Seeing the country at the speed of a bicycle reveals changes in the environment more starkly than traveling by car. As I rolled into Sisters last night, I was clearly still in a mountain environment: tall ponderosa pines loomed over the road and the underbrush was spare. By two miles into this morning’s ride, I was in a different place. The ponderosa pine had given way to juniper and the undergrowth was dominated by sagebrush. And then, just like that, I was in open farmland irrigated by the Deschutes River.
The Cascades were brilliant in the early morning air, and receded as I rode east into early afternoon.
By late morning, they were just a backdrop to the Deschutes River as it runs through the high desert near Redmond, OR.
East of Redmond, the landforms changed again, to volcanic outcroppings like Smith Rock and palisades along the Crooked River, just outside of Prineville, my destination for the day.
Smith Rock
After three days of riding through the Coast Range and the Cascades, today I feel like we are really in the intermountain west — a whole new place that we will stay in for the next couple of weeks.
And today’s ride was also a change of pace. Instead of one continuous ride, I rode about 25 miles in the morning to just north of Redmond, then I took a two hour break as Toni and I drove down to Redmond and had a late breakfast with Lori and Carl at The Original Pancake House in Redmond.
One reason I am doing this ride on my own rather than as part of a group is that I have the flexibility to see people and explore a little more than if I were part of a group. I miss the camaraderie I have enjoyed on group rides and look forward to others in the future, but I am taking as much advantage as I can of the flexibility a solo ride affords.
After breakfast, Toni drove me back to where she picked me up in the morning, and I continued with another short ride east to Prineville, where we are spending the night.
Tomorrow is another fairly short day, which is good, as I am still fighting off a chest cold. I hope to shake it before the 115 mile day that is coming up early next week.
The technical stuff:
46.8 miles
1,184 feet of climbing
Average speed 16.3 miles per hour
Weather: Bright sunshine all day; around 50 to start, and mid 70s by the end of the ride. Winds calm in the morning, picking up to a light tailwind in the afternoon.
You can see the entire route to date here.