Day 10

Mileage: 62.5
From: Dayville, OR
To: Austin Junction, OR


Today was a pretty long day. I’m beat, so I’ll keep it short.

We rode to John Day fairly early, and then waited out the hot part of the day. We met up with Lisa & Anna (the tandem team), Matthew from Eugene, OR, and Stephanie and Jim from Chico, CA. We first met that gang on our way out of Mitchell, OR, and we stayed with them last night in Dayville. While we were waiting out the hot part of the day, we cut through some horse’s home to a creek to cool off. Matthew went on a run to buy us some eggs, which we hardboiled and enjoyed. They were quite tasty. Lauren ate one, and she doesn’t even like eggs!

The climb could’ve been easier. We were pretty tired after the 40+ mile warm-up in the morning. Matthew, Stephanie, and Jim beat us by a long shot up the hill, but everyone made it in the end.

Tonight we’re staying in a restaurant’s backyard. There was a mix-up, and the lady was sort of bitchy, but oh well. Dad called ahead and the woman was very friendly, but he referred to us as a “small group of cyclists.” We showed up 8 strong, and there was a Westbound older couple already there. I think the owner thought that they were the ones that called, because she even fed them (she hinted she may feed us), but was really cold to us. Oh well—it was a place to sleep.

It’s fun to be with the big gang!


The 8 of us sort of squatted in this campground for the afternoon


Preparing to climb the horse's gate to cool off in the creek


Still pretty much at the base of the climb, taking a break and looking back


Random covered wagon along the afternoon climb


Sometimes it feels as though we're banging our heads against the wall with all of this climbing... oh wait, no, that's another summit sign, not a wall