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… 🙂