Monday May 23, 2001

The Big One

Day: 4
Location:  Redmond, OR - Mount Vernon, OR
Miles: 130
Total:440

My Journal entry from today was brief to say the least. After miscalculating my finish point, I spent the last two hours of the day struggling to get another 20 miles under my belt which would all together lead to what would for a while be my biggest day on the trip. Early today, I had tackled two passes. The first comprised of a pleasant climb through a beautiful forest followed by a ridiculously long downhill into a dessert sprinkled with mesas. The second would have been a significantly less enjoyable climb if it hadn't been for the motivational messages, directed at cyclists, that had been spray painted in its shoulder. Little things like this really give you a boost when you've spent so much time alone, and I was delighted to read things like "piece of cake!" every half mile or so.  

Curiously enough, while flying down the first descent, I rode by one of the most bizarre things on my entire ride. There, on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, was a tree that was covered in hundreds of shoes!  

The ride down from the second pass was beautiful and reminded me a lot of the scenery in southern Utah. I spent most of my time getting video there so I don't have many pictures but it was fantastic to zip down through dessert canyons while riding along side a beautiful river.

 Now the reason I had made the extra effort to ride those last 20 miles today was because "The Bike Inn" was listed on my maps in Mt. Vernon, the next town over. I had no idea what to expect there, but boy was it great! When I rolled up the drive way, Cristie, the owner, was gardening and jumped with excitement when she saw me! She explained that I was their first cyclist this year and quickly ushered me into their guest room. I couldn't have been more satisfied with anything else. The modest room was so homey and welcoming! It even had a kitchen and a wall of VHS tapes to watch. I however was beat, and crashed on the futon. The Bike Inn is truly a terrific and special place! Thanks Cristie and Auna! 

Sunday May 22, 2011

 Crossing the Cascades!

Day: 3
Location: Leaburg, OR - Redmond, OR
Miles: 107
Total: 310

 Today marked the day that I tackled my first real set of mountains. I started of the day really well and was at the base of my climb by 11am after finishing an awesome breakfast which also happened to mark my first encounter with biscuits and gravy. Boy do they love their biscuits and gravy out west... Anywho, the climb was slow but satisfying and I altogether quite pleasant as I slowly spun up the Sierra Cascades. The most direct route was snowed over, so I had to instead take an alternate that tacked on an additional 20 or so miles to my route. Along the way I met the first other transamerican cyclist (also an eastbound-er) of my trip at a beautiful waterfall that I stopped to take a look at. After sharing some of my water and food with him I took off once more. Along the way a truck pulled over and out came the owner of Chief's, the restaurant I had eaten at in Coburg, with a smiling face excited that he had run into me. The funny thing about crossing the Cascades is that their summit is literally the boundary between two different worlds. The west side of the range sees about 100 inches of rain annually, while the east sees about 7. It was surreal to be climbing in a frosty mist over snow capped mountains at one point and then to find myself bombing down those same mountains into an arid high dessert only minuets later. On the other side of the range, I pulled into Sisters, a town named after "The Three Sisters" (a series of gorgeous mountains that rule its horizon). At this point I was still feeling good; so, I decided to make today another big day and rode all the way to Redmond where I indulged in a motel.

Lava Flows to the left

The Three Sisters