Day 24: To Burns - Hot-springing Idaho and Oregon 2008 - CycleBlaze

September 20, 2008

Day 24: To Burns

Light rain started at 5 AM. It was still drizzling when I got up at 8:15. I promptly packed up (didn't eat breakfast) and was on the road at 8:45 after wading the river to take more pictures of the hot spring. The rain had stopped by then and the temperature was 60F.

The riverside hot pool at Juntura hot spring was 109F.
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It was 4 miles to the cafe in Juntura (population 160). On the way into town I snapped a picture of two women on horseback having a conversation in the middle of a pasture.

Horse-women having a conversation.
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I ate a huge breakfast at the cafe, which turned out to be a very good thing. Rain started again a few minutes after I left the cafe. Very light at first, while climbing 1300 feet to Drinkwater Pass. Unfortunately the light rain quickly became heavy rain when I topped the pass.

Light rain turned to heavy rain at Drinkwater summit.
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The road has a few big rolling hills after Drinkwater Summit before beginning a 1300 foot climb to Stinkwater Summit. Rain was building. A headwind was building. The temperature dropped, down to 47F at the summit. In the desert with absolutely no shelter from rain or wind. No houses, no barns, no trees. As the temperature dropped I kept putting on more clothes. Eventually wearing all of my raingear, including helmet cover, Gore-Tex gloves, Gore-Tex socks. Even so, I had to pedal hard to stay warm. Long stops were out of the question because I get too chilled while standing still in the wind and rain.

Apparently the name "Stinkwater Summit" is not considered appropriate.
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Each of today's passes has a bigger climb than descent. The valleys keep getting higher. The descent from Stinkwater Pass took me into the Great Basin where I pedaled 23 miles perfectly flat and straight to Burns, elevation 4148 feet. But it took almost 3 hours because of the stiff headwind. The rain finally quit but I stayed cold because my clothes were soaking wet.

Heading towards Burns after the rain stopped. Now in the Great Basin.
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I crossed into the Pacific time zone and continued into Burns to get a motel room. $41 for a dumpy old place in the downtown area. But it has heat and I was able to dry out my stuff. I got a take-out pizza from Figaro's pizza across the street. It took me 2 hours to feel warm. I was chilled to the bone.

My original plan for today was to ride to Crystal Crane hot spring southeast of Burns. The distance would have been the same as riding to Burns. But the rain altered my plans. Arriving late on a Saturday they probably wouldn't have any cabins available, and I didn't want to camp after riding in rain for 6 hours. So I'll go there tomorrow. That makes my itinerary fit better with the weather forecast. The weather will warm up before I camp at Hart Mountain (high elevation).

Today was the only day of this tour with significant rainfall. It had to happen sometime. But I wish the rain had come when there were opportunities for shelter. It was a very exhausting day because I had to pedal harder than usual and rest much less than usual in order to keep warm. I didn't take very many pictures because of the rain.

Distance: 62.9 miles (100.7 km)

Climbing: 3219 feet (975 m)

Average speed: 8.1 mph (13 km/h)

Maximum speed: 33.5 mph (53.6 km/h)

Today's ride: 63 miles (101 km)
Total: 1,049 miles (1,688 km)

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