Day 79: Baker City to Prairie City

July 28, 2006

'I don't wanna go!!!' That was my first thought this morning as I stayed snuggled in my bed, refusing to believe that I'd have to leave these glorious pillows behind. After a day of chores and relaxation, almost everything was packed up and ready to go. I'd set the room's fridge as cold as it would go, so I had frozen water bottles and a big frozen Pepsi to pack away deep in the panniers for a cool treat later in the day.

Breakfast at the Oregon Trail restaurant. Cat, our waitress both mornings, was a great server (something we were missing most of the trip...)

I lingered over breakfast with some of the AC group, enjoying the great service from our waitress Cat, stuffing myself with awesome buckwheat pancakes and multiple glasses of Pepsi and generally not wanting to go sit on my bike. I think I'm realizing how close this thing is to coming to an end and am dragging my feet a bit as the blue stuff on the other side of Oregon gets closer. That and I knew I had three passes to go over. . .

We were all pretty reluctant to leave the comforts of what had been home for two nights.

Have I mentioned that I'm slow going uphill? Yeah. That still hasn't changed.

This family of wild turkeys bgawked loudly at me for interrupting their morning stroll

But the passes weren't too bad and I was making a little better time than I'd planned, so I decided to have lunch at Austin Junction with Tim, Jacques, and Wil. The place was a little creepy/strange and overpriced, but I'm not cooking anymore, so I paid it. They weren't too good at refilling anyone's drinks either. Oh well.

Jacques and Will head up yet another pass

Another solo rider was there-Hans from the Netherlands. I saw Erie pull in and thought she'd like to talk to him (at least I'D like to speak my own language with someone if I hadn't spoken it for a few months), but she wasn't anxious to meet him. I took off as he came out to say hello to her, fueled for one more pass.

I would have appreciated this more had I not been trying to ride uphill

A whole bunch of fire trucks passed me on their way to fight the fires around Sisters

I think Jacques was feeling a little down at having only two more days to ride and slowed down a lot to ride with me, so Jacques, Wil, and I had a little party at the top of the last pass since it was Jacques' last one. He was so surprised when I whipped out the still-partly-frozen Pepsi and passed it around. I'm telling you, there's nothing like something cold to drink at the top of a pass on a hot day.

Another sighting...this time at a strange little Austing Junction store/cafe/etc.

Jacques' last pass :( (he was happy to be over the last pass, but we were all sad to see him leave)

Jacques was so surprised when I whipped out an icy cold Pepsi out of my pannier--I had frozen it the night before and used it to celebrate his final pass.

Jacques said I should go slow on the downhill side since he'd waited for me on the uphill, but I blasted on past him on the 9 miles into Prairie City. But just after I pulled out of a roadside info center, Alvin came around me. I couldn't let that happen, so I put some power on the pedals and tucked in behind him. We both would have been in trouble if he'd have gone down at that speed, but those last miles of the day were some of the funnest of the trip.

Right after I drafted Alvin downhill at 30 mph...that was a fun ride!

Prairie City didn't have much to capture my attention. Alvin was stressed out because he couldn't get ahold of anyone who could tell him about the fires ahead and couldn't seem to make contact with anyone in the Adventure Cycling office. Wil was a little worried because he and Jim were supposed to cook dinner, but Jim started late since the replacement trailer wasn't in Baker City yet that morning. But just as I got my panniers emptied to go do the shopping with him, Jim rolled in so I didn't have to go. I set up camp on a picnic table in the corner of the pavilion. Erie kept telling me I was lazy not to set up a tent and just wouldn't let it go, so I left the pavilion to go talk to Jacques and friends who had come to camp to meet us and who would be taking him away from the group tomorrow. We sat down with a map and tried to figure out a way around the fires at Sisters, but there weren't many good options. Oh yeah. And we had to pay a whole bunch of quarters for showers.

What's that blue stuff on the other side of Oregon??? It's kinda scary!

I was sad that Jacques would be leaving but happy to have an easy day scheduled for tomorrow. And I would be able to leave early since I didn't have to worry about a tent or anything like that. Ha. And I haven't fallen off a picnic table yet!

Erie accused me of being lazy when I set up camp on top of the picnic table instead of using my tent...but really I was trying to be efficient for the morning. And I'm just tired of setting up the tent.

Today's ride: 72 miles (116 km)
Total: 4,029 miles (6,484 km)

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