Baker City to Richland, OR

Via Hwy 86. 42 miles. As you can tell, it is taking us a long time to cross Oregon. Today's route took us along part of the Oregon Trail, a path taken by the pioneers in wagons and no roads over 100 years ago. I have a new appreciation for those people. We have good roads, good equipment (bikes), cell phones, GPS, etc., etc., and still it is hard work crossing this arid landscape. How the early settlers managed it just boggles the mind. They obviously wanted a new start real bad.

We did a relatively short ride again today. We are trying to best position ourselves to hit the passes early in the morning before it gets really hot. If we had gone further east today we would have had a 1,000 foot climb out of Richland in the afternoon heat. (It is 92 degrees outside at 3 pm as I am writing this.) Instead, we will do it tomorrow morning when the temperature is cooler. And the day after tomorrow we face a similar situation, a 2,000 foot very, very steep climb out of the Snake River canyon. Temperatures on the canyon floor can reach 110 degrees during the day, so we plan to ride a little over 40 miles tomorrow to a campsite near the bottom of the climb so that we are crawling upward on the Mother of All Climbs on Friday morning rather than tomorrow afternoon.

We met up with Devon again in Richland and agreed to share the cost of a motel room (at the Hitching Post, it ain't fancy but it is air conditioned). We again saw quite a few west-bound riders. We chatted with several, including a guy who told us that a day behind him is a couple on a recumbent three-wheeled tandem pulling a trailer. We can't wait to meet them and, in true guy fashion, compare the size of our rigs!


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