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