I woke up at 6:00am and loaded up the bike, and hopped on over to the local diner for my power breakfast. Had my usual poached eggs, hash-browns and two cakes. The ride down through the mount hood forest via FS 46 to Detroit Oregon is a gradual ascent for 45 miles. The final 15 miles is uphill and very steep. Where at times I cranked the pedals over at a blistering pace of two miles per hour. At mile 60 the road descends rapidly for the final ten miles to Detroit Oregon. 

The only worthy note of this day, having done this ride before, was seeing some birds crossing the highway with there momma. These baby birds were too young to fly. They tried as I came upon them. 

This day it rained the entire day. I was drenched. 

The weather turned cold and Nasty and the snow level was below pass elevation. Reports were of snow accumulation on the Santiam Pass. Today I rested.  My shoes were still wet after sitting all day and night next to heater, which I had cranked up to 75 degrees. 

Day 4 – Detroit to Sisters 

Shoes finally dried out by this morning. 

57 mile ride over the Santiam Pass. Another journey I had completed before. This ride is where Peppered Thunder and Lighting was born. Today’s ride would be uneventful. From Detroit it’s 40 miles up to the summit at 4,855 feet above sea-level. Then it’s a fun down-hill ride to Camp Sherman, from there the road becomes a series of rolling hills that zapped my legs of there energy. Grabbed a room in Sisters. 

Sisters Inn and Suites checked me into a room that hadn’t been cleaned. Ended up waiting outside after eating dinner, and shopping for groceries, for about 45 minutes. Checked in at 3:45, didn’t get into my room until 5:45. 

With not having much saddle time on my bike training for this journey, crossing the Cascade Mountains had worn me out. That said the ride out of town to Redmond was stunning. 

Ate lunch in Redmond, then continued to Prineville where the mid day warmth took it’s toll. Not being used to 90 degrees on the highway, I limped into town and grabbed, yet another, motel. I hate motels but my body was tired and setting up camp takes effort. 

I needed my rest. Sat in my room eating an entire pineapple, 3 peaches, entire 4 pound bag of grapes, a papaya, a large bag of salad mix with a pint of cherry tomatoes, and two foot long subway sandwiches (sweet onion chicken and a turkey breast). 

This day was fantastic. After a crappy night of sleep and waking up to some vivid and scary dreams, I was feeling nervous about the coming week. I had seen other bicycle travelers in Sisters, but being wet for about 3 days, I was tired. Wet and mountain passes takes it’s toll especially when the legs haven’t had back to back cycling in them with an extra 60 pounds of gear. That’s said, leaving Prineville, and arriving to Ochoco Lake I had met my first east bound cyclist. 

Once arriving into Mitchell, after a detour through Painted Rock John Day Fossil Bed, I met another cyclist, Jim. 

Rob, Jim, and myself ate lunch. After lunch we met up with two more bicyclist adventure’s, Seager and Bob. 

The night in Mitchell requires it’s own blog post, and I took a short video. But I haven’t been able to figure out how to view said video on my new camera, or to download it to my phone. 

Week 1 went out with a huge bang. Bicycle touring at its finest. The highs were way high, and the lows were… well….