Wednesday 5 July 2017

Baker City, OR

Today was I think the hardest day on a bike so far (and I hope for the whole trip!). There was no cool of the early morning, it was uncomfortably hot by 6:30. Not a cloud in the sky all day.

It started well with a 5 mile climb and another super fun 7 mile descent down to Richland for second breakfasts. It was a typical small town diner so I've included a picture of it. After that it was 40 miles through an arid landscape with no shade or buildings plus another long hill to climb. At 35C I was really struggling and overheating. Thanks to George who waited for me on the climbs to check I was ok. water in our bottles turned to warm water very quickly.

Lots of dead rattlesnakes on the road. The snakes are all smaller than I imagined rattlesnakes to be. We rode by a pretty stream at one point and saw a few deer. We also passed by some wagon ruts left over from the Oregon trail. Made by thousands of wagons passing through to seek a new life in the west it was pretty exciting to see, though doesn't make such an exciting photo.

At 6 miles to go we came across construction and the man holding the stop sign told us it may be a 20min wait. Still no shade anywhere and baking sun. I was pretty much in tears from heat exhaustion at this point. So I got a ride in a pickup truck for the final 6 miles. I was so grateful. There is always someone to help if you just ask for it.

The new tent still hasn't been used as I needed to get indoors. Even if I had been feeling ok it would have been hard to resist a bunk in the Baker City bike hostel. It has everything a cyclist needs including free ice pops (or popsicles in American). To my great delight it also has a kettle, proper tea bags and milk. It may now be 37C out now and I may be suffering from heat stroke but I'm English dammit, I want my tea! The owner Kim is pictured holding a chicken. George and Alex are also staying here. It's a 20min walk from town and too knackered to face it we ordered in takeaway pizza.














1 comment:

  1. Sounds awful! Hope it's a bit cooler now! Glad to see you've got some cycling buddies to share the pain with though :-)

    ReplyDelete

That's All Folks

My cycling adventures in America have come to an end! I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way. I won't try a...