Sea-to-Sea NA Day 12 The wind, that had been our companion on the ride and our air conditioning during the afternoon and evening, became a real challenge during the night. Instead of letting up as the sun sank it intensified. Our tent was set on the west perimeter of our tent city just downwind of an embankment so caught the full brunt of the wind’s fury. The tent shook violently for the first few hours we were in bed; so much so that I feared it would tear or be uprooted. Rita was in full earplug mode and didn’t hear a thing. I got up to check our pegs and a few other tents around us. Satisfied that the equipment would hold up I finally went to sleep. Because of the short ride today master Ed announced we could sleep in for an hour in the morning but set the breakfast time only a half hour later! Most people awoke at the regular time but the urgency to depart was lacking. I figured it would be a good day to take Anne M. on the Rumba so changed the seat height and pedals to suit her height and equipment and did likewise for Rita on Anne’s bike. We sent Rita off first and then finished packing the rest of our equipment. Goat Heads are still numerous in this area. These are little tack like thorns; which have been the cause of many flats in the area. They are picked up by our tires mainly in dead grass and along the sides of the road. Anne and I hit 75 kph down the first hill; Rita hit 58 so that is pretty good. The road was pretty much flat and the tail wind made for another day of about 35kph average speed. The road we are riding along is hwy. 30 which pretty much follows the Old Oregon Trail which is the old wagon train route of the early emigrants. There were many Indian/white conflicts in the area. We are in Ontario, Oregon tonight so it is kind of like home. Anne comments re the tandem ride “ It was a fun fast ride, but you need to be in sink all the time. Bill had total control, the shifting, the brakes, and you cannot stop pedalling. But, I think I prefer to have some control on my bike.”

Posted one day late

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 11 Today I’m not going to tell you it was 95F+ or that the sun was hot, none of that you all know that by now. I am going to tell you that the nights get nice and cool, in the low 60sF. I’m not going to tell you when we get up but that we go to bed around 10 give or take a half hour depending on your age. The food we get on the tour is tops in both quantity and quality and it is usually on time, 6:00 PM. In fact some of us are eating less because of the short riding days we have most of this week. Today was a mere 70 something ride; mostly with a tail wind and all but the first ¾ hour downhill. We took it easy averaging about 24kph on the flats or slight uphill. On the downhill, about 50km of some up but mostly down, we ranged between 45 and 70kph for an average speed of about 34kph. Part of today’s route took us back onto the I84. There was a lot of debris on the shoulder, so I’m sure the flat tire count will be high for the day. At two places the road narrowed to one lane with only a 3ft wide shoulder, with barriers on both sides. They allow 3 trailer trucks here and when one of those goes buy you have to make sure you have the bike under control. As far as I know everyone made it thru this stretch OK but I’m sure there were a lot of nervous riders. The scenery was mostly sagebrush and there was only one small town along the way. This is reportedly the poorest county in the state of Oregon. The little town of Huntington has a population of 500; mostly retired and 70 kids attend the school from K to 12. While waiting several hours for the gear truck to arrive, most of us stopped at the local pub for a soft drink or coffee since it was only about 10AM when we arrived. We met a lot of locals and shared many laughs together. After the drink and an early lunch we waited around the school for a while then I finally rode around town doing some old car spotting. Tomorrow is another short ride. These rides are short so that we will be in Boise for the weekend. I hope it is worth it because sooner or later we have to make up the distance we are loosing on these short days.

