Day 6 - Bend to Ochoco Divide Campgrounds, OR

Day 6 - June 20:  Bend to Ochoco Divide Campgrounds, OR
Days mileage:  69 miles
Miles since Pacific Coast:  280 miles

We said goodbye to our new friends Mike, Laraine and Vanessa; Ed's friends who were gracious enough to let us invade their home and pitch tents in their backyard.  Great people.  Laraine even made us breakfast burritos before our departure!

L to R: Mike, Ed, me, Cathy, Tom and Laraine

Overall a good day's ride.  First part to Prineville mostly downhill but then the grueling rise to the Ochoco Divide to our campgrounds at 4,700 ft (over 1,432 meters).  

Beautiful scenery between Bend and Prineville

On the road again.

Part of the landscape near Prineville

Photobombing myself in front of Stephanie on the tandem.

Cathy, our team captain and fearless leader in the support van.  Always ready with a smile! And water and food!

Reaching the summit of Ochoco Divide and our campgrounds

Getting our campsite ready

And it was cold!  Temperatures that night got down to mid-30s F!  Stretching the limits of our tents and sleeping bags.  But see the video below to see how we kept warm:

I guess you can see we are having fun.  More to come!

Day 4 - Belknap Springs to Bend, OR

Day 4 - June 18:  Belknap Springs to Bend
Days Mileage:  58 miles
Miles since Pacific Coast:  211 miles

Well, today was a real milestone day! We did our first major climb...climbing up to McKenzie Pass a 5,325 foot elevation summit with an uphill of 22 miles to get there from our start.  I was not sure I could do it since I'd never ridden at that elevation before.

Before leaving Belknap Springs we decided for a group photo in front of the modest bear.  So we were modest, too.

At top of Mckenzie Pass in front of the Dee Wright Observatory.

Ed, Cathy, me, Steph and Tom at the top of the Dee Wright Observatory, Mckenzie Pass. Mt Washington and Mt Jefferson in the background.

A mysterious masked man in front of the McKenzie Pass elevation sign.

Our first major climb. 5,325 feet elevation

Our lodging in Bend.  Pitching a tent in a friend's backyard.  Greg and Cathy on the left.  Tom and Steph quarters on the right.

But much to my surprise, I and all our party made it successfully to the top, arriving by noontime.  The western side of the Cascades is very wet, mossy and green but when you cross to the other side it is significantly drier, more sparse and eventually you enter the high desert area around Bend.  A dramatic change. As you see from the photos it was very rainy, cool and wet in the morning's ride and very cold at the summit of Mckenzie Pass and then warm and dry in Bend.  Today it was in the 80s in Bend whereas in Belknap it didn't get much above 50.

Day 5 is a day of rest in Bend to stock up for our 5 days of riding/camping in Eastern Oregon.  There are no services or internet or probably cell phone service so you may not hear from us for a few days.  

June 20:  Ochoco Divide, OR
June 21:  Mt Vernon, OR
June 22:  Unity Lake, OR
June 23:  Vale, OR
June 24:  Boise, Idaho

We expect to arrive in Boise on/about June 24th.  See you then.

Day 2 and 3 - Eugene to Belknap Springs, OR

Well the ride continues!


Day 2 - June 16:  A rest day in Eugene with our good friends Bill and Susie.  We had a great day off.  Resting.  Watching US beat Ghana in the World Cup. Having a nice African chicken with peanut sauce dinner which Cathy whipped up (with a recipe she got from Bill about 25 years ago).  Nice day.

L to R: Ed, Tom, Cathy, Susie, Bill and me at their home in Eugene.

Day 3- June 17: Eugene to Belknap Springs
Day Mileage:  63 miles
Total Miles since Pacific Coast: 153 miles

Beautiful ride in mostly wet cool weather as you can see from our garb below in the photo in front of Bill and Susie's house.  Bill joined us for about 38 miles to Vida.  It was great since he guided us out of Eugene mostly on bike paths.

We stayed at a "cabin" in Belknap Springs.  Much bigger and nicer than most cabins I've been to.  The lodge did have an outdoor hot springs pool that we had a great soak in for about an hour.  Great for the tired, sore muscles after a day's ride.  Elevation about 1600 feet. 

 Ed in front of one of his old stomping grounds on the Willamette National Forest.

 One of the beautiful lagoons at Belknap Springs gardens.

 Our "cabin"

 Living room inside the "cabin"

Ed, Cathy and me and some musician friends

Day 4 will be our first major climb:  over McKenzie Pass, elevation 5,325 feet with 22 miles of climbing to get there.  

Day 1-Florence to Eugene

Total Miles from the Coast:  83 miles

Day 1 Mileage:  78 miles

Cumulative Mileage:  78 miles

Day 1 successfully completed! 78 miles.  About half of it in the rain with temperatures in the 50s. And only 1 burly guy on a chopper yelling at us to"get off the effing road!"

