Day 8: Elgin to La Grande

September 13, 2023

I paid for breakfast at Mays Place B&B because there is no restaurant open for breakfast. I was the only guest who paid for breakfast, so she made breakfast just for me, served at 8:15. I'm in no hurry to get on the road because today's route is short and easy. I spent a few minutes walking around downtown before packing up the bike and rolling out of the B&B.

I left Elgin at 9:40 AM. OR 204 still had a big electronic "closed ahead" sign, so I know for sure that it was closed at least 3 days for culvert replacements. A week later I went to Oregon Tripcheck and found that it was open with 20 minute delays, the usual situation during repaving.

The first 6 miles of today's ride are backtracking on OR 82. This time I had a good view of the Grande Ronde river looking upstream towards the Blue mountains.

The first 3 miles is steady uphill to a saddle between the Wallowa mountains and the Blue mountains. It had a great view looking ahead towards La Grande and the southern Blue mountains in the distance.

Saddle between the Wallowa mountains (left) and Blue mountains (right).

On the west side of the saddle I turned off OR 82. The remainder of the day is on low traffic county roads close to the base of the Blue mountains. I enjoyed the views of the mountains and idyllic farm scenes.

Victorian farm house near Summerville. Front porch was enclosed. Improbably small propane tank for heating a large house.

Today's route took me through only one small farm town. Summerville is an incorporated city with only 137 residents. Like most farm towns in northeast Oregon, nearly every building is more than 75 years old.

Summerville is an incorporated city with 137 residents.

Today had perfect weather. Mostly sunny, high of 75F. It's nice to be near 3000 feet elevation again.

I saw a wide variety of irrigated crops. I couldn't identify all the crops.

I don't know this crop. Is this alfalfa?

I also saw many attractive barns. Red barns are common in northeast Oregon but quite rare in my part of Oregon.

While pedaling along the foot of the Blue mountains the pine trees were mostly nearby, but well uphill from the road. Only a few parts of the road went through pine forest. I enjoyed the momentary change in scenery.

Pleasant Grove Grange is indeed in a pleasant pine grove.

The county road stays close to the Blue mountains, slightly above the bottom of the valley. So I had good views of the valley below and the distant Wallowa mountains across the valley to the west.

Looking south. Wallowa mountains across the valley on the left.

If I went east from Elgin instead of southwest, I could follow the Wallowa river up to the town of Joseph and glacial Wallowa lake surrounded by the Wallowa mountains. An aerial tramway goes 4000 feet higher still. That part of the Wallowa mountains is steep faulted cliffs like the Rocky mountains in Colorado. I pedaled there in 2006 and would recommend it to anybody visiting northeast Oregon. But it's beyond the scope of this tour.

Wallowa mountains view from the top of the aerial tramway. From my 2006 To Hell's Canyon and Back tour.

Now I'm going south along the east slope of the northern Blue mountains. This part of the Blue mountains taper off near La Grande. A higher part of the Blue mountains continues south of La Grande.

Ranch road leading towards the Blue mountains.

I joined the Grande Tour Scenic Bikeway for the final 2 miles to Riverside Park.

Booth road near La Grande. Now on the Grande Tour Scenic Bikeway.

I arrived at Riverside Park at 1:20 PM. I wandered around the park to explore, and discovered that the park is much bigger than I realized earlier. I rested for a few minutes at a picnic table in the shade of giant cottonwood trees. My car was only 100 yards away, but I'm in no hurry to leave.

I found a foot bridge across the Grande Ronde river. The trail continues only a short distance downstream.

Footbridge across the Grande Ronde river at Riverside Park.

Finally I went to my parked car and loaded the bike inside. I will spend the next two nights in La Grande as a motorist. The bike will stay in the car until I return to Riverside Park the day after tomorrow.

I drove up to the campus of Eastern Oregon University to look around. It's a very nice campus. Enrollment is only 2800 and the tallest building on campus is only 3 stories. Like most college campuses, the central campus is closed streets. Motorists can only drive to the edge of the campus. Eastern Oregon University was founded as Eastern Oregon Normal School, a college to train teachers. It had a couple name changes before being upgraded to Eastern Oregon University in 1997.

Original building at Eastern Oregon University.

This former elementary school is now part of Eastern Oregon University.

Home for the next two nights is America's Best Value Inn on the east side of La Grande near an I-84 exit. Special Round-Up overflow price of $411 for two nights. The Landing boutique hotel downtown was not available because of overflow from the Pendleton Round-Up.

I arrived at 2:45 and took a 1.5 hour nap, then drove to a nearby pizza place for dinner. I'm not feeling very energetic and am glad that tomorrow is a rest day.

Today was a short and easy day but I have no regrets. The scenery was great. It was a pleasant bike ride. I don't need or even want to do long distances every day.

Distance: 24.2 miles
Average Speed: 8.5 mph
Ascent/Descent: +644/-509 feet

Today's ride: 24 miles (39 km)
Total: 263 miles (423 km)

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Charmaine RuppoltNice that you vary your ride distances, and I appreciate that you stop to take pictures and actually SEE what you're riding by. :)
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