Day 6 -- Just another day in paradise

June 26, 2004

ROUTE:  John Day to Baker City, OR            
DISTANCE:  80 miles                  
WINDS: Light tailwinds until the last 18 miles where we picked up the usual headwinds into town.

WEATHER: Absolutely perfect...temperature in the low 80s and sunny...cooler in the higher elevations                
TERRAIN: 3 major climbs...but 3 major downhills too!!!!!            
TOTAL CLIMBING: 4700 feet

RIDE OVERVIEW: Boy are we in a great weather pattern.  The temperatures have been tolerable on this trip so far and we are really thankful.  heard several people say this morning that they were a bit tired...hmmm, I wonder why?  But everyone seemed to be in good spirits in spite of the climbs that loomed before us as we got ready to pull out this morning.

As you know, last night we stayed in John Day.  Everywhere around here it's John Day this and John Day that. Seems like this guy's name is on just about everything around these parts! Who was this John Day fella anyway?  I was a bit curious and when I checked it out, I discovered he was a trapper that came through this area in the 1800s.  One day he was attacked by Indians and left alive but naked along the river where some Europeans found him and named the river the John Day River (sounded better than "Butt Naked River" I guess).  John thought this was pretty neat so he named just about everything around here after himself after that incident. Now you know how to get something named after yourself...you don't have to do anything important, you just have to find someplace that isn't already named and get naked.  I checked and found everything's already named around here (mostly after him) so I'll have to wait and find someplace else.

Today was another tough day, especially after yesterday which was billed as our toughest on paper.  Many of the riders thought today was tougher, but I think it was only because of the cumulative affect of both days together plus they've been climbing for several days now.  Today's ride had 3 mountain summits to cross each about 5000 feet high with each ascent at least 6 miles long. We started out below 3000 and descended below 4000 between each summit. I think we climbed in the neighborhood of 4700' today.  I'm sure the riders hate to lose all that altitude each time they work so hard to get to a summit, but such is life. Although the effort was tough, the scenery below was breathtaking (and they already were breathing hard after the effort) which made the work to get to the summit well worth the effort.

Finally, after the last summit, the road started down for the next 10 miles.  We passed a reservoir where a couple of the riders took a dip in the cold mountain-fed lake. We also came across a steam engine museum just before the last SAG.  It was an authentic steam engine that would take you on a tour of the gold mines.  This area was dredged over an 8 mile stretch and produced only 1 cubic yard of gold in 30 some years. Sounds like a bust mine to me. I could find more gold in my jewelry case...made for a neat story though.

While Karen and I were at the railroad museum, I took time to take a photo of me on the train for my grandson who is in love with Thomas the Train.  Every time I see an old locomotive, I send him a photo of me on it.  While we were there, one of the railroad men told us about the birth and growth of the railroad in this area in the late 1800s...he seemed to be a walking encyclopedia on the subject.  Listening to him was quite interesting to say the least...especially the part about why the tracks are a certain width apart. The standard rails are exactly 4' 8½" apart...and of course there's a good explanation as to "why."  According to our railroad man, the first steam engines were purchased from England and that's how wide their wheels were so of course we had to build our tracks that far apart.  That begs the question, why did England have them that wide? Well, they built the trains in the same factories they had been building their wagons so they used the same specs for both to keep from retooling their forges. Why were the wagon wheels that width you ask? You would ask that you know...It's simple, the ruts in the roads during that time required them to build their wagons with a wheel width that would fit smoothly into the ruts in the roads of that era.  Ah, that makes sense...but it seems that the cart is before the horse here...didn't the wheels make the ruts in the first place? Well, yes on that one, but the ruts were made in the Roman Empire times and the British built their wagons to "fit" the roads...er, ruts left by the Roman chariots.  OK, there must be more...why were the chariots that wide?  Seems they had to be a certain width to allow for the yokes to fit around the butts of the Roman horses...now you know why train wheels are the width they are today.

But as Paul Harvey says, "The Rest Of The Story"...The space shuttle has a part that's so big that it has to be transported by train from the factory to the shuttle assembly plant. This part has to be transported through a tunnel that was only built as wide as the trains that had to pass through it so they can't build the part any bigger than the tunnel. I think it's ironic that the specs of the most sophisticated and most advanced transportation system in the world are limited by the size of a Roman horse's butt.

Last item from me today...when we got into town, there was a big bicycle stage race going on.  Got my competitive juices flowing watching the 75-90 bodies flying around town, diving into corners, and sprinting to the line. Several of the riders went down after dinner to watch the pros race...quite exciting.

Tomorrow we ride to Ontario...the one in Oregon.  We are rapidly approaching our first rest day...we need it. Tune in tomorrow and see how we do.

