Jim here,
Well this is my first post in a week and I must apologize for being a bit late and with my aging memory some of this will be augmented from Mimis' posts. The first day we went a little long and though I was reluctant to do so it turned out to be a good decision as the next day turned out to be a long uphill with chip truck drivers trying to take us out by driving within inches and seeing if we would crack and fall into the wheels, good to say we won that battle of wills and survived to go into Sisters Oregon. In sisters we called a number on the map and went to a very friendly woman's ranch. She allowed us to take showers in her home and camp on a very nice green patch near a pond overlooking the snow capped mountains. And if that were not enough we were awakened to fresh coffee and banana nut bread, homemade no less!
That morning we left sisters and rode into the threatening skies toward Prineville. It rained, giving us the opportunity to test our rain gear, and our resolve. Both it turns out were in pretty good shape, we found a library in Prineville and stayed warm and dry while Mimi and Fred got on the Internet and unlike me updated their email and facebook and blog site business. I just vegged out and stayed warm and charged my phone.
We went on 10 or so miles to a county park campground that had showers and nice grassy spots perfect for setting up tents, but were instructed that we could set up anywhere on our site EXCEPT where the grass was green!?? But the shower room was so warm that we went there often to warm up and get out of the rain and cold.
The next day we went from that camp ground, in sunny weather thank heaven, up over one pass, Ochco, and DOWN hill to a small town called Mitchell Oregon. This town was the center of bad luck in history it seems with fires and floods. But the people there rebuilt, it seems time is standing still there though with board and batten construction and people that were a little strange. We left there and climbed up another pass and then downhill for 30 or so miles to Dayville where we stayed in a church that welcomed bikers. we once again had showers and slept inside on the floor of the sanctuary with another young man biking around the west.
The next day we left Dayville and rode through Mount Vernon , John Day (lunch), and on to Prairie City, where we began our climb up Dixie Pass by far the worst of the climbs so far and ended being the lone campers in a forest service campground. Here we (well actually Fred and Mimi) found markings that even I could tell were bear prints all the outside of the pit toilets. I will admit at this point I was ready to find alternate accommodations but we were a long way from anywhere and it was late. Fred and Mimi were not too alarmed as the had seen bears and signs of bears many time on the Pacific Crest Trail. I moved my tent closer to theirs and we circled the bikes around the tents (in hopes of tripping any roaming bears). I figured on a sleepless night and went in and lay down and fell asleep almost immediately. I guess tired trumps fear.
We got up and climbed two more passes and rode 59 miles into Baker City and to the motel where I am writing this blog entry. It is hot now and we will go only 40 miles as a "rest" day. I hope to enter pictures if I can figure out how, that will be something to do tonight. There is more to tell but I need to get moving before checkout time.
