Honey Nut Cheerios

Here’s where I was camping in the last post! The city park campsites are my favorites — free, beautiful grass to pitch on (unlike gravel in more formal campsites), flushing toilets, water and electricity. It’s also fun to be in town instead of the middle of nowhere and to not share the place with massive RVs and trailers. The craziest RV setup I’ve seen so far was one of the bus-sized rigs which was towing a jeep, which was towing a trailer with a boat!

The high temperatures continued. I waited out a bit of rain at the park before setting off, but the roads out of town were drying while I rode. The evaporating water made the air extremely humid

Passing a dam. A steep road going down the other side! Made me think of Goldeneye, when Bond jumps off the dam 

The penultimate state! They’re flying by now. I stayed a night in Halfway, Oregon, which coincidentally is about halfway through my trip

I was not expecting to see more sage brush after Wyoming, and I can’t say it was a welcome sight

I saw on the map that there’d be no towns for 40 miles, but didn’t realize exactly how remote it would be. With the trees gone the wind picked up again and I really felt like I was back in Wyoming

One of “these” roads again which is straight all the way to the vanishing point. If you’re not cruising along it’s very demoralizing because you feel like you’re going nowhere and all you have to do is pedal. I had full water before when leaving the town before this stretch but realized I would run out with the exposure and heat, and I felt pretty dehydrated after rationing it by the time I rolled into Baker City

The hostel I stayed in was amazing! It’s in a classroom in a old school which is used to promote the arts in the city 

Still has the chalkboard! There were no other guests in the hostel and only one or two other people in private rooms in another part of the building, so it was super empty. It reminded me of being in the university library at night, or an empty concert room. I love that feeling of being in a space where there should be a lot of people but isn’t, so it was a dream place for me to stay. I ate three ice cream sandwiches provided by the hostel — so good!

I did a half day of riding to get to Sumpter. I mailed a kilo of gear which I felt was unnecessary to have with me and bought groceries before heading to the campsite. I’ve started buying a small bottle of milk with most shops — super easy way to get a ton of calories and a treat since I can’t refrigerate on my bike. The host at the campground office asked me if I was on the TransAmerica, and said my spot was already paid for by someone who was on the ride last year! Thank you, kind stranger

The next day, after three climbs in the woods which each started and ended at the same elevation, the terrain opened back out again and the wind hit me once more. What should have been a cruise downhill was a grind against the wind. It’s awful to see plants being blown like this 

While I was stopped in the town before the one I was planning on staying in, a guy came up to me on the sidewalk and asked if I wanted to join his group for dinner — they were a group of friends from Seattle who rode their motorbikes down for a rally for a particular bike brand (Moto Guzzi). So I ended up being part of this big event with hundreds of bikers! In the assembly hall the organizers were thanking people and calling the raffle while I ate a second dinner. They gave out a prize for the youngest attendee, who was my age, so that should tell you about the demographic 😉 After hanging out next to the campfire the group (about eight of us) went out to a bar where the others got even more inebriated 

Camped out in a sea of tents and motorbikes. Spot the impostor bike without an engine!

I passed through a couple more towns and met some other cycle tourists before hitting the big climb of the day. The majority of it was in canyons so the wind didn’t reach me but once it opened out near the top I no longer had the protection. I saw my first (live) snake

Beautiful views coming down the other side and undoing all the elevation gain I spent a few hours working on

What a meal! Canned chili, canned spinach and Thai chili flavored tuna. I served it with microwaved rice and shredded Italian cheese blend

Staying at the Spoke’n hostel in Mitchell, Oregon. This is a place that I’ve seen listed as one of the best spots to stay on the whole TransAm. It’s in a converted church and has everything I could ask for — I got to eat toast and cereal for the first time since I left Britain. Multiple bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios were consumed while writing this post

It’s only a couple hundred miles to the coast so the next post will probably feature the Pacific! I’m really excited to see it for the first time this trip and to get some cooler temperatures. Also, this week I did 400 miles and 40 hours of riding for the first time. My legs work pretty well now!