Day 108, to Sisters: A stop at Smith Rock amid an easy ride

August 8, 2022

This view at Smith Rock State Park shows a medium-dark brown vertical protrusion of rock standing out from a lighter beige wall of rock that wraps around and looms behind it. In front of all this, a blue stream snakes through this view from left to right.

Monday stats

Start: Crook County RV Park, Prineville, Ore.

End: Sisters Creekside Campground, Sisters, Ore.

The Daily Progress: 50.9 miles

Cumulative climb: 1364 feet. Already we can see less climbing required as we continue west.

Cumulative descent: 1036

Elevation at endpoint: 3204

Ice cream flavors: Like yesterday, we decided we needed a cold treat as soon as we reached town, but it was mid-afternoon and very hot. I probably just needed ice water, but we went for smoothies. Peach for me, huckleberry for Dani.

Beer flavors: Pfrier's Helles lager for me (very good!) and a hazy IPA for Dani, who's not a huge beer drinker and prefers sour beers, but in the absence of sours says she'll often go for an IPA because "I want my beer to taste like something. IPAs taste like soap, but that's something."

Lodging expenses: $10 for a campsite ($5 per person), plus $4 for showers.

Food expenses: $20 for breakfast? at the Prineville Coffee House, $15 for smoothies, $42 for dinner at Boone Dog pizza at the Barn food truck place, $15 for beers, $20? for groceries. I haven't included any food photos in a long time, and tonight's was pretty tasty and photogenic, so here is my poorly composed photo of dinner:

Two pizzas, one cheese and one margherita, sit on a black table awaiting consu— oh, the pizza in front of Dani is missing a slice because it was too delicious and/or its purchasers were too hungry. There is also a good-looking, almost sparkling salad, thanks to its vinaigrette. And of course, two amber glasses of beer.

Monday mood

Today was another fine day of bike touring. The ride itself was actually quite easy after so many days being defined by climbing over a mountain or occasionally even two. At this point, I think it's fair to say, without fear of sounding overconfident, that we got this. We've done all the hard parts. We have one more climb to do tomorrow (which does not even appear to be an especially big one), and it's pretty smooth sailing after that.

We have only about nine days' worth of riding left before we reach our final destination of Portland (by way of Astoria. Our route is a bit of a clockwise spiral going west toward Eugene, then north to Fort Stevens and Astoria, and then southeast to Portland).

During today's ride, I think I've started to accept that the tour is winding down. When we left the Spoke'n Hostel in Mitchell yesterday morning, another cyclist named Julie, whom we first met at Bates State Park and saw again in Mitchell, wished me good luck with readjusting to post-tour life when this is over. It was a wise wish to make.

I thought too much about work today doing something that I often do when riding all day with nothing in particular on my mind: I was making up lyrics for a parody version of a song. In today's example, I came up with a verse parodying Don McLean's "American Pie" involving "the day democracy died." I think this little outlet helped me accept that the return to the office is coming and it might actually be fun; I'm lucky enough to be able to say that work often is fun.

Of course, it probably won't be as much fun as bike touring, but I think the tour has reached the point for me when I know there's not much left to do here. We've gotten stronger. We've overcome several challenges. We fixed another flat tire today as if it were as simple as putting on our socks. We rode 50 miles and thought to ourselves that we really could have gone another ten, maybe even twenty, but it was very hot and we're not in a rush, so why force it? Instead, I'll try to savor it. And I think I'll be ready when it's time to return to the real world.

Dani's daily digest

Overnight we discovered our campsite had two more -- ahem -- features. The first was that the dump station was equipped with a bright, white light that blazed all night. I draped a towel over the tent to shield my eyes; Chris wore his COVID mask like an eye mask. The second surprise erupted at 6 am -- sprinklers! We were halfway packed when they came on, instigating a frenzied effort to move our belongings to the shelter of the pavilion.

We are both feeling burnt out on Clif bars for breakfast, so we had planned last night to stop at the Prineville Coffee Company for breakfast and coffee. It slowed us down, but it was a nice treat.

Today's ride was easy -- 48 basically flat miles between campsites.

Our first stop of the day was Smith Rock State Park. It was a small detour from the route and one that I might have skipped, but Chris wanted to stop there so we did and I am glad. We snacked on the rim, looking down at the river and up at the towering rock that rises from the valley floor. Smith Rock is known for its golden eagles and we MIGHT have seen one or several in a kettle of raptors but they disappeared before we could make a positive ID.

As we passed through the town of Terrebonne, we made a small detour to see if the business called "Terrabone [sic] Alpaca Petting" was open. Google said it was temporarily closed, but Google's been wrong before and we were willing to invest 200 yards of riding to find out for sure. Alas, it seems that Terrabone Alpaca Petting is permanently closed; we could find no sign of the establishment.

Then a few miles down the road -- lo & behold! -- fields and fields of alpaca! They approached me curiously but did not take me up on my proffered hand for pets. That's ok. I petted them with my eyes and my heart, if not my hands.

Leaning over the fence (which is not visible), Dani snapped this selfie with a pack o' alpaca, some white and some black and some brown but all cute and fuzzy, standing in the lush grass behind her. One white alpaca is even looking at the camera and seeming to smile.

Pretty soon we were five miles from Sisters and Chris must have been feeling like the day was going too smoothly so he ran over a piece of glass and gave himself a flat tire, which he patched in record time.

Upon reaching Sisters, our immediate goal was something cold and delicious. Chris chose smoothies over ice cream for the second day in a row! They were not quite as good as yesterday's, but still very good. We popped into a thrift store but didn't buy anything, then stopped at a produce stand and bought some outstanding peaches and cherries.

Next, we pitched camp in the hiker/biker area of the Creekside Campground. It costs five bucks per person (plus 50 cents a minute for water in the showers), and no one cares if you hang up a clothesline and we don't think we will be doused by sprinklers in the morning so we love it here.

Finally, we returned to town for beer and woodfired pizza at The Barn. It was a similar concept to last night's dinner spot -- a permanent bar with an extensive outdoor space and a handful of food trucks around the perimeter.

The only thing left to do today is to convince Chris to invent a dance to Daft Punk's One More Time so we can use it to celebrate One More Climb tomorrow.

Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 4,054 miles (6,524 km)

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