Oregon Cycling Magazine

by Jim Colbert

My daughter is about to have her first baby, a girl, in January, 2009, so I took this opportunity to ride from Eugene to visit her in the hills north of Pomeroy, Washington.

I started out on a Sunday taking the LTD bus to the Forest Service McKenzie Bridge District Office.  Having turned 65, I was happy to make first use of my EZ-Access Honored Rider pass. Leaving downtown at 8:30 AM, I set up my bike before 10:00 AM and off I went.  My first day was taking me over McKenzie Pass, my highest and longest climb so I was quite nervous about the load and my ability to reach the 5325 ft. summit.  I quickly found that I could climb that grade in the middle chain ring and didn’t need the largest cog on the cassette.  The gearing is perfect for touring.  Later I climbed some lower elevation peaks that did have steeper ascents and thus caused me to be thankful for that third chain ring. It took 3-1/2 hours, with one stop for a bit of food and drink, to arrive at the summit.  I almost picked up a tiny hitchhiker at that stop.  A very brave little mouse was attempting to get onto/into my front pannier when I found it and gently moved it away.  As I neared the summit I noticed a number of emergency rescue vehicles.  At the Dee Wright Observatory there was a temporary command center for several parties searching the area for a lost hunter.  I hope he was found safe; I never heard.  I took that opportunity and the cover of the trailer to put on my long tights and sweater before heading down toward Sisters. I was told by one of the searchers that the cold drizzle would be gone as soon as I got down a ways.  Well that didn’t happen; it was freezing rain and high wind.  I stopped at the well named Windy Point to change into my full rain gear over my other clothes.  I quickly warmed up and found myself in Sisters at 3:30 PM.  With the cold still in my bones, I got a nice cottage at Sisters Motor Lodge just as I came into town.  It had a kitchen so I was able to cook food and make coffee the next morning before heading out, yum.

Highway 126 east of Sisters was great with a wide clean riding area outside the fog line.  When I got close to Redmond I took quiet roads north & east into Terrebonne.  That gave me some great views of the area above Smith Rocks State Park.  A stop at the climber’s shop there led me to a good place for a quick bite, great views of the Cascade peaks & a chance to plug in my GPS.  Smith Rock – Market Rd and O Neil Way took me almost to Prineville, again on roads with little traffic and good bicycle margins, if not bike lanes.  Once in Prineville, I found the city park on the east side of town with public restrooms so stopped to refuel.  I don’t like trying to eat or drink while riding with all that weight on the bike.  There I met folks from Crook County Parks who asked where I was headed.  One man said that I had better be ready for cold weather as the predictions were for a big drop in temperature that night.  They told me that I was lucky when I said I was planning on staying at Ochoco Lake State Park; they run that park and would close it for the season the next day.  I headed out, got to the park about 4:00 PM and was greeted warmly by the camp hosts.  Since it was the last night, I was their only guest and had the wonderful hot showers all to myself.  I set up camp, ate and took a short hike to watch the colors change over the lake as the sun set.

Tuesday, October 7, I was up at 6:00 AM., found warm morning air, ate, broke camp, and was on my way by 8:00.  The majority of the shoulder on Highway 26 was 18” – 48” but I did find stretches with little to no surface outside the fog line, scary.  Traffic was quite light.  I only got buzzed once; 95+ % of drivers are really great.  The climb was easy and the scenery was spectacular.  I saw red-tailed hawks, deer, and some wonderful ranches tucked away in the mountains.  There is a camp ground right at the top of Ochoco Pass.  Once over, I had over 7 miles of fast, easy down hill open road for just me.  I was in Mitchell by about 3:30 that afternoon.  Mitchell is tiny but the Oregon Hotel has a hostel type bunk room that is very inexpensive with bathrooms just down the hall.  Besides the hotel, there is one Café, one General Store, gas pumps and a 1-machine Laundromat.  All I needed.

Wednesday morning I found the frost in Mitchell, a day later than the Cook County Park person had suggested.  Again I got out early and started my climb on Highway 207 toward Spray.  While the climbs were quite reasonable, I found my first need for the smallest chain ring right out of Mitchell.  Here again the climbs provided some wonderful vistas.  Down hill runs had top speeds in the low 30’s with the panniers producing much wind turbulence.  There were lots more wildlife, a herd of over 25 deer, and mostly open range with juniper-pine forests.  Once down to the John Day River at Service Creek the views along the river into Spray were showing the start of wonderful fall colors.

