2015-07-27 Day 29: Triple (By)Pass, Baker City to John Day, OR

Miles today: 81. Total Miles: 1620

When Jon and I rolled out of Baker City this morning it felt like we were almost done but the numbers show otherwise. I suppose when I consider where we're have been - the mountains we have climbed and the canyons we have conquered in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, what we have left doesn't seem like much. Still as of this morning we still have 400 miles to cross in our great state before we reach the Pacific. So I cooled my thoughts of finishing and just focused on today. It is all we can do and we do it every day.

Today's map showed we had 3 high passes all above 5000 feet to cross. Hence both Jon and I wanted to opt for a triple (by)pass this morning. But because there was no way around these mountains in Eastern Oregon we had to just go over them. It was cold today. Cold enough in fact that I had my arm warmers on all day - in eastern Oregon - at the end of July. Unreal. Let's hope this can continue.

We reunited with Tom and Eva, the couple from Amsterdam that we first met in Virginia City, MT and rode then camped with in Big Hole, MT. Jon actually ran into them last night in the Safeway in Baker City. Today we found them about 30 miles into the route between our first and second mountain passes. So, we had lunch with them and swapped stories of life on the Transamerican route over the last two states.