June 4, 2014
Day 7 - Dayville to Prairie City: A Ride Along A River
We had a very restful afternoon and evening at the church. Well, I did. Jack had to work on the bikes awhile but after that he was able to rest. We were up very early and out on the road by 7:30 am. It was a beautiful cool morning and was busy for such a small town. Seems it was school dropping off time. As we were leaving, the church was nicely lit by morning sun.
We had an easy ride today by comparison to the last few days...with only about 1000 ft of elevation gain from around 2500 ft to 3540 ft over 46 miles. I for one was a little sluggish so didn't push in any way. I just wanted a nice easy day and got it. Janet of "The Promised Tour" said they had tailwinds all the way yesterday.......sadly we did not. Wind was really kinda neutral today which is better than a headwind!
Most of the day looked like this......
These are the hills we were worried about yesterday......looks like we don't go over them as we followed them all day along the John Day River. There was a lot of hay harvesting and alfalfa cutting going on. One of my childhood memories from Kansas is the smell of alfalfa cutting..love the smell. There is no shortage of water here. Being from drought ridden California I am amazed at the water that is used. At the church they had a rain bird sprinkler going when we arrived and it went all night....someone did come and move it once. It was still going when we left this morning. All the fields are watered with large slow moving watering systems.
Not to much else to say about the day. We enjoyed the beautiful farms and noticed that if you had 25 more miles in you when you arrived at Dayville, it would be nice to stay in Mt. Vernon. They have a bike hostel, motel and camping. Then in John Day there are several options for motels. However, No Bicycle stores. There are two hardware type stores if you need fuel etc.
We arrived in Prairie City by 2:30 pm, found the Depot RV Park, and claimed the best camp site in the place. We are in the picnic pavilion.....nice. There is a nice breeze blowing through here and there is a kitchen counter complete with electric outlets (charging up as we speak) and a babbling brook right behind us. Should sleep well tonight. Right now we are inside the tent on our new chairs away from the bugs.
There is a museum here and I went on a little tour after my shower (well hot sink sponge - shower took money but didn't work). We walked the campground and found these folks. Does anyone find this ironic besides us?! Let's see we get 2 mpg on from the huge RV so we will drive our Prius to save? It was being towed.
Oh....well........Sun going down. Tomorrow promises to be a challenge. There will be a 9 mile climb up to just over 5,000ft. Then we are only going a few more miles to Austin Junction for a semi - rest day. ....because the next day there are two 5,000+ ft climbs and about 55 miles. There is no way to break them into two rides. Hope the legs are up for it!!!
Good night from Prairie City..we are finding it difficult to find cell service and WiFi might be out of touch a day or so.
Today's ride: 46 miles (74 km)
Total: 293 miles (472 km)
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