Day 6 – Dayville to Baker City

Mon 7th June 2010

Well where do I start with today? Firstly I’m writing this in my tent at 10:34pm listening to Chris snoring in his tent next to mine. It reminds me of the tardis taking off.

We should have finished at Austin Junction today but as we had cycled 10 miles past Dayville when Bob picked us up that made today’s already short day even shorter. We knew we could get further than Austin Junction but not as far as this. It was a little too ambitious really and has made us very late.

Hello - I'm a Gopher

Hello - I'm a Gopher

Anyway I got up at 5:00am and Chris thought he was on another rest day and woke up an hour later. After breakfast Chris remembered to fill his water bottles which was a marked improvement from last week. Unfortunately after filling them, as we later discovered, he left one of them in Bob’s kitchen.

So we loaded the bikes into Bob’s truck and while struggling to lift Chris’s bike in Bob named the bike Sherman so that is now its name, forever.

Cyclist

Loneliness of the long distance cyclist

Bob drove us back to within 10 miles of Dayville and dropped us off where he collected us and we set off at 8:00am with a nice tailwind. We made good time and in Prairie City we met another Transam cyclist who was going both ways  and hoped to be home before winter sets in. Good luck to him.

Nutters unite

A few miles east of there we were cycling along when a vehicle kept hooting at us. It was Bob and Mike on their Harleys. Having found the water bottle Bob needed no other excuse to get his Harley ‘Clifford’ out of the garage. It was great to see them both one last time but for some reasion they weren’t keen to swap bikes.

Harley

The handover of the water bottle

Reunited with his water bottle we set off again. It was a lovely day and the roads were very quite.To reach our planned stop we had a single 5,277ft pass to climb but to get here we had three 5,000ft passes to get over and cycle over 100miles. By 4:00pm we had reached a place called Sumpter and we should have stopped there but for some reason decided to press on another 30 miles to Baker City.

Mountain range

Fabulous scenery

The last 30miles was not quite so downhill as we expected and it took us longer than expected to get here arriving at about 7:00pm with not a clue where we were going to sleep. After stocking up with food for dinner and breakfast we eventually found a nice campsite near the edge of town.

It was getting dark as we ate our dinner and we were late to bed. It will be midnight before I sleep but I don’t care. We’ve had a great day in some of the most spectacular scenery and we’re 60miles ahead of schedule. Tomorrow we will have a short day to bring us back in line with the planned stops as so far this ride we have not stopped at a single location I had planned to.

Tonight is our first night in the tents and it does feel good to be in here although typing this is not easy. We both felt good today (must be the buffalo and elk) and it was a very tough days riding.

Dinner

Dinner in the dark tonight

A typical sight - A roadsign to some a target to others

Good to see some comments from our friends in Australia and NZ.

Daily Mileage – 103.6

Time in Saddle – 9 hrs 16 mins

Total Climbing – 5,575 ft

Comments

  1. Hi Alan and Chris
    So glad you’re having a better time of it. I think the rain you were having is now here instead!! Am guessing that your knee is not so much of a concern now Chris and am very happy to know that. Meant to say before what a fantastic website this is. Anyway, Stan sends his best wishes too. We are both with you in spirit. Lots of love, Ann xxx

  2. Hi to you both,

    Great to hear that you are progressing so well and that you are feeling good. Enjoy the shorter day tomorrow. Dad – I am surprised you are even bothering with water bottles you usually don’t bother with them when we go for a bike ride!!!

    Where have the banana updates gone?

    Take care and speak soon

    Lots of Love Lisa
    xxxxx

  3. hi chris and alan.

    dad gave me the details of your site. What a great adventure ! Who needs boardman and mcgregor ! Let s hope we beat the usa in the world cup on saturday ! all the best

    dan

  4. Glad your having a lovely time and meeting very nice people who go out of their way for a water bottle, very nice, look forward to reading your adventures every day, stay safe. love babs xxx

  5. The boom and crack of a rifle shot isn’t heard so much over here in the uk because we ARE allowed to use sound moderators.The US is known for it’s more liberal approach towards firearms but they CAN’T use moderators.Anyway I’m pleased you had fun.No doubt you will be pleased to know that you have inspired me to get on my bike again!Been and bought a new safety helmet and cycling shoe’s yesterday.
    All the best to you both.
    Sandy Jack

  6. Hi Chris
    Lisa gave me he link so i can follow,sounds like you having a great time and meeting some great people,ALL THE BEST TO YOU BOTH STELLAX(PAUL MUM)

  7. HI CHRIS
    Sounds like you having good time despite sore knees and elbows,
    All the best to you both
    Take care
    Stella

  8. Hey! Nice to hear that you are both well and you had a good days cycling! well done for doing so well and make the most of your shorter day tomorrow!!
    The scenery looks amazing.
    From the blog it seems you are making easy work of the climbs you’ve so far encountered.
    Poor you Alan that you have to deal with Dads snoring!! I’m sure mum is sleeping well at the moment not having to listen to it! he!
    Take care and keep blogging
    Love you
    Tracey
    x

  9. You guys are AWESOME! Thanks for visiting and loving our small town.

    If you happen to sleep in tomorrow morning and get off to a late start, stop in @ Paizano’s — I’ll buy ya a couple of slices to help load up on your carbs!

    I’m looking forward to reading of your future adventures….

  10. Alan and Chris,
    It was great meeting you in Prairie City Oregon. Good to see a couple of other people doing the TransAm for a good cause. I will be thinking about you and sending you good wishes as you make your way across. I’m in Baker City today and anxious to finally get out of Oregon. 575 miles down and 7,500 to go if I do the round trip. Take care and let’s stay in touch.
    David Jones
    http://www.rollingacrossamerica.org