Prairie City to Baker City - Jerry's post

Prairie City to Baker City

Every day should be like today.  Or, actually, like the past couple of days.  The roads have been good, the traffic pretty light, and the scenery breathtaking.  It rained some during the night, and I was uncertain as to whether we would be able to ride today, but when we got up about 6 am (we had agreed to sleep in an extra hour today), the sky was clear and blue.  We had an immediate climb to do up to a  bit over 5000 feet, followed by a descent, then two more climbs back up over 5000.  But like almost every climb so far, the slope is fairly gradual, no more than about a 6% grade, so it is manageable, but takes a long time.  On the first one, we rode 9 miles before getting to the pass.  Then the inevitable long ride down hill, and since the temperatures are very cool, all the heat gets sucked out, and of course you are sweating from the climb, so by the time you get to the bottom about 6 miles later you are very chilled.  Fortunately, like yesterday, there was a café at the bottom and we again took advantage of it to warm up and “re-fuel” on pancakes.  Sue caught up with us again at the café, then headed on ahead to search for a campsite.   The next two ascents went well, and the scenery was again glorious.  Not a lot of wildlife around, although at the café they said that people hunt deer, turkeys, and bear in the vicinity.  We did see an osprey at a reservoir near Baker City.  Sue again worked her magic and found us a great campsite at an RV park in Baker City, where we intend to spend tomorrow taking care of town chores. 

    So…we have completed seven consecutive days of riding, and have covered about 580 miles of the Transamerica route.  Sunday, we intend to start riding again and should get to Idaho.  Hopefully the weather and the traffic will continue to smile on us.  (reported by Jerry)