Diary

Mileage:  84.46 miles (136.82 kms)

Elevation Change:  4888 feet (1490 meters)

Weather:  perfect: sunny, warm, clear

Morale: shakey at the start, strong at the finish

Incidents:  camera out of batteries

Daily Summary:

What a day.  We all woke up very tired.  Wake up was 5:30 for a 5:45 load up and 6:00 breakfast.  We rode the bike to breakfast and it wouldn’t shift!  We had replaced the kickstand bolt last night as the other one was stripped, and inadvertently pinched the derailleur cable.  An easy fix, but aggravating none the less.  The ride today was tough, mostly because we are so tired.  Three big climbs.  On the first one, we had morale problems, dissension in the ranks, and weren’t working well together, so it was really hard.  Near the top was a nice photo op, but we discovered the camera was out of batteries.  (Too tired to think of charging it last night!)  Sigh.  So no pix today.  Maybe I can get some from someone else and post them later.  (Lots of people take our picture, after all!)  Our morale improved on the way down, so we did much better on the second and third climbs.  At the bottom of climb three, we had 30 miles to go.  It was downhill, but we had a strong headwind, so we really had to grind it out.  But we were perky enough to go to the pool when we got in, which we haven’t been doing due to fatigue.    But then I wasted a whole precious hour with the help line trying to get on the internet.  Tomorrow we have long descent into the Snake River Valley, so the day should be easier. 

 

The area here is beautiful.  A very big gold mining area, it has ghost towns and an old steam railway, and lots of history.  Baker City is the largest town we have seen since we left Astoria.  It’s amazing how remote this part of the country is.  We were talking to the waitress in a café in the hinterland, who was lamenting that she now had 4 neighbors on her mile long road as opposed to just one.  Wow.   All is well here!