Monday 27 August 2012

Put a fork in me, I’m toast!

Today I have endured the toughest day so far on the bike.  Today’s ride involved three mountain passes back to back, but the reason it was such hard work was my broken night of sleep last night.




I ended up in the Oxbow Restaurant and Saloon last night, eating a USA sized portion of prime ribs to replace the calories I burnt. 

Normally when I tell people of the journey I attempting, the reaction is ‘you’re doing what!?!?’, but last night the reaction was more ‘meh, we had the goat guy in here last week’.  So I was naturally interested to hear about the goat guy.  It turns out, some nutter is walking from Seattle to New York …….with a Goat!  Find out more here http://www.needle2square.com/

A couple of beers (literally a couple!) were consumed and I had a great night learning all about The Great Lebowski; but I got back to my campsite and sleep eluded me.



The lack of sleep combined with the tough route, meant that I was in a whole world of pain today.  At the end of the day, as planned, I reached Baker City (the ride was fantastic though, despite the pain).  Exhausted as I was, I went straight to a motel; not something I plan to do often, but you need to treat yourself at times and I knew a night in a tent just wouldn’t do tonight!



Tomorrow I should reach the border with Idaho; that milestone is not just my third state, but also my first ever cycle through a time zone (my previous big rides have always been south-north). 


That concludes my visit to Oregon, but what a place Oregon has been.  The scenery has gone from coastal, to forest, to desert, to prairie, to gorge.  The people have been fantastic; everyone is interested in the journey and people have been so generous, either buying me beer, gifting me a penknife or giving me meals. 

So on to Idaho!  I honestly can’t wait.


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