Posted on

June 24 on the TransAm

After a shave and a haircut at the Spoke’n Hostel we headed for the climb out of Mitchell at 9:00. Pat said it was 7 miles and 1700 ft from Mitchell to the summit of Keyes Creek Pass. I thought to myself, “Oh! That’s nothing compared to McKenzie Pass.” And off we went, tackling that teeny hill with bravado. But after about 5 miles of that hill in the blazing sun my bravado completely melted and I happily walked nearly a mile of it. I figured I didn’t need to prove anything to anybody and I was just plain tired. And actually, walking felt very nicely today. I held my head up, smiled, and enjoyed the scenery. Because the truth is, I’m not sure why but today’s climb was harder than McKenzie. Maybe it was because this was our 10th day of biking (6th day in a row; thus our first full week). And maybe it was because of the endless heat (we ran through all our water just before reaching Dayville, where we’ve stopped for the night). And maybe it was because of the constant headwind that beat us backwards. And maybe it was because all three of our bikes were in desperate need of a tuneup. After many breaks and a bit of walking, Rocky and I reached the summit just after 11:00 (2 hours later). Forrest had arrived there 35 mins earlier and was practicing his karate katas 🙂

Pat told us that we’d have it pretty easy after the summit all the way into Dayville (31 more miles)–and he was right. Despite the aforementioned complications (especially the heat and the bikes needing to be looked at), the ride was relatively downhill and level until just shy of Dayville. In fact, it was an absolutely beautiful ride. The landscape, the rocky hills, and the ever present river, were all so picturesque and wonderful. If I wasn’t so covetous of the downhill, I would’ve stopped for a lot more pictures than I did. 

At one point we thought we might press on to Mt. Vernon; but we decided against it. As I said, we neeeded a break from the heat. But besides that, we knew there was both a bike shop and a church in Dayville–and we needed both. Our bikes needed looking at and tomorrow is our rest day so we wanted to find a place to go to church. As it turns out, the town church has been hosting cyclists on the TranAm since 1976. So, like yesterday, we’re sleeping in another church. We’ve got a shower, full kitchen, laundry, wifi, and the whole fellowship hall to ourselves–that is until tomorrow morning when it’ll be used for a Sunday School class. 

Our host here is Rose, a lady who lives in a house just behind the church. She greeted us, welcomed us in, and showed us around. I thanked her and asked her if we could stay two nights since tomorrow was our rest day. She said, “Absolutely!” and proceeded to invite us to church. I told her we had every intention to attend church tomorrow. Then she said, “Well, you picked a good Sunday to visit because tomorrow is potluck Sunday.” Looks like we’ll have good fellowship and free food to boot. Thank you Lord. 

We dropped our panniers and headed down to the Dayville Mercantile Store where I heard there was an excellent bike mechanic and a full service bike shop. Simon greeted us and invited us right into his humble bike garage adjacent to the Mercantile Store which he just bought 3 years ago. As it turns out, he’d gotten tired of living in the city of Portland and decided to move to Dayville. Knowing that Dayville is on the TransAm, and being a Master Bike Mechanic, he decided to add a bike repair shop to the Mercantile Store. Wise move Simon. He put our bikes up in the stand and made several adjustments on each of them that I’m very confident will make for a better ride and happier riders come Monday. My rear brake disc was bent and rubbing and my rear derailleur hanger was bent, giving me a problem shifting. Rocky had a twisted chain link (How in the world did that happen!?). And Forrest’s right bar-end shifter was ready to fall out. When all was said and done, we were very pleased with Simon’s expertise, attention to detail, and friendly service. Thank you Simon! 

We’re settling in for the night and look forward to a day of rest. I pray the Lord will bless the man coming to preach at this church tomorrow and will send him with a word for us. I should get a chance to blog tomorrow night and I’ll let you know how it goes. And I pray that wherever you’re going to church tomorrow the good Lord will bless you too. Thank you for all your prayers and for keeping up with us. 

Until next time… 🙂 

Another summit sign. Always a most welcome sight 🙂

Our gear on the tables at Dayville Community Church, the town bike hostel.
Forrest just had to stop and get cooled off in the river for some relief from the heat.
A great shot of some of the beauty on today’s ride.
A picture of the climb of Keyes Creek Pass.
Pat Farrell of Spoke’n Hostel. The man who took my beard and (thereby) returned my youth. He said I looked 16 under that beard! 🙂

Posted on

June 23 on the TransAm

Today’s ride was long and hard. We started out from the Ochoco Reservoir at 9:30 and arrived at the Spoke’n Hostel in Mitchell at around 4:00. It’s an awesome bike hostel run by Pat and Jalet Farrell. It’s located in a church building in which the original sanctuary upstairs hosts 6 large bunk beds with room for your bikes to stand at the end. Each bed has its own privacy curtains, a reading light, hooks for your gear, and charging plugs. The room also has two pianos, both of which Forrest enjoyed. Downstairs you’ll find a large table and help-yoursel kitchen. The pews for the weekly worship service are also downstairs and Pat is the pastor of this church. We enjoyed wonderful conversation about the Christian life, preaching, sermon preparation, and evangelism. Also, after we finished up our dinner Pat took us up to the famous painted hills here in Mitchell and gave us a tour of the beauty of these green and red clay hills. He and his wife are super hosts, absolutely delighted to host any whom God brings through their doors. I look forward to speaking with him again tomorrow morning. He’s going to give me a haircut before we leave. Yes, there’s even a “barber shop” at the back of the “sanctuary” 🙂 If you ask me I think it used to be the cry room.

Today’s ride was a total of 42 miles. It’s a bit less than we usually want to cover in a day but we didn’t want to miss this welcome hostel. Several things combined to make today’s ride a hard one. First of all, Ochoco Pass is very deceptive. You keep thinking it’s leveling out and then it doesn’t; and then you think you’ve summitted, but you haven’t. I commented several times today to the boys that while it looked like we were on a decline it felt like we were on an incline. I couldn’t find an easy gear all day. Every gear was hard. Every gear felt like it was dragging. And moreover, we fought the wind and heat all day. By the time we got here I was spent, my giddy-up had done got up and went. I was so pleased to pull into the Spoke’n Hostel.

Before I sign off I should tell you what a blast we had coming down the east side of Ochoco Pass. We finally reached the elusive summit (4720 ft) at about 2:15 (although I think Forrest was there by 2:00). We rested for a few minutes and then headed down what the sign promised to be a 7 mile descent. The ride was totally awesome! We were cruising a good 40-45 mph for a solid 17 minutes!!! I bet Six Flags can’t touch that! And after we crossed the 7 mile marker and it leveled out a bit, we had another awesome downhill. But… every downhill has its price–another uphill. The ride quickly turned back into a climb and the last 5 miles or so into Mitchell were just plain tough. We ran out of water during that stint and it took a few mind games to keep me pedaling to town uphill in that blazing sun. What a joy it was to pull our bikes up to the bike church/hostel and have a man my age and height come out with a big smile on his face and a warm welcome to weary cyclists. God bless Pat and Jalet.

We climb Keyes Creek Pass directly out of town tomorrow. Pat says, unlike Ochoco, it’s not deceptive. You know you’re going up. It’s a mountain pass and it tells you so. But the good news is, we have a good 30-40 mile down and relatively flat afterwards. We’ll end up either in Dayville, Mount Vernon, or Prarie City, depending on our endurance. And then we’ll enjoy a much needed rest on the Lord’s Day.

Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for following.

Until next time… 🙂