The ride from Baker City to Prairie City was, as fore-warned by others, a difficult ride. Taking almost eight hours of riding time, it was a long day. Included in the 70 miles of riding were three long climbs … my speed up these climbs varied from 3 mph to 6 mph. But the down hills were sweet.
For the first time since Utah, I met up with a number of bike touring folks. They were all heading eastward, so they had a great time telling me about the climbs to come … but then I could do the same. Don’t know if they exaggerated, but I sure did. One thing that caught my attention was the varying amount of luggage the various riders were carrying. There were two college-age women who appeared to each have a small duffel bag strapped to their rear bike racks. They were headed to Chicago. My guess is that they were doing hotels exclusively. But later I talked to two older guys who were planning to camp that evening, and they each had only two small panniers … they were ultimately going to Virginia. Fortunately, for my pride, there were several other riders with as much, if not more gear than I. It has given me something to think about … what am I carrying that maybe I do not need? I did get rid of the Unabridged Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary that I have carried with me since high school.
I got a chuckle early on the first climb … a young guy came down this long hill on a single-speed fixed-gear bike. By way of explanation, on a fixed-gear single speed, if the rear tire is moving, so are the pedals. This guy’s feet were moving so fast you could barely see them; I am sure that his cadence was approaching 150 rpm!
Now, for the “almost as advertised”: the weather.com website had promised skies with no clouds or wind. Wrong! For most of the day the dark gray of the clouds blocked out the blue of the sky, and the wind (out of the west naturally), was coming at me at a pretty good pace. Up on the top of the three passes, it was downright cold … probably in the high 40s. But the views were spectacular. The country up in that area reminds me of the upper reaches of Mt. Lemmon (without the scars left by the fires back in 2003). Beautiful … but cold.
The final 7 miles of the day’s ride were a rider’s delight. Earlier in the day I had talked with a couple from Boston who said it took them about one hour and forty five minutes to get up the first climb of their day (they were headed east; me west). This downhill took me about fifteen minutes … and the weather was getting warm. Now that is the way to finish up a long day of riding.
Ahhhh, life is indeed good.
For the first time since Utah, I met up with a number of bike touring folks. They were all heading eastward, so they had a great time telling me about the climbs to come … but then I could do the same. Don’t know if they exaggerated, but I sure did. One thing that caught my attention was the varying amount of luggage the various riders were carrying. There were two college-age women who appeared to each have a small duffel bag strapped to their rear bike racks. They were headed to Chicago. My guess is that they were doing hotels exclusively. But later I talked to two older guys who were planning to camp that evening, and they each had only two small panniers … they were ultimately going to Virginia. Fortunately, for my pride, there were several other riders with as much, if not more gear than I. It has given me something to think about … what am I carrying that maybe I do not need? I did get rid of the Unabridged Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary that I have carried with me since high school.
I got a chuckle early on the first climb … a young guy came down this long hill on a single-speed fixed-gear bike. By way of explanation, on a fixed-gear single speed, if the rear tire is moving, so are the pedals. This guy’s feet were moving so fast you could barely see them; I am sure that his cadence was approaching 150 rpm!
Now, for the “almost as advertised”: the weather.com website had promised skies with no clouds or wind. Wrong! For most of the day the dark gray of the clouds blocked out the blue of the sky, and the wind (out of the west naturally), was coming at me at a pretty good pace. Up on the top of the three passes, it was downright cold … probably in the high 40s. But the views were spectacular. The country up in that area reminds me of the upper reaches of Mt. Lemmon (without the scars left by the fires back in 2003). Beautiful … but cold.
The final 7 miles of the day’s ride were a rider’s delight. Earlier in the day I had talked with a couple from Boston who said it took them about one hour and forty five minutes to get up the first climb of their day (they were headed east; me west). This downhill took me about fifteen minutes … and the weather was getting warm. Now that is the way to finish up a long day of riding.
Ahhhh, life is indeed good.
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