Prineville, OR

Once again, slightly rushed to get 'net stuff done in a library time frame. Also, once again, I've forgotten the little things I was going to remember to write about...

Anyhoo, the ride has been going nicely. It has still been pretty hot during the days, but not so bad lately as it was before. The nights have been nice and cool - this morning was actually a little too cold to go more than 10mph or so without fingertips freezing. I'm within 300 miles or so of being done, haven't added it up in a couple days, but the tentative idea is to get to the coast this weekend!

Planning on heading on down the road after this library stop, not sure exactly where to though because there aren't any campsites listed for a pretty good ways on the map. The next town listed as providing camping is Sisters, which is a little further than I'd like to go, but it's definitely within reasonable range. From there, I'll get to decide between two routes to get on to Eugene. The regular route goes over McKenzie Pass, the longer (by 20-something miles) alternate route goes over Santiam Pass. Problem is that McKenzie pass is apparently closed due to construction work and a rock slide. Heard through the grapevine that the road was closed to cars, but open to bikers until the rock slide. Also heard that the slide wasn't all that big, so I'm thinking I might just give it a try anyhow. But, that decision doesn't come until tomorrow, so I'll try to get some more current, local, information when it gets closer.

Baker City was a neat little town. Ended up getting in touch with Mike, another biker who was in town, and he showed me a little park to crash in for the night (his friend's place where he was going to invite me, was full with him and other family types visiting.) The park worked out well, except for another early morning (3:30) sprinkler session, but fortunately it wasn't nearly as bad as the one a few weeks ago. Killed several hours in the morning waiting for a bike shop to open up so I could get a couple innertubes. Bought a couple interesting books to read - one on a guy's travels with a Kayak and one on Genghis Kahn, had a coffee, and read for a bit. The kayak book only took a couple days to get through, but I really enjoyed it. It got me to thinking about international travel ideas. Definitely want to get out of the country more in the future.

After Baker City, I rode to Austin Junction, where there is a convenience store/restaurant type place that lets bikers camp out back for $5. It was a little bit strange, nothing major, just odd customers, weird (indoor) plumbing, strange attitudes, etc. The next morning, I had to fill up my bottles with a garden hose outside as the store hadn't opened up yet. Nastiest tasting hose I've ever drank out of - kept tasting rubber after several rinses down the road. Made some instant pudding for dinner thinking that the powdered milk and chocolate might mask the flavor. Nope! But, did sleep well, bought some gummy worms, and had water, so that's really all that I needed.

The next day after Austin Junction was neat riding. New mountains on the horizon, neat geology closer to the road. Still hot and dry out during the day. Stayed in a city park in Dayville right beside a small creek that was chock full of crawdads of all sizes. Thought pretty seriously about catching enough to cook them for dinner, but decided against it.

Monday morning I left Dayville and rode through the "John Day Fossil Beds National Monument" - didn't see any fossils unfortunately (probably because I skipped the visitor center.) Took a nice long break for lunch (Mountain Dew, granola bars, some chocolate, and an entire bag of Goldfish) in Mitchell, where I had a fun conversation with a couple local middle/highschool kids about cars, bikes, music, and other random stuff. They told me all about the campground at Ochoco Pass, a few miles further on, and mentioned that it had water, so I ended up heading there to camp last night. The campground was a USFS self-pay type deal, fee for a single vehicle/night is $12, but I only had a $10 and some $20s, ended up paying $10 and leaving a little note on the envelope, hope that my shorting them $2 doesn't end up causing a problem :). Seems like the fee should be less anyways for a single guy on a bike rather than 6 people in a big SUV, but that's just my opinion. Anyways, it was a nice campground with lots of shade provided by huge pine trees. Got pretty cold overnight, guessing somewhere in the lower 40s.