July 4th Eugene OR to Florence, OR 79 miles

Freezing cold Grand Finale!

showing our Patriotic pride

Final Day of the journey! We rode past Fern Ridge Reservoir, where I used to sail a little in college, and through Triangle Lake where we stopped and had lunch with good family friends, the Olsons. The ride was mostly on rural roads. I loathe chip seal. There was actually a portion of the road that was so rough I thought my brain was shaking loose from my skull. The final portion of the trip was on the 126, which hypothetically would have a nice large shoulder, except they decided to tear it up in preparation of repaving it (by 2010). Awesome, I'm sure the people that ride the route in 2011 will really appreciate that, but in the meantime...

Within the last 20 miles of the trip the temperature dropped 30 degrees from 87 to 57. In my head I imagined the last leg of the trip with perfectly sunny skies, birds chirping, crazy Oregon hippies noodle dancing along the road and a big bottle of champagne to top it off. Instead it was foggy & freezing cold with head winds glaore and we couldn't wait to get off the beach. But alas we are done and we can say we rode our bikes across the USA! 

July 3rd Sisters, OR to Eugene, OR

2nd to last day of the trip! The McKenzie pass was closed, which meant the busier Santiam Pass which I've driven about 3,000 times and never thought about biking. Lynn got two flat tires near the end of the day due to a spoke that was poking out, but luckily made it into Eugene before a bike shop closed. 

Crazy sidenote, Mom & Lynn ran into a group from the old bike touring company I used to work for- who were also going riding cross country. Small world!

We had an awesome dinner at PF Changs in Eugene, and I got to see my old roommate from college. 

Mitchell to Bend, OR

It was some more beautiful riding through Central Oregon & all the way home! It felt great to get off the bike & know that we have a few days off before we finish up our ride to the coast. A million thanks to Pat & Lynn for all their help & for making the riding more fun! 

We'll finish up riding over the weekend and post some pictures from the Oregon coast!

John Day to Mitchell

Stained glass donated by cyclists to the church in Dayville

Another day of worry free riding. We've gone passed a lot of the Oregon Trail history. I think the pioneers had to be literally insane. They hauled these huge wagons full of their junk, and basically hoofed across half of the country all the while plagued with perpetual diarrhea or cholera. That just sounds like a great time, sign me up. At least our bikes can go fast (which we'll have to try sometime). 

Anyways the weather has been gorgeous with no clouds in the sky & it smells like pine (mom prefers the roadkill smell in Kentucky) & we are so happy to be in Oregon and almost home!

Baker City to John Day

Our driver- thanks Pat!

We were so incredibly lucky to have Pat & Lynn come join us for the final few days into Bend. Pat carried our gear while Lynn rode with us. Lynn made some delicious food that we ate for dinner last night (for those of you who haven't experienced Lynn's cooking you are really missing out) & they brought food for breakfast & lunch as well. Unfortunately they forgot to bring white bread and miracle whip, so we really missed Kansas for a moment. In John Day we ate dinner at a delicious restaurant and slept in a nice motel (with real pillows!). We cannot thank Pat & Lynn enough!

Richland to Baker City, OR

I love this Cycle Oregon bike rack

yay- more hills!

that's right, even more hills

Our campsite in Richland

We spent last night in Richland, OR, at the nicest camp site we have been to yet (another point for Oregon). They had the cleanest showers & cheap laundry, and to top it off when our high quality mattress pump decided not to work, a nice older man from an RV came over and helped us pump it up with his incredibly loud air compressor (pretty sure we woke up the entire campground). 

Since we were only planning on a shorter mileage day, we got a later start (plus the grocery store didn't open until 8 am anyways- honestly I'm done with touring small towns for awhile). Unfortunately we did not plan for lots more hills and headwinds. There was actually a point during the day when we were descending a 6 or 7% downgrade (which should equate to really high speeds) and the wind had us at a dead stop. I was so irritated- I should not have to pedal to go down a huge hill!!! It was all I could do not to throw a child-like tantrum while kicking the crap out of my trailer (which I blame for all problems on this trip- it's my scape goat). 

