Hello, World

I set off a little later this morning from Missoula, it was the first night back in Mountain Time so the clock time was later, but I woke up to rain showers which I wanted to pass. As I cycled out of Missoula it showered on me a couple more times before the rain clouds finally blew away to the mountains.

The entire day I cycled up Bitterroot valley, with Bitterroot River flowing down the middle and Bitterroot Mountain Range towering over me on one side and Sapphire Mountain Range on the other. In 80 miles of riding only the last 8 or so was shared with traffic, and by that point the road is more remote and the traffic is lighter. From Missoula to Hamilton there’s a dedicated bikeway for 45 miles, while it’s not shared with cars it does parallel the 4 lane highway so I put my headphones in and listened to podcasts to drain out the traffic noise.

From Hamilton I took the Old Darby Road alternate, which is a well compacted gravel road with pretty much no traffic, and from Darby there are wide shoulders on the road until it finally starts getting into the headwaters of the Bitterroot. Tonight I’m sleeping next to a fork of the Bitterroot River, and tomorrow I’ll climb up and cross over the pass to the other side.

Montana has much faster speed limits than I’m used to, many of the roads have been 70 mph, even in the mountain sections. In California these would be no faster than 55. Montana also has different speed limits for day and night, the 70 mph sections are posted 65 mph at night.

As of today I’ve been cycling for exactly 2 weeks, and my wheels haven’t stopped rolling since I left Astoria. I’ve done almost exactly 1,050 trail miles, almost exactly a quarter of the total distance. So far every day has taken me through varied and beautiful scenery, quaint little towns, 3 states, and 2 timezones, I’ve met interesting people along the way, and really in every way it has exceeded my expectations. I’m not sure I’ll be half distance in another 2 weeks, but I should be close.

After the clouds cleared last night I thought the rain was over, but at 3 in the morning I was awoken by drops pattering on my tent. The rain lasted around an hour, and I got up as soon as it stopped, greeted again to low clouds in the sky. I packed up a wet tent and pointed my bike towards Lolo Pass.

Leaving at 5:30 am really helped with the traffic, I mostly had the road to myself all the way to the pass which was really nice. As I got to the pass I entered the clouds, and the final mile or so visibility was really low.

From the pass it is all downhill to Lolo and then mostly flat to Missoula. The ridgeline at the pass is the state border, so at the pass I set my clocks forwards one hour, back again to Mountain Time, and entered Montana.

The valley quickly opened up on the descent, after being stuck in a green tunnel yesterday it made a change. Lolo Peak stood prominent to the south with a snow covered summit. From Lolo to Missoula there was a dedicated bike route the entire length which was really nice because the road was very busy, and there were quite a few local cyclists out and about.

Adventure Cycling Association, who publishes the Trans America route has their headquarters in Missoula and invites people in when they pass through. On the wall they put a polaroid of people who pass through, color coded by direction, so I stopped to have my photo taken and nab a free ice cream sandwich.

The rest of the day in Missoula was spent running errands in town, and I’ll spend tonight in town. It’s a cute small city surrounded by mountains on every side. Today the weather was imposing and I had to seek shelter from short sharp showers twice while out and about.

Missoula is the end of section 3, which puts me 974 miles into the trip, after tomorrow I’ll be over 1,000. It seemed so daunting at the start, and even still looking at how much farther I have to go it still seems daunting, but its taken me through some amazing parts of the country so far. The next section ends at Yellowstone west entrance, I can’t wait, the few people I’ve talked to going west bound have all told me the Grand Teton is a highlight and one of the most striking mountain ranges they’ve ever seen, so I’m really looking forwards to that.

I woke up very early to flashes of lightning, with some small claps of thunder. It only showered briefly and while it was raining I made breakfast in my tent, breakfast in bed!

It didn’t last long, and I was soon packed up and on my way. The clouds were low and it was drizzling for my morning riding.

In fact the only thing changeable about the day was the weather; I cycled for pretty much 100 miles following a river up a steep sided canyon that was covered in thick trees. I can see why they named the river Clearwater, it was very wide and so gentle that the water was very clear.

The drizzle faded off in the morning and I could see low clouds hanging onto some of the peaks around me, until after lunch the clouds again descended and another hour or so of drizzle.

