Day 63: Mitchell, OR to Sisters, OR - Crossing The Country On A Cannondale - CycleBlaze

August 3, 2006

Day 63: Mitchell, OR to Sisters, OR

90.16 Miles, 6:30:21 Ride Time, 14.12 Average Speed, 33.6 Maximum Speed

I woke up early this morning, eager to see how it felt riding the bike after mailing home 23 pounds of stuff yesterday. I spent a while getting things arranged in the two small panniers, while searching (unsuccessfully) one last time for the missing arm warmer, since it was another chilly morning.

I noticed the smoky smell in the air more this morning than I had yesterday, though I still didn't see a fire. Yesterday evening at the restaurant, the waitress had told me there was a fire about six miles from town.

I rode down to the Little Pine Cafe for breakfast, where I was the first customer of the day. It was a few minutes after 7:00, and the place had just opened. I ordered my usual pancakes, a sausage-biscuit, and a Diet Pepsi, and while I waited for my food, I looked through the shelf of books in the cafe. Several of the small-town restaurants I had eaten in out West had contained a shelf or two of well-worn books for customers to read while eating - a nice idea.

I picked up "Mama Makes Up Her Mind" by Bailey White, a book I own but hadn't read in years. Amusingly, the first story I saw when I opened the book was "Bicyclists"...

After I finished breakfast and walked outside, I saw a teenage boy standing around, had him take my picture, then rode off. The first fifteen miles or so were a climb to Ochoco Pass (elev. 4,720 ft.) I was much faster than usual now that I was carrying less stuff on the bike - probably by three miles per hour, at least. The ascent to the pass was unusual in that I reached what seemed at first to be the summit, didn't see a sign marking it, descended for a mile or so, and then started ascending to the top.

It was a nice, long descent from Ochoco Pass, followed by several mostly-flat miles through pine trees and then fields. Later my route took me along Ochoco Creek and then past Ochoco Reservoir. I stopped at a little store there for a snack break, and talked to the owner and her young son for a while.

The next six or seven miles to Prineville (pop. 7,356) went quickly. The only incident in the town worth mentioning was a soaking I received from a water sprinkler when I made an unfortunate choice of a place to stop and consult my map. (Actually, it was hot by now, so it was somewhat refreshing, if startling; also, I can verify that the Adventure Cycling maps are printed on water-proof paper...)

I decided as I left Prineville that I would follow the Adventure Cycling route, which had me turning onto O'Neil Highway, instead of following State Route 126 to the next town, Redmond. Earlier I had briefly considered taking 126, the main road, because it looked like it would be a more direct route to Redmond, and shave off several miles. Now, though, I wasn't in the mood to ride on what would undoubtedly be a much busier road, so I took the "scenic route".

The next 17 miles on O'Neil Highway were easy - a mostly flat, virtually traffic-free ride alongside green fields (and one dusty rock quarry). As I got closer to Redmond, I had to cross several sets of railroad tracks, and carelessly rode over one of them without slowing down enough, jarring me and everything on the bike.

Soon, I was entering Redmond (pop. 13,481) the "back way" on Canal Blvd., which abruptly came to an end; I rode between the concrete posts which had been placed to block traffic on the closed street, and found that there was apparently a major road project going on in Redmond. I stopped at a couple of places to ask for directions out of town, and found that the locals themselves were a little confused about what was going on; the people I talked to couldn't agree on the names of the streets (some of which were apparently being changed as part of the road project), or whether they were now one-way. I did finally get some reliable-sounding directions.

As I rode out of town, I saw a public library, and decided to stop and make sure my laptop was still working after the bone-jarring railroad track crossing earlier (I had been paranoid about damaging the new laptop since I bought it in Rawlins, Wyoming). It was fine, and I spent about 45 minutes in the very nice library checking my email, and reading other journals on CrazyGuyOnABike.

The ride to the tourist town of Sisters, my destination for the day, was about 20 miles on SR 126. It was a very busy road, and the shoulder was really, really lousy for most of the way - there was a wide rumble strip that wandered all over the place, and the surface of the shoulder was rough and uneven. As I got closer to Sisters, however, it suddenly became nice and smooth.

Sisters (pop. 959) was a nice enough town, and although it was full of tourist traffic, I was in a good mood today, and wasn't annoyed (much) by it. I had reserved a room at the Sisters Motor Lodge, which although a little expensive, was well-maintained; my room, which contained a kitchen, was nice and cozy.

After I checked in to the motel, I walked across the street to the U.S. Forest Station, where I learned that the fire in the area was still not contained; as I had suspected, I would have to take the longer (and apparently less scenic) route over Santiam Pass tomorrow instead of McKenzie Pass.

I walked around town for a while, where I saw several signs thanking firefighters; I didn't see (or smell) any signs of fire in the town, but apparently it had come close enough to cause a lot of concern. I had dinner at one of the many restaurants in town, then walked back to my room, used the wireless internet for a while (but not the TV - I've watched virtually no television in weeks), then went to bed, after thinking that it was hard to believe I only had a few days of riding left...

Getting ready to ride out on my slimmed-down, 23 lbs. lighter, bike (I had mailed a bunch of stuff back home yesterday). Note unfortunate results of recent haircut...
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Partway up the climb to Ochoco Pass
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Outskirts of Redmond
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I saw lots of these signs in Sisters
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Today's ride: 90 miles (145 km)
Total: 4,071 miles (6,552 km)

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