I made it! TransAmerica. 4400 miles. 10 states. 3 months. 4 flats (all faulty tubes/valves, the Schwalbes didn't puncture). More peanut butter and jelly sandwiches than I could count. More water than I thought possible to drink. Many gallons of ice cream and milkshakes. Truck loads of Pepsi, Coke, Dr Pepper. From sea level to 10500ft and a whole lot of up and down between. Headwind, tailwind all kinds of wind. Cold that nearly froze my fingers off and heat that nearly cooked the water in my bottles. Parched dusty brush to lush pasture and dense forest. So many friendly and generous people. A lifetime of memories. We did it!
No showers at the Sisters City Park but the sprinklers were a good substitute. Any passers-by must have had a chuckle at the sight of a bunch of old guys running around in the sprinklers. Now I know why Gondor, one of my alpacas, loves standing in the sprays, it was great! Here's Bill doing his rain dance.
It was a leisurely 43 mile ride from Prineville to Sisters today. It is amazing what irrigation can do in this hot, dusty and seemingly arid landscape. Near Sisters (the conical peaks on the horizon) the landscape starts changing. Looks like we'll be back in the mountains and forests tomorrow.
After having milkshakes when we got to Prinville, it was farewell to Ingo, my roommate and riding partner. He leaves the group now to ride north to Portland to meet up with his wife, Gudrun, who is flying out from Germany to cycle down the East coast with him. They will meet us in Florence.
27 July. Entering Picture Gorge. This dramatic gorge was eroded by the river through the layers of basalt that poured out at about 8000 year intervals about 16 million years ago. The name comes from the American Indian pictographs that were found on the walls of the gorge. This was the start of a 26 mile climb to the summit of Keys Creek Pass followed by a sweet downhill to Mitchell.
27 July. We were on the road at 6am to get some of today's 84 miles done before the heat. After breakfast in John Day, we stocked up with extra water in Dayville for the hot 39 miles to Mitchell without services along the way. This is Dayville Mercantile that was established over a hundred years ago.
It's Sunday and we couldn't get groceries here so we had an excellent dinner at the Oxbow. What's with the American obsession with hunting? I guess the taxidermists make a good living.
After the barren landscape the past few days, it felt good to be in the pine forests again. This was on one of three 5000+ft summits we had to cross today.
The welcome sight of the irrigated valley at Baker City. It wasn't as hot today due to the cool wind. The fact that it was a headwind didn't seem so bad!
I thought the engineers had run out of ideas or funds with the old road we were on next to the river. Turns out it was a massive landslide that blocked the road and made the high detour necessary.
After dropping down into the valley through 27 switchbacks on the old pass, we stopped for a second breakfast in White Bird and got the best deal we've had all summer: $2.95 breakfast and 25c coffee!
Since Missoula we've been following rivers though narrow forested valleys. This closely follows the route of the 1805 Lewis & Clark expedition and the later flight of the Nez Perce. First was Lolo Creek then Lochsa River which grew wider through yesterday's ride and joined the Middle Fork Clearwater River at Lowell.
In Missoula, MT we stopped by Adventure Cycling's offices....free ice cream and cold drinks and to have our portraits taken for the archives. We got a tour of memorabilia from the bikecentenial in 1976 and the early days of Adventure Cycling. On our layover day today we were treated by the staff to a BBQ.
