Today was a little bit of a recovery ride after all of the climbing yesterday, but we still clicked off 90 miles and over 4,000 feet of climbing. The morning was a little warmer than the day before and we had a short climb out of Condon before getting some time to warm up our legs up on the flat stretches before the first long descent of about 5 miles.
You kind of get the sense that you’re in for it when you’ve had a long descent and all you see is hills in front of you and you know you have to climb back out. So climb we did for a 5 mile 935 foot climb to start the morning. The miles ticked away steadily and before we knew it we were at our first SAG stop at mile 14 after a 35 minute climb.
As the day warmed up and the sun began to beat down on us, we climbed higher into the rolling hills of wheat and hay that seemed to go on forever. There are hundreds of huge windmills dotting the landscape along the ridges and the eerie thing about this part of Oregon is that, but for the wind – everything is quiet. No birds chirping, no car or truck noises unless they’re passing you. Someone commented today that they felt like we were on Mars.
We had lunch at Mile 53 at the Sinclair gas station in Lexington, OR followed by another few climbs and long trending descent into Hermiston, OR – the “Watermelon Capital” of Oregon. The weird thing is, I didn’t see even one watermelon farm for the entire 90 miles we rode today – go figure.
I had my first little spill of the trip at our final stop at Mile 73 – as I pulled in, my front wheel dug into the gravel and over I went. Instinctively, I landed on my left shoulder and all was well except for my embarrassment in front of the group there! I have to be more careful on gravel!
In closing, some people have asked me – “Who are the people on your trip?” So, with their permission I will offer some profiles as we go along. First up are Don and Barb from NJ – both 70 years old and in amazing shape. They’re both retired engineers who this year decided to do 70 rides of at least 70 miles to commemorate the year. They seem to be doing just fine on the trip and I’ve enjoyed their company.
Tomorrow’s ride takes us into Washington as we head to Walla Walla – not too sad to see Oregon behind us – but it was great!