I have a confession to make. That chest cold I said I was fighting off was really getting the better of me, and yesterday evening I felt really lousy. So I took a couple of Nyquil, went to bed early and slept soundly. This morning I felt well enough to get back on the bike, knowing that a fairly easy day was ahead of me.
I know — some of you are saying there is nothing easy about riding a bicycle nearly 50 miles and going over a nearly 5,000 foot elevation pass. In fact, some people have called this whole endeavor insane. But honestly, I’ve been training for rides of 80 to 100 miles in a day, and the 5,000 foot elevation isn’t as daunting when you start out at nearly 3,000 feet. Plus, the climb was gentle (mostly 2-3% grade with a few short 5-6% pitches) and I had a bit of a tailwind pushing me along.
So I was able to get rolling about 9:00 AM and be done by shortly after noon, and never really felt stressed. By the end of the day I feel as though I am over the hump with this cold and ready for the longer rides that are coming.
The route took me from Prineville to the small town of Mitchell Oregon and started out through ranges and wetlands dominated by nearby escarpments.
The short video below captures some of the sounds of the morning.
As I climbed toward Ochoco Pass, the tall ponderosa pines I last saw in Sisters returned.
After a brief stop at the pass . . .
The countryside opened up again on the fast descent into the Painted Hills area, where old volcano cores mixed with broad sedimentary ridges.
Mitchell is little more than a wide spot in the road, which mostly caters to a tourist trade visiting the Painted Hills and nearby fossil beds. Toni chatted with several residents of the town, and you can read her more full report on the town here.
We are staying in the “historic” (1935) Oregon Hotel on Main Street in Mitchell. It’s for sale (listed at $625,000 — see here) if anyone is inspired to move out here after reading Toni’s post.
With our early finish, we had time for a leisurely lunch at The Tigertown Brewery, which specializes in chicken wings. Not exactly what I had in mind for lunch, but I had some of their excellent Smoked Porter. We now need to head out to dinner, as the only other restaurant in town closes in about an hour.
The technical stuff:
48.4 miles
2,448 feet of climbing
Average speed 15.1 miles per hour
Weather: Bright sunshine all day; around 60 at the start, and about 70 by the end of the ride. Winds calm in the morning, picking up to a light tailwind up to the top of the pass and then bouncing around on the descent.
You can see the entire route to date here.