Day 4 - Sept 14th

• Distance:  63.0 miles

• Climbing:  5,102 feet

• Moving Time:  5:01:50

• Elapsed Time:  7:10:28

• Average Speed:  12.5 mph

• Max Speed:  38.6 mph

After breakfast we got ready just in time (8am), then started riding back on the road we’d ridden 2 days ago (in the opposite direction).  Now we faced a long climb up, but only about 3-4% grade.  Unfortunately everyone seemed to be riding at the same time, and there were cars and trucks trying to go in the same direction, as well.  The road had a solid double line for a while, meaning the vehicles had a hard time passing.

Both the cyclists and drivers were getting antsy.  After maybe 15 minutes of this, finally a police escort arrived to lead the vehicles past the cyclists, lights flashing to warn any oncoming traffic in the opposite direction.

Once at the top we now diverted from Monday’s route by making a sharp right turn and then into the food stop area.  Donuts!  After a brief break here, we thought we’d start a descent, but we’d be wrong.  Instead, we had a bit more climbing to do, about a mile, before starting a long descent.  The grade was easy and the road didn’t have a lot of turns, so it was a fast descent.  Even toward the ”bottom”, there was still a slight decline, so it was easy to keep up speed.

The start of the descent was forested, but we soon started passing farms.  At one point I passed a couple horses and felt compelled to stop and walk back to take pictures.  Later, everyone was stopping at a bridge to take pictures of the bridge, the John Day River, and surrounding mountains.

Next, we started climbing up through a narrow canyon.  Near the start of the climb was a water stop…with no water.  They’d somehow run out.  Some cyclists were waiting, but we had enough so we kept going.  Along the way, a woman on an e-bike started passing everyone, warning people that the police were at the stop sign at the top, giving cyclists tickets for not stopping when making a right turn.  I tried to keep up with her and was mostly able to.  She looked like she was on a little stroll, hardly pedaling.

At the top, as she had warned, was the police car.  I made a point to clip out of my pedals and come to a complete stop before making the right turn.  We then quickly came to a crowded food stop.  Unlike most stops, there was no bathroom line, but there was a huge line to get food.  Too long to wait.  I just grabbed some Gatorade and we left without getting any food.

After another 3 miles of climbing, we started the descent into Mitchell.  This was arguably the prettiest part of today’s ride, with wide open spaces and nice views of the mountains in all directions.  Unfortunately the sun position didn’t make for great pictures at this time, so I didn’t stop (I’d get pictures tomorrow).

At the bottom of the descent we turned left and shortly reached the little town of Mitchell (population 120).  Probably over a hundred cyclists were already at the Tiger Town bar getting food and drink.  We passed it, stopping at the quiet food stop at the end, set in a little park.  While we rested and ate, Alex showed up and we tried to convince him to do the Painted Hills with us, but he decided that was enough for today.

It was still only about 1:30pm, so Todd and I had plenty of time to ride to the Painted Hills.  So we started off toward camp along the highway, trucks passing us.  A couple miles down the road we reached the Cycle Oregon camp, but kept going another 2-3 miles before turning right onto the quiet road toward the Painted Hills.  This wasn’t officially part of the day’s ride, so there was no rest stop on the route, but there was already signage in preparation for tomorrow.  And it was only about 9 mile from camp to the Painted Hills, so we didn’t really need a rest stop.

After a short descent it was mostly flat to the end of the road, then left onto a gravel road.  Even though we had road bikes, it wasn’t hard to bike up the wide gravel road.  It climbed up to a parking lot, where we had great views of the Painted Hills below.  There were a few cyclists already here.  We saw some cyclists heading further, up the short hiking trail.  We thought about it for a while and eventually decided we’d ride up, as well.  I was somewhat apprehensive since the trail was much narrower than the road, and had what looked to be a steep section, but it really wasn’t that bad.  I was glad we did it, as this provided even better views of the hills.

After enjoying the views, we returned, back to the gravel road, back down to the paved road, and then back to the highway.

I asked if our tent neighbors wanted to have dinner with us, but they were heading into town.  Unfortunately for them, the shuttle that was supposed go into town never showed up, so we ended up meeting them in the food tent anyway.