycling group at a café, but didn’t stop cause it looked a bit congested. I continues through town till I found a neat little dinner with no cars in the parking lot. I stopped, went in, and ordered a cheese burger with fries and a large coke. I sat facing the road so I could see when Lisa came. After my meal, I went out side and sat down on a bench in front of the City Building next door. Shortly after that, Lisa came riding in. I flagged her down, and asked if she wanted to eat anything. She was okay, and wanted to continue on to John Day. I saddled up my horse, I mean bike, and we were on our way. We did the last 13 miles in 45 minutes. That’s 16.25 miles an hour. I found out later that Lisa had taken one of those 5 hour energy drinks and was bouncing off the walls. Maybe she should drink that stuff more often. We could really cover some mileage.

Anyway, tonight we are at America’s Best Value Inn. We got the last available room. All the other places were full because there are several wild fires in the area, and all the fire fighters took all the rooms. Thank you again all you good people for all the support. You are the greatest. Aloha, Ted.