Prineville to Mitchell, OR

(Ridden on July 24) 49.6 miles via Hwy 26. We had a good day again today. We crossed another pass (Ochoco) but it wasn't nearly as difficult as Santiam. We enjoyed a beautiful descent off the pass until about 5 miles before Mitchell,* where the road turned steeply uphill again. By that time (early afternoon) the temperatures had climbed into the high 80s/low 90s making the last few miles into town very hot ones.

We saw dozens of other cyclists today, virtually all of them headed the other direction to complete the TransAmerica route that they began in Virginia.
The one exception to the westbound flow of riders (other than the guy with the dog, who we're still not sure was for real) is Devon, a young woman who we encountered on our way up Ochoco Pass.** She quit her job in Connecticut as an emergency room nurse to ride the TransAmerica route before she goes to Haiti to work in a clinic there. Devon originally planned to ride with a male cyclist who she hooked up with on the Adventure Cycling website. (People advertise there for traveling companions.) Prior to this trip she had never done any serious cycling and was unable to do much serious training for the trip. Also, they planned to start the trip very late in the season for a cross-country trek. (We began in April, most people start in May or at least by June.) Then, two weeks before she was to fly to the West Coast to begin the trip, her travel companion bailed out on her. You would not blame her for throwing in the towel at that point, but Devon put her head down and set out alone. Because she left from Astoria, in northern Oregon, while we began further south in Florence, she has ridden farther and been on the road longer than us. Devon now concedes that she probably won't make it to Virginia on this trip, but is shooting for Denver where a friend lives. Despite the fact that she already has ridden several hundred miles over very challenging terrain, she
is a obviously nervous about what she has gotten herself into. We tried to convince her that is "over the hump" in having made it this far, and were tremendously impressed by her gumption and determination. We are resting here in Mitchell tomorrow while Devon plans to continue riding. We are nevertheless hopeful that we'll catch up to her down the road, to continue to support her (and keep an eye on her).

*I will blog about Mitchell tomorrow, as it deserves a full blog day coverage by itself.

**We could not believe there was another cyclist slower than us. Devon is slower, but not by much.