Spray has a store, but being a very small town, not what some city folks might expect.  The mini-mart has a café-grill if you are running low on food.  With another cold night expected, I chose to stay at the River Bend Retreat, which was smart as I found a few snowflakes the next morning as I was leaving town.  As I started my climb that morning I saw a snowplow coming down and hailed the driver.  She told me that the road should be no problem as the day was supposed to warm considerably.  At this point I was deviating from my original plan that had me going east to Long Creek at US-395.  By going through Heppner, I was saving 1 day of riding but adding about 20 miles onto this and the following days.  The big climb today was not any higher but it started right outside of Spray while the other route would have me make the big and steepest climb after about 30 miles going up along the John Day River and Cottonwood Creek.  I chose the early climb over Bull Prairie and White Tail Butte.  That turn onto my alternate route awakened my GPS. It told me to turn around and go back to Spray (repeatedly until I got to US-395 late the next day).  It beeped regularly for two days.  When I got home I did finally find out how to tell it to ignore the route I had loaded back in Eugene.

While the cloud cover was there, I had just a few light flakes of snow on the way to the summit.  I stopped at Noon just short of the top to enjoy the area.  As the summit neared I was treated to a denser forest of Douglas fir, White fir, with a few spruce and tamarack thrown in.  Once over the top the forest thinned again to large, well-spaced Ponderosa.  Then I was hit by B-B size hail; fortunately it let up quickly.  I headed on down until I found Hardman, a little town 18 of souls with no services.  Coming into town I was hit again with B-B hail but this time it was coming down with a vengeance, I could hardly see to keep myself on the road.  I came to a stop as a white pickup truck approached from the opposite direction.  It was a wonderful gentleman that had the heart to offer me a ride down out of the storm.  I waited on the porch at the town hall as the hail turned to tiny snowflakes and everything turned white.  He disappeared down one of the dirt cross streets to take some things out of the back of his truck and drop off his little dog.  He said it gets overly excited having a visitor in the cab.  With that help getting below the slippery white roads, I got into Heppner early.  Again, with the cold weather and my light sleeping bag, I chose to stay in the unique little Northwestern Motel & RV Park in Heppner.  In my room the décor was wonderful hand-painted coconut palms and sandy beaches.  I heard later that each room had its own unique theme.  Heppner has a nice large grocery store even though the town is now down to about 400 inhabitants.  It does serve a large chunk of northeastern Oregon south of I-84.

Friday I took off at 8:00 AM for Pendleton, just under 60 miles away with three reasonable climbs before I got to US-395.  Once in Pendleton, I headed for Pedaler’s Place Cycle & Ski, the first bike store since leaving Prineville.  The proprietor provided directions for the next day, a suggestion for dinner and the best way to get to the motels up on the bluff, just off I-84.  After dinner and a good nights sleep, I cooked breakfast on the concrete walk bordering the lawn outside my room and was heading north with first light.  While the Saturday ride to Walla Walla, WA, was one of the shortest with minimal elevation differentials, the very strong cold headwind made it a grinding day.  Fortunately the owner of the Pedaler’s Place had pointed out Wildhorse Rd to keep me off Highway 11 initially.  It followed a tree-lined creek and was well protected from the wind.  That took me to Adams and farm roads to Athena.  From there I found Highway 11 to have a wide, clear cycling lane outside the fog line.  Once in Walla Walla, I found the old downtown area, a motel, a good bottle of wine and a great meal at the Marcus Whitman Hotel.  That highly recommended meal was the best since leaving Eugene.

Sunday morning I stayed on streets with bike lanes to the east edge of town, then onto Highway 12.  I had an easy climb out & down to Waitsburg, a flat road to Dayton, and then my last climb. I found it to be another great route except for a short stretch between mile markers 373 & 380 with guard rails just a few inches away from the fog line.  Fortunately, I was going down hill, making good time and was passed just once on that stretch.  As I came into Dodge Junction where Highway 127 take off north, I approached a very narrow bridge and saw a big semi coming up from behind (I do love that rear-view mirror).  I pulled off the road and two big rigs rolled past before I got over that bridge on a clear road; I made my right turn and was on the home stretch into the little town of Pomeroy.  One thing I should mention is that in that southeastern corner of Washington there are literally hundreds of those giant wind generators.  While I saw a couple dozen as I traveled, once I headed toward the farm on the high Palouse south of Pomeroy, hundreds seemed to go on forever.  That wind field is quite a thing to see.

While there I discovered great steelhead fishing on the Snake just east of Pomeroy and lots more wonderful small town hospitality.  At the end of the week I rode northwest for three more days to Blue Lake, Washington but that is a whole other story.

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