Well that was an interesting night for sure! I slept in the shack "out back." On my way to the shack to go to bed, I saw a large feral cat. That sprang my imagination into high speed. Hmm I wonder why it ran under the shack? Will birds and snakes crawl into my shack? Oh bother! When I finally went to sleep, I slept well. No creatures visited in the night. Monday morning. Up bright and early! Lauran gave me a gentle reminder to wake up. As she had already perked a pot of coffee, I was eager to get up and get going. We all bustled about the place packing and preparing for today's climb; almost identical to yesterday's trajectory. Today we hoped to get started an hour earlier to avoid the predicted high heat. We might make all 58 miles if we planned it right. Donning some very strange looking duck billed visors, we set off into the rising sun. What a fantastic morning. Flying up over hills and down the other side on Hells Canyon Rd. I got a great view of an Elk standin...
Early to bed, early to rise is key when trying to beat the extreme heat of the day here, which begins searing down upon us as soon as 8:30 am. With Lesli, our confident sag wagon driver, singer / song writer and chef extraordinaire, at the wheel, we took off promptly at 6:30 am from Barnes Butte Bungalow, a funky cool Airbnb house in Prineville, OR. The group decided the previous evening it would be prudent to drive the 5-ish miles to Ochoco Lake at the eastern base of Ochoco National Forest to avoid riding on the no-shoulder, heavy truck-trafficked road those first few miles. Good decision! A crescent moon nestled against a stunning bluebird sky above made for a dramatic backdrop as we began pedaling at 7 am sharp bundled up against the cool morning air. Today would be a long climbing day, which most of the riding group embraced with a twisted sense of glee. Having trained at sea level for this epic adventure, let’s just say that I’m a wee bit less enthusiastic when it comes to unrele...
Today we had a lovely ride out on country roads, no shoulder, but almost no traffic. The hills were challenging. The inclines steep. In one place there was a 9% grade. Did I mention that we climbed really steep hills today? We were, of course, rewarded with lovely and quite fast descents! So today I was thinking about signs, signals and omens. The picture above shows a sign that tomorrow really is the first day of Fall. People in upstate NY believe that the amount of brown on a wooly bear signals the temperatures of the upcoming winter. I guess that maybe the wooly bears are not in agreement this year. Lisa and I agreed that this sign was an omen about the amount of truck traffic on Salem Road today. We only needed to jump off the road twice! This usually means that Lisa is about to be bitten or stung by an insect. Today it meant that she was about to take a photo. Churches signal that a village is just around the b...
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