Day 11: Union to Baker City

September 16, 2023

I got a somewhat late departure from Union because the restaurant doesn't open until 8 AM. Fortunately the service was fast. On the road at 9 AM. I wanted to start earlier to have a better sun angle on the Blue mountains and have more time in Baker City.

To save time I took photos of downtown Union before the restaurant opened. The early morning sun looked good and there were few parked cars to spoil the view.

The combination Post Office and Masonic lodge is interesting. The ground floor facade had been modernized in a way that doesn't really belong on a historic building.

Post office and Masonic lodge. The post office has unfortunate modernization to the facade.

The 1891 city hall is notable because it's 15 years older than most of the grand brick buildings in northeast Oregon.

The 1911 Union High School building is a more typical age in this area.

Today's ride begins with a big climb to a divide that separates the Grande Ronde river valley from the Powder river valley. The climb has wide open views. The bottom half of the climb is in a fold along a tiny creek that I could occasionally see and hear, but is just a trickle in the desert. The ascent from Union is almost exactly 1000 feet, mostly 3 and 4 percent grade. Several times I thought I was near the summit, but pedaled around a curve and found the road keeps going up.

I pedaled from Union to North Powder in 2006 in the same direction. I remember the big barren climb, and I remember that there were no wind turbines in 2006.

Traffic was light. 1 or 2 cars per minute, so it was easy for vehicles to get around me.

The summit is the divide between the Grande Ronde river valley to the north and the Powder river valley to the south. Both rivers flow out of the Blue mountains. The Grande Ronde river flows into the Snake river just downstream from Hell's Canyon. The Powder river flows into the Snake river just upstream from Hell's Canyon.

Summit view of wind turbines that weren't there when I biked this road in 2006.

At the summit I had the day's first unobstructed view of the Blue Mountains to the west. It's late morning. The sun angle isn't very good and it's getting worse. This is the highest part of the Blue mountains, a sub range known as the Elkhorn mountains. I pedaled across those mountains in 2006, a 4000 foot climb to the Anthony Lake ski area. Today I will stay in the Powder river valley.

The descent to North Powder has good views of the Blue mountains ahead.

The descent to North Powder is only 500 feet, which means that North Powder is 500 feet higher than Union. I'm trending uphill all day today.

I stopped for an early lunch at the cafe in North Powder which has the only services on today's route. I remember eating there in 2006. North Powder is the most depressed and least charming town that I saw during this tour. It's close to an I-84 exit and the main road into the Elkhorn mountains, but it seems to have no tourism or retirement home development and almost no highway services. Just one cafe and small truck stop.

After the lunch stop in North Powder I continued pedaling west towards the Blue Mountains. At the Anthony Lakes highway intersection I turned left, south, to stay in the valley instead of right to climb the mountains.

Today I saw only one major creek. This creek flows out of the Elkhorn mountains.

My route stays close to the Blue/Elkhorn mountains with unobstructed views. Unfortunately I'm mostly looking into the afternoon sun. It would look better in morning sun.

Today a few hostile drivers passed much more closely than necessary. Mostly farm truck drivers who resent the Scenic Bikeway bringing cyclist outsiders to "their" farm roads. Not the usual entitled luxury car drivers or semi-incompetent motor home drivers. I saw few motor homes during this tour. Northeast Oregon is not really a destination for industrial-scale tourism.

I also had occasional open views of the distant Wallowa mountains to the east across the wide valley with a decent sun angle.

Wallowa mountains to the east across the valley.

The route from North Powder to Baker City is mostly gradual uphill and I had a south headwind. Progress was slow. I passed through a small grove of pine trees at the high point which is 3700 feet elevation, about 260 feet higher than Baker City.

The road turns east at the high point. Then a long gradual descent to Baker City with the afternoon sun on my back and views of the distant Wallowa mountains to the northwest.

Coming into Baker City I noticed a tall stone building in a residential neighborhood. I detoured to have a look. The 1912 apartment building is now senior housing.

I continued a few more blocks to downtown and stopped to look at the 1906 St. Francis de Sales Catholic cathedral. The stone building is quite grand, but apparently needs many structural repairs.

1906 St. Francis Cathedral in Baker City.

I arrived in downtown Baker City at 5 PM and spent a few minutes taking pictures before the shadows got too long.

Baker City has a huge inventory of grand brick and stone buildings, mostly built around 1900-1910. Baker City aspired to be an inland metropolis like Spokane is to Washington. But that never happened. Now Baker City has 10,170 people and is merely the 4th largest city in eastern Oregon. Smaller than Pendleton, La Grande, and Ontario.

I like the dense concentration of old buildings and the fact that downtown Baker City is pretty much 100% local businesses. No chain businesses in the downtown area, and not very much chain business sprawl at the I-84 exit. The lack of downtown redevelopment and suburban sprawl makes Baker City seem kind of like a time capsule. The town hasn't changed very much since 1930. Thankfully, I-84 didn't go through the middle of town.

Eltrym Theater has a unique name. This theater is the only Google search result for the word Eltrym which has no meaning and is simply the word Myrtle spelled backwards.

Eltrym theatre. The name is myrtle spelled backwards.

Tonight's home is the Geiser Grand hotel. When it opened in 1889 it was regarded to be the finest lodging between Salt Lake City and Portland.

Tonight's home is the 1889 Geiser Grand hotel.

I used the elevator to get my bike into the room, but otherwise used the stairway.

The middle of the hotel is a big atrium with a stained glass ceiling. My room is on the second floor looking up at the stained glass. The third floor hallways look down on the stained glass.

My room is spacious, with 12 foot high ceiling and three 10 foot high windows. The original hotel had 80 small rooms, nearly all with shared baths. After a 1990's renovation the hotel now has 32 spacious rooms with private baths. It's no longer truly authentic, but few people would want to stay here if it had tiny rooms, shared baths, and no A/C.

My room. 10 foot high windows. 12 foot high ceiling.

I had dinner at Barley Brown's brewery restaurant. During this tour I have been drinking their Pallet Jack IPA almost every night. Barley Brown's is a popular gathering place for cyclist groups who ride the Scenic Bikeway.

In the evening I walked around downtown to take twilight photos. Baker City would be a good place to take a rest day to thoroughly explore the downtown area. I'm only spending one night, so I have this evening and tomorrow morning to see Baker City.

Cast iron at the entrance to Geiser Grand hotel.

Today was a great day. It started with a 1000 foot climb, but no grades steeper than 4 percent. The afternoon was excellent valley riding with views of the Blue mountains and Wallowa mountains. The day ended at another awesome historic town. High temperature of 87F, blue sky all day.

I think the scenery would be better if I did today's route in reverse. Then I would see the Blue/Elkhorn mountains in morning sun and have the sun behind me during the saddle climb.

Distance: 44.5 miles
Average Speed: 8.2 mph
Ascent/Descent: +1586/-882 feet

Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 340 miles (547 km)

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