Luckily, when we got to Baker City we got some great news. Our good family friends, Pat & Lynn are coming the next day to ride with us & sag our gear. Yay!

Cambridge, ID to Richland, OR

Mom trying to avoid riding into the bull

Wallowa Mtns. (I think)

Hell's Canyon

Oregon!! (i.e. the Promised land)

We finally had good weather as we started our day! After so much rain the past two weeks, and temperatures in the low 40s in Idaho, we are ready for good weather for the rest of the trip! Today was basically a day of climbing. Climbing to get over the pass to Hell's Canyon, climbing to get out of Hell's Canyon, climbing some more hills just in case we were enjoying mild terrain, and climbing the most painful climb of the day - some pass in between oxbow and Richland. We had originally thought perhaps we would stop in Oxbow, but decided to make it into Richland to try and make the next day a shorter day. We stopped for lunch in Oxbow and the guy at the restaurant made the comment "I knew you guys had to be either bikers or runners because of how big your thighs are." Hmmm...... I guess I'll take that as a compliment. 

McCall to Cambridge, Idaho

Such unattractive clothing

Really nothing to say here...

June 25th- Baker City, Oregon!

I wanted to update today, but I'm at a library with fairly ancient computers, so I can't get any pictures to download. So we'll try & update again soon somewhere else. But we're in Oregon!! Only a few hundred more miles & we'll be done!

Lolo Hot Springs to Idaho!

No more rain please

I think this picture was actually from the day before- oh well

Idaho! We're almost home!

The wonderful lodge where I had prime rib!

We stayed at Lolo hot springs last night & enjoyed a little bit of time in the springs which our muscles enjoyed. We chatted with the campground manager for awhile, who we discovered rode horseback for two years from Montana to Panama- crazy!! It rained all night long, which is always a joy. It has rained EVERY day since Pueblo. Thats been rain everyday for 2 weeks +! What the heck? I'm so sick of the crud weather. Seems like the whole nation has had a real shotty June. 

We stopped for lunch at a cute little lodge (the only place to eat for about 70 mile) that had really good food. We met our first female TransAmerica cyclists there. Two college-aged girls who are riding eastbound. They seem a little more in shape for the trip than we were, so it should go a little smoother for them. 

After we left the lodge we were just cruising along, & I was lamenting the crappy weather and wishing we didn't have our beast trailers along (I don't mean to be the huge whiner that I am, but the extra weight of the trailer causes me extra grief on the mt. passes because my back just starts to throb where I had surgery, and then I get some weird paranoia that I'll have to go through it all again- blah) when I looked up and saw a familiar vehicle. Dad! He has been in Idaho for a fly in, and we haven't had phone service for a couple days & apparently our GPS tracker hasn't been working (out of batteries but we didn't realize it) so he was a little worried & decided to back track & make sure we were ok. No complaints here- we loaded our trailers into that car and enjoyed some more load-free riding. Honestly, you can't compare the two, riding without the load seems to increase our speed two fold. Then of course it started pouring down rain & temps dropped into the 40s, so we went off route & got a hotel. 

We're not too far from Oregon!

Hamilton to Lolo Hot Springs, MT

Our site on the river

Part of our ride today consisted of 16 miles of bike path. I love not having to ride on the highway for a spell- Thanks Montana DOT! When we were stopped at a gas station in Lolo, a guy came up to us and lectured us on the dangers of biking the Lolo pass, which we'll go through for the next 30 some miles. My favorite part of the conversation was when he told us "You know, I have a motorhome, I can't slow down for bikers. Either I hit them or I hit the semi in the oncoming lane, and I'm not going to hit a semi." Hmm, I completely forgot that they no longer equip motorhomes with brakes. Seriously sir, consider letting off the gas for a second if it comes down to it. Overall we have found the drivers throughout the trip to be pretty great, but I hate stupid comments like that. It's not like a bike takes up a whole lane. Go around. 

