Left the schoolhouse bike hostel and headed out into the eastern Oregon prairie yesterday morning
Met a group of eastbounders, two of whom were from Troy, Ohio… Buckeyes are well represented on the Transamerica this year
There was a roadside stop where you could see the ruts made by the wagons on the Oregon trail… But forgot to take a picture. There was also a Oregon trail museum, but it was like 500 feet up switchbacks, so I skipped it
The nice thing about doing this route again is that I can verify my memory of different places. For example, yes, that hill east of Richland, Oregon really is as brutal as I remember
Despite the oppressive heat (someone told me it was 104 when I rolled into the campground), I still managed to pedal 72 miles yesterday – mostly because I got around two feet down for every foot up. But man, that Richland hill was pretty rough in the heat
At the campground I met a guy who was touring around on a scooter. He said he was training for a race called the scooter cannonball. He had like 1/4 the gear I have, cuz it turns out you can’t pack too much weight on a scooter
Got an early start this morning because I had another big climb – about 2400 feet. Strangely, I didn’t remember anything about this climb. It was steeper and longer than yesterday’s – I think it took me an hour and a half to go five miles. Thankfully, there was some cloud cover to veil me from the angry orb in the sky – it even rained a bit, which was a nice change
Stopped at a grocery store/cafe with a large “No politics” sign on the door, directly above a “Trump 2024” sign. Again, forgot to take a picture
I picked up the Weiser River bike path from Cambridge to Council – about 16 miles. It was nice to be out of the traffic, but the gravel trail really slowed me down, which isn’t ideal for the end of the day
Saw a black bear on the trail – I think it was a small adult, but could have been a large cub, which made me nervous since we surprised each other at a distance of about 15 feet. I made a lot of noise, and was not mauled, so that’s good.. But also, no pictures
Managed to eke out 62 miles, which doesn’t sound like much until you consider my average speed was 7.9, meaning I spent almost 8 hours in the saddle today. Oof.
Had some really good pizza and beer for dinner, and now I’m in my tent, about to pass out
