Making Passes

After surviving the cattle drive, I visited the John Day Fossil Beds and got a great introduction to the wealth of finds in the area. Then on to Dayville, OR where the local Presbyterian church doubles as a hostel for travelling cyclists. They provide showers, laundry and kitchen facilities and a sign encourages visitors to lay their sleeping bags out in the sanctuary (but please don't use the pew cushions). I then headed east to Prairie City for dinner at the Branding Iron restaurant. Today was a particularly tough day since I had to ride over not one or even two but THREE long and steep mountain passes! I got an early start and was grinding up Dixie Pass for 9 miles. Once at the top, it started drizzling and the rest of the day, over two more 5,000+ foot passes, I rode through rain and thunderstorms. The up side of this was that it was cooler and I didn't have to worry about getting sunburn. After the mountain passes I still had about 30 miles to ride into Baker City, OR but I took a break to stop and see the Sumpter Valley Railroad - a working steam locomotive from 1920! Finally got into Baker City to find that they were in the middle of hosting a professional bike race! After nearly 70 miles of riding I was greeting by teams of guys in colorful Lycra racing outfits and some of the slickest road bikes I'd ever seen. Sadly, the last race of the day was called on account of rain so I didn't actually get to see any racing. Perhaps tomorrow.

Total mileage so far: 548.

Please consider making a small donation to help cancer survivors (sadly, my mom was not one of them):http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots2008/steveonhisbike