This evening I’m staying in a campsite in the trees beside the river I’ve been following all day. The climbing today was mostly gentle, I only gained about 2,000 feet over that entire distance, but tomorrow the final climb to Lolo Pass is almost as much height again in only 13 miles, at which point I’ll cross into Montana and hopefully coast downhill to Missoula.

As I guessed it might, I woke up this morning to a mist hanging over the meadow and moisture on anything outside; the fly to my tent was soaking. The atmosphere was magical though.

Today’s ride took me first down the headwaters of the Salmon River down to the main channel. The morning was very chilly, I put my fleece gloves on and I was still cold. I coasted down almost 60 miles following the river channel, first from the meadow into forest, and as it got drier and drier the vegetation gave way to golden wheatgrass.

One thing I didn’t realize is that Idaho doesn’t have one time zone for the whole state; when I crossed the Salmon River I switched back to Pacific Time, the same as California and Oregon. So I only spent one night in Mountain Time and tonight I’ve set my watch back again. Once I get to Montana I will be decisively on Mountain Time.

The Salmon River drains into the Snake River, where I came from 2 days ago, and Hells Canyon recreation area covers both Snake and Salmon Rivers, so today I was back in Hells Canyon again too. When the road gets to White Bird, a very little town, it climbs up and out of the river gorge to Grangetown, an almost 3,000 foot climb, which took me a couple of hours. The main highway has been reroute to a straighter and steeper grade, the old highway Is basically unused and that’s the one the bike route takes, which was really nice as I was crawling up the grade not having to worry about cars.

At the top it flattened out into a wide area of farmland again, but after passing through Grangetown, and stopping to pick up some groceries and ice cream, the trail drops back down into a forest and river again. Tonight I’m camped just on the banks of a fork of the Clearwater River. The next two days I’ll be following the Clearwater River up to its headwater and over Lolo Pass, which will drop me into Missoula, Montana. I hope to do it in 2 days, cycle as far up the pass as I can tomorrow, and drop down the next day.

The weather forecast is for scattered showers, hopefully they are scattered and light, I don’t prefer the idea of bicycling in the rain. It is forecast to maybe start overnight, but at least it looks dry by tomorrow night.

So far Idaho has been cycling between valleys and following rivers up and down, I don’t know where they grow all the potatoes, the scenery I’ve seen has been rugged and very beautiful, with only a little bit of farmland and a lot of cows.

This morning’s ride started out by following Snake River upstream, first on the Oregon side, and then crossing over to the Idaho side. I set my clocks forwards an hour to Idaho time and said goodbye to Oregon. The road then climbed out of the deep canyon, with a 7 mile and 2,000 foot ascent, and then down the other side into a large flat valley through which Weiser River flows.

The route hooked around to the south and curved back north, climbing back up into forested mountains.

The mapped route followed the highway up, but unlike the Oregon highways this one had practically no shoulder. Running adjacent to the road is the Weiser River Trail, an old railway track that has been converted into a bicycle trail. I had jumped on it for a brief section earlier and decided I preferred the paved road to the gravel trail, but after doing a couple more miles on the road I quickly changed my mind, and I’m glad I did. The river trail was graded so smoothly, and flowing through the forested trees proved much more shade than the road.

I had my eye on camping near the town of New Meadows, so that I could finish the second climb today. New Meadows turned out to be aptly named, it sits I the middle of a gigantic meadow, many miles long, I cycled 4 miles along the edge of it to the campsite and that isn’t the full length. It’s surrounded by low forested peaks.

The other thing that’s stuck me so far about Idaho is the cloud patterns have changed. It might just be the weather, but they are a lot different to Oregon. The wind is still blowing strong tonight, it probably doesn’t help camping in a huge meadow. So far Idaho has been distinctly different to Oregon, and the highway excepted the route has gone through some really pretty scenery.

Alto today I met a couple more cyclists, this morning I chatted briefly with a west bounder, from Holland, and this evening there’s a pair of gentlemen doing a section going east staying at the same campground. Time to retreat to my tent and out of the wind.

The temperature was forecast to be much lower today so I had a slower start and left a little later in the morning than the past few days. The ride today left Baker City crossing the Oregon Trail through wide open desert, and then dropped down to follow the Powder River.