Dillon, MT to Hamilton, MT

We made it into a cute little campground on the river near Hamilton, MT. The father has to leave now for an airshow in Idaho, so we're back to carrying our trailers. It was such a nice break... sigh. We camped near a group of middle school kids who were cycling on a historic tour of the Lewis & Clark trail. One of the teachers had started a non-profit and during the summers he takes group of students on different bike tours, mostly in the Montana region. He suggested I be a teacher, and then I could do the same. hmmm, I forgot that I'm going to have to get a real job soon. 

The campground was about 4 miles from town on a nice little bike path, so we rode into town and hung out for a little bit, enjoying even more of Montana. We decided we want to do a bike trip just through here sometime. 

West Yellowstone to Dillon, Montana

Historic Virginia City

Earthquake lake, formed by-you guessed it- an earthquake

Montana has been wonderful! It is such a beautiful state. One of the things that surprises us the most is how much different it is being here than say Kansas. In Kansas when we would enter a town of 1,500 people, there was usually 1 grocery store that closed by 6 pm, and 1 restaurant that offered burgers, cheeseburgers, & maybe a ham sandwich (thick white bread, a slab of processed ham, and Kraft singles cheese- mmm, tempt me more). Now in Montana we'll go into a town of 1500, and it will be bustling little tourist destination with several restaurants (including my favorite- sushi!), cute boutiques, organic grocery stores & normal grocery stores (that are still open when we get into town, which is key), and even when you go into what looks like a down home eatery there is a nice little diverse crowd of local farmers, fisherman, and everyday folk- all dressed in Patagonia and North Face. It's quite interesting the difference. But we are really loving Montana- all the towns and the scenery, and wishing more of our trip had been this gorgeous.

Grand Tetons and Yellowstone!

I have about 100 pictures from the national parks, but here's a few. The Tetons were phenomenal. I've been here before, but it never ceases to amaze. You see something different everyday, and if you pay attention there is always wildlife on the side of the road (and we saw several herd of buffalo). There was a ton of road construction going on when we entered the park, and they weren't allowing bikers (they were loading them in the pace cars) so we felt lucky that Dad is still with us and we can just go in our car & not try and lift our trailers into their big trucks. Also, when we got into the parks we tried to find a campsite and EVERY single spot was taken. I think there was a few RV spots, but if we wanted to pitch our tent there we had to pay a whopping $70 +. That sounds fair to me. I'm glad that the parks make plenty of RV spots and few tent spots, to really encourage the more eco-friendly version of camping. Some campgrounds will let you pitch your tent on an RV spot for the tent rate, but God forbid Yellowstone pass up on a little extra cash. But enough of the rant- we ended up having to go out of the parks to West Yellowstone (which was another 50 miles or so from where we were at, so again thank goodness Dad is still with us!)

Brief Review...

We made it into Wyoming! Since Dad is driving along with us, we took advantage of the use of a vehicle and cut a little time off our trip. There is a 120 mile stretch in Wyoming with no services which we decided we did not want to ride. Plus we're running a little low on the cash, so any extra push forward will help save there. Colorado was absolutely beautiful & we were told from bikers we passed a little bit ago that Wyoming was kind of blah, but we found the area we went through was quite pretty (those guys hadn't gone through Kansas yet, so I'm not sure they had the appropriate gauge of nothingness). 

This portion of our trip has by far surpassed the previous half. The scenery has been unbelievable, the food has finally gotten good, and even the riding has been pleasant. I think if I were to ever do a trip of this length again I would just ride Oregon to Colorado and double back on a different route - no offense rest of the country, it's just prettier. 

Hoosier Pass!

Dillon Reservoir

Breckenridge

Highest point on the trip- 11,539 feet!

bike path on the side of the road

Fairplay- right next to South Park

We bike our highest point on the trip today, Hoosier Pass. Since my dad is driving along with us for the week, we don't have to carry our gear which is awesome & feels incredible to be light riding! The first ten miles were awkward because we have had to drag along the dead bodies for so long- but it was glorious! We were amazed at our ability to climb the mountains, Hoosier Pass didn't take that long at all given the huge elevation gain, & the only thing that hurt was our lungs since the air is so thin up here. Biking through the Rockies is phenomenal- we knew Colorado was going to be better! We're looking forward to some more natural beauty throughout Colorado & again when we get into the Tetons.