It’s a beautiful morning here on the Indian reservation (see photo at left from my patio), a bit cool (60 degrees) in the shade but quite warm in the sun. Our schedule is a little different today; instead of loading the luggage starting at 5:45 a.m., today it’s at 7:30. They want us to take it easy today to save up for tomorrow, which is possibly the most difficult ride of the entire tour. But how will we take it easy when almost all of the first 45 miles is uphill?
I read in another rider’s blog that we’re already over the cascades! Gee, and I only used my granny gear for a short time yesterday. (For non-cyclists: My bicycle has 30 gear combinations, made possible by 10 gears in the rear and 3 in the front. The lowest gear up front is called the granny gear, “a gear so low my granny can climb this hill”.)
I talked to Anne “coast-to-coast mommy” at breakfast and her knee is so swollen she’s not riding today.
After the second rest stop yesterday, the shoulder on highway 26 got quite narrow and we soon learned that the drivers give us no slack. Even when nothing is coming in the opposite direction, they don’t move over an inch. A large RV came so close to me (downhill; I was going 30) it felt like I was being sucked into his wheel. We turned off 26 to go to the Kah-Nee-Ta reservation and found light traffic, but chipped seal roads. Much of this morning’s ride, when not on 26, was on good roads with not too much traffic. After the town of Madras, we turned south on 26 and it became much more of a country road – a deserted road except for traffic – no buildings in site for 30 miles. This is what I expected crossing the country. (Photo to right)
We’re in Prineville tonight. 25 miles SSE of here is the geographic center of Oregon. So tomorrow we’ll leave central Oregon and be in the eastern part. Friends Gary & Rita say the eastern part is very beautiful.
I guess I didn’t “take it easy” as we were supposed to today; I was the 6th person at the hotel.
Day 4, 60 miles, 2,674 feet climbing, 4.6 hours
303 miles so far, 3,360 miles to go, 46 days to go
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