Sea-to-Sea NA day 10 Last night we had no Internet connection so a local motel with WIFI allowed me to post from their lobby. The lady already knew about our ride because the local paper had a front page spread on the tour, complete with coloured photos and all. All night long the trains were shunting on the tracks close to our campsite in preparation for the trip over the pass. I still got a good nights sleep however despite all of this. As is usual now everyone was off to an early start. We rode off at 7:30 into the morning sun setting a good pace. The climb for the day was 800 ft and not all that steep. The road followed a picturesque valley but the sun was relentless and the light wind from behind. Several small towns along the way made the ride interesting. These are typical western towns, small, old, mainly farm based now but holdovers from the cattle and lumber days. The valley we are in is the country that the great cattle drives of the last half of the 1800s passed through. These would have thousands of head and move between here and Texas. We stopped in Haines and ordered up a couple of lattes. Rita took a freshly baked brownie too. We were one of the first riders to this town and by the time we left an hour later there were riders everywhere. The remaining 20 km through flat farmland with the Blue Mountains on our right passed quickly. We pulled into the overnight site around 11 AM. Average speed for the 80km was 26 kph, despite Rita not pushing much for a stretch and the 600 ft elevation gain. Apparently the road from here to Boise is through sagebrush country and the temperature is predicted to stay in the 100F range as it has been all week.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 9 The prospect of over 3000 ft of climbing gets most of the group moving early in the morning. It seems to be just a little earlier every day. I have no trouble going back to sleep at 5AM but Rita is up not long after that. Lots of riders are on the road by 7. Breakfast officially ends at 7:30. It is another sunny day when we set out at 7:40. Anne M. has waited but Florida Bill has gone on ahead. The air was already hot but cool breezes emerged from the shadows every once in a while. We stopped to help Gale change a rear tube (there is lots of glass on the bike lanes in the towns and this causes many flats. I try to avoid them or ride as close to the car lane as possible where the road is cleaner. The climbing started just outside of town but didn’t get serious until about ½ hour into the ride. As on many climbs you cannot see the top of the hill from the bottom. In some ways this is good if you are an optimist and assume the hill is short or at least not 20km long as this one turned out to be. Actually other than a few undulations at the top this climb continued for close to 50km. The grade was such that I was able to keep the chain on the middle sprocket at the front for the whole ride, at 10-12 kph. The photos will show you the terrain much better than I can describe it. There were miles and miles of wheat fields across the valley below us. There were various wild flowers along the road. Once on top we entered a pine forest and our road ran parallel to I84. We even had to go on that 4 lane highway for one 11km run half of which was downhill at 60-70kph and another short piece. The nicer downhill was before the I84, a twisty road through the forest with enough of a slope to maintain 50-65 kph. The road ran parallel to the train track for a while. The freight train had 9 locomotives in order to pull it up, over and to control the speed on the decent. Tonight we are camped in a park in La Grande, 92 km from our starting point. Because of all the climbing my average speed was only 21kph. There is a swimming pool here and an ice-cream parlour just down the road. The large Black Cherry milk shake sure went down well.

Pictures for day 8

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 7 & 8 Yesterday we had a fairly relaxing day, having managed to do the laundry later on Saturday. Breakfast was at 8:30 and even though it was our turn to set up we were able to sleep in and even listen to some nice music, as is my habit Sunday morning. We are camped under a big tree so had shade all day long. The church service started at 10:30 and the local congregation served lunch. The afternoon was spent trying to post pictures on our intermittent Internet. That called for a short bike ride part way through to relieve some frustration. Today’s ride was a 105km with about half along the Columbia River. The sky was clear right from the start of the ride. There were only 4 or 5 tents still standing when we made our final walk over to the gear trailer and got on the bike at 7:40. Florida Bill was riding with us today. Anne M was on sweep duty. Once we worked our way out of town-getting lost only once- we could enjoy the scenery along the river. As you can see this is a wide river valley and the wind was directly up the valley. The Rumba performs well against a wind so we made better time than most along this 40 odd km stretch. I have decided to eat on the run, every ½ hour after the first hour on the bike. This keeps the energy flowing as we ride. We still stop but that is more to rest the rear and for other relief. And so we stopped a few km before we were to leave the river and tackle the hill out of the valley. As we rode up the creek valley we were going in the same direction as the wind. This can be good and bad, good because it helps a little with the work but the cooling effect of the wind and riding speed is gone. The temperature was now in the 90s, with no shade. The net climb was about 1000 ft over 30km but it was rolling country so we did a lot more than that. The land at the top was dry, no irrigation and wheat was the primary crop. Some had already been cut; other areas were still that nice gold colour of ripened wheat. There was more rolling road but primarily downhill. One final good downhill before arriving in town; let us reap some reward for all the hard work we had done. Our group had now grown to 7 riders. We rode thru town, the temperature now over 100F, and arrived at the school at 12:15 to find no one else there. After something to eat and drink we rode back into town to visit the local DQ for a cone.