Leaving Baker City the Blue Mountains tower over the wide open valley. The air is cooler, the sun is out, and the wind is still very gusty and strong. Powder River cuts a green ribbon through the otherwise desolate desert surrounding, the road runs in the valley directly adjacent to the mellow river and after crossing the ridge between Baker City and the river I mostly coast down for miles without pedalling.

Before we reach the dammed reservoir the valley opens up to more irrigated farmland with splashes of green, and the road crosses over Eagle Creek to a wide open valley with a small town.

There’s only one climb today, crossing up and over to Pine Valley and a town called Halfway. Towering over Halfway is a granite mountain range, the Wallowas, the only granite mountain range in Oregon.

From Halfway the road follows Pine Creek all the way to its confluence with Snake River in Hells Canyon. My campsite is here in Hells Canyon, and Snake River separates Oregon from Idaho, I can see Idaho on the other side of the river. The reward for the past two swelteringly hot days was a comparatively mild day for the ride to Hells Canyon, which went through open desert with no shade whatsoever.

Tonight will be my last night in Oregon, tomorrow I follow Snake River upstream for a way and then cross over the river and state border, and by the time I find somewhere to sleep I’ll be well into Idaho.

I woke up with the birds again, pre-dawn, and got up to clouds in the sky. Today’s ride started by continuing up the John Day River to the town of John Day, Prairie City, and then climbing the first of three passes, Dixie Pass.

The scenery continued to evolve from the previous day, the valley got wider and the mountains flatter, until the Strawberry Mountain range became visible to the south, with still a little snow on the peaks. The climb up to Dixie Pass the mountain range became more prominent I the distance, and the dry landscape was replaced by lush forest of the Malheur National Forest.

One of the things about bicycle touring is that all those roadside vista points, and historical markers that I would never stop at when driving, when riding a bicycle they provide a welcome break from pedaling, often uphill. On the way up Dixie Pass I stopped at the Sumpter Valley Interpretative Trail and read about the railway line that was built between Baker and Prairie City to transport wood and other commodities, and it ended up tying a thread through the rest of the day; later I passed through the ghost town of Whitney which was based around the railway, and abandoned when the railway was discarded, and the train depot just outside of Sumpter.

After Dixie Pass there was many miles of riding through forest, over two more passes. One thing that struck me about the forests was how the forest floor was a canopy of green grass. After the final pass, Sumpter Pass, I followed the Powder River all the way down to Baker City, it left the forest and went back to desert landscape. with wide irrigated farmland in the valleys.

Tonight I’m staying in Baker City, which is the largest town before the Idaho border. The main street has many original buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Baker City is the end of Section 2, tomorrow I start Section 3, which crosses into Idaho and ends I Missoula, Montana. Either tomorrow, or probably the next day I’ll leave Oregon.

I’ve been riding for a week non stop now, I’m around 475 miles from Astoria along the trail.

The weather forecast today was for highs around 36°C (that’s about 97 for those who deal in freedom units; either way it’s hot), and unlike California the highs arrive later in the afternoon and stick around to the early evening. I wanted to get the two climbs to the passes done in the cooler morning temperatures so I got up at the crack of dawn at 4:20 and set off just as the first rays of sun were touching the top of the mountains at 5:30.

Leaving early was definitely the right call, the morning riding was so pleasant. Just before the first pass I ran into Dominic who I met yesterday and spent the rest of the morning cycling together, first with a glorious descent down from Ochoco Pass, which was so pretty, and then with a slog of a climb up Keyes Creek Pass, it was heating up and there was no shade.

From the second pass much of the afternoon was a meandering gentle downhill through increasingly dry landscape which was really beautiful, the plateaus from successive lava flows caused steps into the hills with table top mountains and crumbling basalt sandwiched between them.

The descent ended in the Sheep Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. There were really pretty rock formations here, I would have stopped to do one of the hikes but it was so hot and standing in the sun was much hotter than moving on the bike, so in the end I just stopped for lunch before continuing on.

The rest of the day followed the John Day River upstream. I decided to just push on after stopping for a very satisfying ice cream sandwich in Dayville, spinning the pedals through the heat wasn’t really any worse than sitting out in it, and this way I’m closer to the climbs tomorrow, which I can hopefully do in cooler morning temperatures, although the forecast is for cooler weather tomorrow anyhow.

