4,000 miles!

STATS:

Dayville, Oregon to Mitchell, Oregon

Distance: 38 miles

Elevation: +3,218 ft / -2,789 ft

Once I placed the oscillating fan 4 feet from my face, I finally was able to cool off from the heat of the church. I don’t remember waking back up until about 5:30 AM, which was perfect timing because I wanted to wake up and cook pancakes and eggs for the crew. I packed up my sleeping bag and pad, and began putting together breakfast as everyone organized their gear. Two by two the pancakes and eggs went out, and eventually everyone had their share of some lovely food the church offered us to share. We wished to start early again today because the temp was approaching 100 degrees in the afternoon. By 7:45 AM we hit the road, and slowly but surely our 30 mile stretch of mostly ascending began. We rolled through much of the same scenery as previous days, which was in a valley of sorts with the John Day river alongside, but today we suddenly approached an amazing canyon. It basically looked like the rock was blasted to make way for a road, but really the river flowed right within the canyon. In some ways it reminded me of Zion National Park, one of my favorite parks in the country. I couldn’t help but geek out over its beauty; I never truly realized how gorgeous eastern Oregon was.

Today our plan was only ride 38 miles, but of that it was 30 miles uphill. We spent most of the afternoon leapfrogging each other as we snacked or rehydrated. The sun was scorching my back enough to cause me to stop for a break from the constant rays. Head, side, and tail winds all occurred throughout the winding of the road, but generally it wasn’t enough to create any issues. After climbing for almost three hours, I checked my app to see how close I was, and it turned out I was only 400 ft from the summit. Very enthused, I rushed to the top and instantly rolled into the descent. I knew I wouldn’t have to pedal until I reached town, so I set myself in my least air resistant position, and aimed to break 40 mph. Alas, I’ve broken the 40 mph mark again by hitting 43.6 mph. Good times, good times.

I rolled into Mitchell and checked off one last milestone for the trip. 4,000 miles. Heck yeah, very happy to see that number pop up. I have more stories in those 4,000 miles than I would have ever imagined. What an incredible adventure this has been.

I sat and ate a sandwich while I watched the crew roll in one by one. We rolled over to Spoke’n Bike Hostel which is literally the Taj Majal of bike hostels. We all have bunk beds with homemade quilts and sheets, hammocks in the backyard, breakfast foods, barbershop, pianos, flip flops, etc. They basically offer everything! We were ecstatic, and all the people going east who told us to stay here were absolutely right about it being tremendous. We showered up and hit the town of Mitchell for lunch. I’ve had a milkshake on my mind since yesterday, and we were told to check out this joint for good food and shakes. NO ICE CREAM. You’ve GOT to be kidding me. Oh well, at least Patrick, the hostel owner, promised us ice cream later, no biggie. I went with the Brynwich, which was a sandwich full of cheese and vegetables. Pretty solid.

Later on, we headed back to our hostel, and I napped on a hammock by the creek for a couple hours. When I walked back in, I saw Wayne and Patrice had made their way to Mitchell! It was great seeing them again. We enjoyed a couple pizza pies and salads for dinner, and readied ourselves for seeing the Painted Hills State Park. Brian, the guy I started the trip with, actually was staying at this hostel as well. We split up back in Kentucky, so it was nice catching up with him about our trip experiences.

Pat then drove our group to the Painted Hills, which by the pictures, you can see how majestic they are. The moon was just showing itself beyond the colorful hills, which lead to some gorgeous pictures. The different layered colors tell how wet the conditions were when the material rested after volcanic explosions over millions of years. Just mind blowing to say the least. We made our way back to the hostel where we were served ice cream. I went with the death by chocolate and mint chocolate chip. Always the perfect ending to an extremely hot day. I organized some belongings and snuggled under the quilt (not the sheets, cause who sleeps under sheets) and instantaneously fell asleep. It’s nice to be in a bed for a change. It may or may not be hard to wake up, but we shall see. Another climb awaits us tomorrow, time for some cheep.

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