It was great having Cathy driving the support van and lightening our load. And having Tom, Steph and Ed rounding it out.
Ed also did his longest ride ever with this 78 mile road.  CONGRATS ED!

I'm trying to track my ride every day on ridewithgps.com.  Here's the first leg:

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/2838966?privacy_code=QnH4OWdxIvkTXqjt

This was our highest elevation since the start at Florence at sea level.  By Wednesday we'll be over 5,200 ft going over the McKenzie Pass.

We arrived in Eugene at our friend Bill and Susie's about 6:15 pm. What great friends.

Today, Monday, is an off-day to recover from the first day's longer than average ride.

Official Pacific Ocean Tire Dipping

This beautiful watercolor is courtesy of my great friend, Fabio Barilari, a wonderful artist, architect and friend from Rome.  He painted this in commemoration of the beginning of my ride.  I just love it.

Well it's official!  Yesterday I dipped my tires in the Pacific Ocean to signal the beginning of the bike tour.  I was accompanied by Ed, Tom and Steph who were gracious enough to take these photos of the event.

We had to ride 5 miles to find the beach and then carry our bikes a couple hundred meters over deep sand to get to the water.  Who knew the ocean would be so hard to find?

T Minus 2 Days and Counting

Well Cathy and I flew to Eugene Thursday and now we're here, a bit tired but excited about the ride.  We've met up with our friends and co-riders now, Left to Right in the photo are Cathy, Me, Ed from Stafford, VA(my old colleague from my Washington/Forest Service days, and Stephanie and Tom from Martinez, CA.  This is Ed's first bike tour and he's really looking forward to it.  Steph and Tom were born on bikes and are avid bike riders.

We filled out our supplies at REI here.  It always seems like you there's just one more thing you need to make your gear complete.

Then Cathy and I came back to our friends Bill and Susie's place where I then I had to figure out how to repack my gear according to what I needed where and when.  Since Cathy will be driving the van all the way to Missoula I don't need everything on my bike until after that. So it's a matter of deciding what is essential during the ride (rain gear, energy gels and bars, bike tools, etc.) and what we need each night (sleeping bag, tent, mat, toiletries, etc.) and what I won't need until after Missoula, Montana when I'll be riding solo and the van will be gone (mini-camp stove, cooking pots, my 2 man tent, etc.)  Here's my stuff:

This was before putting them in large and medium ziplock bags to make them more accessible and grouping them by category and pannier bag or handlebar bag.  

So tomorrow (Saturday) we'll get a ride from Bill to Florence, Oregon which is on the Pacific coast.  In order to make it an official coast to coast ride the protocol is to dip your tires in the Pacific Ocean when you start and in the Atlantic when you finish. I'll probably dip my tires Saturday so Sunday morning when we start I don't have to ride back from the Motel to the beach before we try to take off early Sunday morning.   

Our first day's ride will be one of the longest of the trip:  78 miles.  Back here to Eugene.
And as you can see from the photo below, I've already started carbo-loading. More to come.

Transitions

Well, I'm trying to tie up loose ends but I've been working 7 days/week and up to 16 hrs on some days just to meet all my deadlines before departure.  Not how I wanted to prepare for this trip but...c'est la vie! Almost there.

One personal prep was to cut my hair and shave my beard and mustache off before starting.  So this is the last haircut and shave for the next 10 weeks or so.  And no, it's not to make me faster, just cooler and low maintenance grooming during that period.  I don't plan to have a mirror.

This is the first time I'm seeing my chin and upper lip in well over a decade.

Flying to Eugene tomorrow.  I guess I should pack.  Thanks for your well wishes and moral support.

Counting Down...T Minus 7 Days and Counting

Well the time is drawing close!  Less than one week til starting the ride in Florence, Oregon.  I'll probably dip my tires in the Pacific on June 14th, to save some time June 15th morning so we can get an early start for our first day's ride... 78  miles to Eugene.

One of the nice things is that we have had a couple parties with friends, neighbors, colleagues and family here in Madison to celebrate the sendoff.  We had one last week with my work colleagues.  

 My work colleague Jim created the nice bon voyage card.  He's a talented guy.  My work colleagues even got me this nice hernia repair kit from Ace Hardware.  No tools required.

How thoughtful!

Then this week we had a potluck BBQ sendoff at our house with many of our other friends and neighbors.  It did rain so we were chased into the garage, but otherwise a good time was had by all, I think.

I've barely begun to pack as I have several major deadlines at work and have had to work seven days a week about 12+ hours/day to try and complete everything before I take off.  Oh well, no rest for the wicked as my Mom used to say!

This is the last I saw of my bike on June 2nd before I dropped it off at REI here in Madison to ship to the REI in Eugene.  We'll be reunited on Friday.

More to come.  Thanks for your moral support and well wishes.

G