Day 16: John Day - Mitchell


We wake up at 6:30am. It is not raining. We start riding around 8:30am. We have a relatively fast (2:50) 50.6km ride downhill to Dayville (elev. 2348'). We stop at Dayville Cafe for a ranch burger ($6.95) and a BLT ($4.50). We are approaching John Day Fossil Bed National Monument. Before riding through the Picture Gorge (pictures above and at right), we visit a scenic overlook over the fossil beds. We make a four-mile detour to the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument Sheeprock Unit (see the picture below of the Sheeprock).

	After detour we start a long, tedious and hot climb to Keyes Creek Summit (elev. 4372'). We reach the top at 7pm. We roll a short and steep downhill against the setting sun to Mitchell (elev. 2344'). On our way we spot a local rarity, a tree growing running shoes (see the picture at left). There is not much in Mitchell; a hotel downtown, a motel by the highway (we have a cosy room for $50), The Little Pine Cafe, that serves food until 9pm., and a coin laundry that is open 24/7.
We have a burger ($6) and fish & chips with a side salad at The Little Pine Cafe. I think aloud that they may not serve beer, and the answer is no. When we are about to leave, the host hands us two bottles of Henry Weinhard's Hefeweizen. We chat a while with a couple that had just bought a house in Sun Valley, Idaho (we just come from there). We also hear that there is a Finnish exchange student in Mitchell. I wonder how she likes it; I don't think there is such a middle-of-nowhere place in Finland as Mitchell is in the USA. We are extra careful when walking back to the motel in the dark with the beers, and enjoy these precious drinks watching TV (Olympics I think). Today we rode 122.3km in 8:20.

Day 17: Mitchell - Prineville

The first thing in the morning, at 6:30am, we take clothes to the coin laundry downtown and purchase two loads of detergent for a dollar at the grocery store across the street. Then we get some breakfast items to fix in the motel room.
	Just before ten we are ready for the road. We ride downhill to John Day Fossil Bed National Monument Painted Hills Unit. 20.1km-ride takes an hour and 20 minutes. We spend some time hiking in the hills in an excruciating sunshine. Colors and the scenery readily compensate the potential sunburn and dehydration. We still have a long day-ride ahead, if we are going to make it to the ocean in four days. Note: some of the pictures below are large.


After the Painted Hills we have, what we thought to be a short and steep, but turns out to be a long, uphill to the Ochoco Pass (elev. 4722'). The wind is on our side though. We reach the pass after riding 52km in 4:30. On our way up we find companion from a tiny stuffed bear, abandoned at the road side, and we name him Ocho (pronounced as Finnish name Otso (old word for a bear).
From the pass we have 31-mile downhill to Prineville (elev. 2864'). Either the wind turns or the road turns or both, since occasionally we ride to significant headwind. We reach Prineville after total of 102.5km, accomplished in 7 hours. We decide to stay at the Ochoco Inn Motel downtown, in a first floor room with a king-size bed for $40. A queen size bed on the second floor would have costed only $35. This is again one of those deals, when the price does not correlate with the location and the quality of the motel. And we are happy!

After the usual, shower and such, we find ourselves at Vineyard, Italian restaurant. We start with local beers: Mirror Pond Pale from Bend and Rooster Tail Ale from Redmond, both from Oregon. Tomi enjoys garlic chicken on angel hair pasta for $11, and Tei mussels with pasta for $13, and both Duck Pond Chardonnay from Washington, a bottle for $13.
After the dinner we check Ochoco Inn Lounge, which looks like a mixture of Kilroy's Sports Bar in Bloomington, Indiana and Zetor in Helsinki, Finland, with middle-aged clientele. They have a Hawaii theme tonight. We are ready for bed. We continue to Horseshoe Saloon for a couple of Mirror Pond Pales and finish the night at Barney Prines's Steakhouse and Saloon, which looks too an elegant place for this town.

Day 18: Prineville - Sisters

It is sunny outside when we wake up to the alarm at 7am. We munch motel waffles and orange juice for appetizers, and head out for breakfast. There are only chain restaurants open downtown, but we are hinted about Debbie Sue's Cafe on the other (wrong) side of the town. There we have Huevos Rancheros and a half order of biscuits and gravy for $12 total.
We hit a steep one-mile uphill when leaving Prineville, but after the climb the road turns pretty flat. At noon we are in Redmond (elev. 3077') and find ourselves at the Cascade Lakes Brewing Company's 7th St. Brewhouse. We order a sampler of six beers (blonde, Rooster Tail Ale, Scottish style amber, brown, porter and IPA) for $6.95. We gulp the beers with Spinach and Greek salads ($6.50 and $6.75) on the shady and warm patio. So far we have made 37km in two and a half hours, and follow the last minutes of the Olympic marathon on TV before hitting the road again. A Brazilian runner leading the race is attacked by an Irish ex-priest, and he loses the race to an Italian and an American who finishes second. The mountains in the picture below are Three Sisters.
	We are on our bikes again at 2pm. The road gets busier as we approach Sisters (elev. 3100'), a tremendously touristy town with a population of 1080. We have ridden 71.5km in 5 hours when we reach Sisters; we are not quite sure yet whether to stay or continue. The city park hosts a nice campground, but lacks facilities, so we choose Sisters Motor Lodge for $119. Holy ghost!
Sisters is not particularly interesting; it is Sunday night and everybody is fleeing the town. There is only one bar open, Bronco Billy's Ranch Grill and Saloon, which we visit two times; first while waiting for our laundry to finish, and then later to watch the Olympic game's closing ceremony. We have dinner at SOBA Noodle&Rice. Portions of noodles cost $5.75. We end up early in the motel room after fetching a couple of beers and a bag of chips at the nearby general store.

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