SUSAN'S BIKE SHORTS: [Susan's been helping me with the website and would like to report her perceptions of the day in this space. Mike]:  

[Here we were a week into the ride and Mike still has a firm grip on his website. I was hired in part to keep the site, thus freeing Mike for more riding with Karen and photographing. I know that I am a slow learner, but Mike was reluctant to hand the site over entirely, mainly because it was his baby, he'd been keeping the site for years, and had formulas and photos planned for each day. I think that my Bike Shorts bit was a way for Mike to see what I would recount. It is not until we've been on the road over two weeks that Mike allows me to take off the training wheels and compose the site--still with his help in choosing pix and composing captions. And, I have to admit to calling Help! a couple of times after this too. But even after relinquishing the site, Mike frequently jumps back in and creates the report. As I said, it's his baby and just too much fun. But we were doubling the effort and doubling the amount of text, which  made the site too long-winded, IMHO   Susan 2016]

• Gorgeous country! Mike's rhapsodized about it above, so 'nuff said. Dave was still feeling puny after yesterday's effort, so he rode in White (white van) with me today as I drove SAG and set up the second rest stop.  I was very glad to have him. It was nice to have a navigator and another set of eyes to spot riders needing help. We stopped and helped Gary H. air up a tire that wanted to lie down and play dead and we stopped a second time to give a rider water.
• Early on we, Red (red van), and Box (Budget rental truck)] got ensnared in the traffic at a quarter-mile detour.  Mike helped me back up the van and turn around on the narrow road. Then I stayed in place for a bit to help the riders get started behind the pilot car and past the construction. After the construction, Dave & I parked midway up the first big climb. When Barb pedaled up, we continued on up to a large covered wagon that sits in a viewpoint, took some pix, read the history, and wondered why they had faced the wagon east. We also picked up Barb and hustled her to the Box, which was covering the first rest stop.
• Then we worked our way up through the riders to the lead riders and into "my" rest stop  It was a beautiful location about 58 miles out, nearly on the shores of Elliot Lake, and shaded with spruce and aspen trees. While I was reading one of it's interpretative signs, I spotted a large osprey nest with young in it atop a tall tree.
• The front runners, led by Pete and "Re-Pete" booked it today, getting to the motel hours before the tail of the dog. In fact I had just set up the rest stop and decorated the table with my usual wildflower bouquet (for the ambiance, you know) when the two arrived and tore into the food like locusts.
• Then I lost my good help when Dave got antsy to ride, so borrowed my helmet, got his bike from the rack on the van, and headed for Baker City and the motel pool, 23 miles away--in shorts, tee, and lace-up deck shoes on clipless pedals.
• Dave Wainwright, a self-supported touring cyclist on his way from Red Bluff to Missoula came along needing water. This is the second self supported cyclist we've met, and both are giving us touring Pfreds a bad name. Dave had no map, little food, and had just headed out without planning his route or where he'd eat and sleep, but he was clearly dependent on motels and restaurants. He's in for some looooong days. The previous cyclist was carrying a load so poorly balanced that his bike was in perpetual shimmy--BIG time shimmy--on each descent. Said he's gotten used to it. Yikes! I talked to him about distributing his load. Think his name was Ted. Curiously both "turista" were on Bianci's, Dave on a cyclocross. Dave said that he could not get out of the saddle without shimmy also. I let Dave fill his three bottles with water and when I next looked at the sign-in clipboard that sits atop the water jug, I found he had left a $10 bill. I returned it to him and told him that my employer was not going to lose any money by my giving him some water and that he'd surely need the $10 at a restaurant down the road.
• While at the rest stop, Dar and Neal found to their surprise that they'd both attended the same high school--Roosevelt in Des Moines.
• Bill G. pedaled in on his recumbent, and when I told him that the pit toilet was without paper and that I'd placed a box of tissues outside it, he announced: "Hey, I've got some real toilet paper," and proceeded to rummage in his two-ton luggage container until he came up with a pristine roll. Since he's lacking only a kitchen sink on his rig, we've gotta come up with one for him somewhere.
• I leapfrogged Diane and Bill G the rest of the way into town. Seemed like Murphy's Law was working because every time I'd find what I considered a good place to pull off the road, along would come a hay truck or a farmer, etc, and need to pull in. Watched the cliff swallows work the Powder River (which had been gurgling through this canyon on our right) and picked currents from large bushes growing near the bank while I was waiting at one spot near town.
• Got to the motel at 5:30 just ahead of Route Rap and a great dinner.

HEARD ON THE ROAD TODAY:  

• "Why does a chicken coop have only two doors?" Because if it had four it would be a sedan." [From a Laffy Taffy package.]  
• "I'd draft off you but I don't have a kickstand."  
• "Every time I open my computer it goes into hibernation. It's a bear of a problem."
• "This was my favorite day riding so far. It was all so beautiful."
•  "Gee here are the gnats again! I put some sunscreen on my legs yesterday and during Route Rap, dozens of gnats kamikazed to their deaths on it, and then stuck. Yeecchh!"

PHOTOS OF THE DAY:

Hmmm, let's see now. . .They took the P out of pizza and turned it to pissa? I just hate that bathroom humor, don't you?

A reminder of how they used to cross country before the invention of the bicycle.

A bovine paceline.  I wish I could get the riders to cooperate this well when I'm taking their photo.

Now just raise your knees and place your legs in the stirrups. We can deliver this baby and get you
 back on the road in no time.

"Hi mom! This is me, Ted, in mime whiteface and skull skin. 
Having a great time here at Camp Grenada."

Col. Tom says, "Whew! This takes more out of you than the Marine Corps."