Todays ride took me through really varied landscapes, the first climb from Ochoco Lake to the pass was through fairly thick forest, and as the day went on the trees got smaller and really sparse, replaced by sagebrush. The east side of the Ochoco Mountains was beautiful landscape that was fun to ride a bike through, and the final ride up John Day River the terrain flattened out some more, the mountains turned rounder, with irrigated farmland stretching from the road to the mountains. As I cycled past the cows looked at me suspiciously, the horses pensively, and the goats curiously. The dogs always bark like hell.

Tonight a campsite with a shower again, very welcome after today’s heat, sitting along the banks of the John Day River. Looking forward to an early night tonight.

Last night sleeping at 4,000 feet the air temperature got lower, and overnight everything got covered in dew again. I woke up to a low mist hanging above Lost Lake.

The morning riding started off with a short ascent to Santiam Pass and then a 1,500 foot descent down to Sisters, the first town on the east side of the Cascades. From the east side Mount Washington stands tall and white, still covered in snow. It captures all the rainfall, enough to create glaciers which have carved it’s prominent pointy peak. It was visible in my rear view mirror the rest of the day.

As I travelled east the trees got smaller and less dense, and the arid landscape turned to golden grasses and sagebrush that I’m familiar with in California. I stayed at around 3,000 feet pretty much the whole day from here, travelling east first to Redmond, the largest of the towns, and finally through Prineville, which sits at the base of the Ochoco Mountains, which I will climb into tomorrow.

As I pulled into an overlook state park just before Prineville (which is a 300 foot descent from the road I’d been tracking across, sitting in a water carved valley) I met another cyclist doing the Trans America, the first person so far! They said I was also the first Trans America cyclist they had met, they left the same day as me but as a Portland local started just south of Tillamook. He was planning to go further than me tonight so we parted ways, but I suspect I’ll run into him again tomorrow or the day after maybe, he can’t be far ahead.

Tonight I’m staying at Ochoco Lake campground, really a reservoir rather than a lake, that sits just above Prineville. There are showers which will be nice after sweating across the hot roads today, I’m pretty sure I’m mildly sunburned on any exposed skin, which I tried to cover up, but not much you can do with your ears and face.

Tomorrow is going to be a scorcher too, the hotest day so far and climbing over desert mountains I’m planning to try and get the climbing done in the cooler morning hours. The route goes through John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, which looks interesting, if it’s not too much detour.

This morning I woke up to low hanging clouds in the mountains around Eugene, and the ground was wet so I assumed it had rained overnight, but as I started moving I could feel the moisture hanging in the air, the early morning fog.

Today was the longest days ride I’ve done yet, almost 90 miles, and it took me the complete length of the McKenzie River to just shy of Santiam Pass. While I started below 500 feet and finished just above 4,000 feet there were only a couple of steeper sections near to the end of the day, for the most part it was a very gentle incline and very pleasant riding.

By mid morning the mist started to burn off and the sun came out again. The beginning of the day meandered through some more small farms and rural communities nestled between the tree covered mountains. As I entered the main valley that McKenzie flows down it turned into a burn area. The river was wide and looked fairly gentle.

After lunch as I kept climbing I got out of the burn area into forest. I could see a snow covered peak in the distance, I think it must be McKenzie Pass which I couldn’t take, coming up Santiam Pass there is no sign of snow. As I got nearer to the top of Santiam Pass the forest floor turned from pretty thick lush vegetation into lava fields. The lava that flowed in this area is the most recent in the United States, it was flowing when the Mayflower sailed into port.

I couldn’t help but compare everything I was seeing to the Sierra; the relative lack of glaciation, there are no real foothills, we go straight from Willamette Valley into the forest, and just how much vegetation there is on the forest floors. I was also still struck by how much water flows down the McKenzie River and how wide and gently it flows.

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet, western Oregon is absolutely covered in blackberry bushes, they are everywhere! From the coast all the way to base of the Cascades, there are blackberry bushes all along the sides of the roads. Unfortunately none of the berries are ripe, Most of the bushes are still flowering, and at best there are green immature berries. Later in the season there must be enough berries for everyone to eat their fill.

The campsite tonight was chosen because I ran out of legs, it’s kind of near the highway and there are mosquitos out, but I will enjoy sleeping in the forest none the less.

I don’t know where I’ll end up tomorrow, I’ve set myself up for an easy ride up to the pass, I’ll figure it out on the road. Time for dinner.