Day 3, Baker City --> Halfway (Hells Canyon)

Finally some serious riding. Only 52 miles, but a good hill near the end.

We started off with a good warm-up climb a few miles outside of town to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. I don't know what I was expecting of the early stop at the Oregon Trail. I knew there were some sort of trail marks. What is there, however, are deep groves in the earth that are 150 or so years old. Scarred by years of wagon after wagon rolling through, the grooves are totally apparent today. The earth so compacted and worn that plants still don't grow in the wagon ruts. It isn't a stunning site like Hells Canyon or some of the mountains we saw (and climbed) during the week, but it is quite a remarkable symbol. Thousands of people undertook an immense journey and helped shaped the history and present of Oregon and the west coast. There was something very cool about standing in the valley settled by the early pioneers and looking at the grooves.

After the morning's climb we had a very gradual, mostly downhill, grade with just a couple little uphill blips until lunch. After lunch we finally got our first real climb of the week. Over six or seven miles we climbed about 1,500 feet. We'd gotten another late start and dawdled for most of the morning so it was the heat of the afternoon with no shade around. Some animal-types charged up it, other riders huffed and puffed and wove back and forth. Quite a few people got off their bikes and walked - particularly when the grade got steeper. Christopher and I stayed cheery by singing and humming (and being obnoxiously happy newlyweds.) Mid-way he picked up the pace a little and I fell back, but I could still hear him prattling away to his neighbors (who couldn't respond for lack of breath) telling long and involved stories as if he were just strolling down a flat little sidewalk.

(The view from atop!)

After that was a screaming downhill on super smooth roads that even I, the consummate pansy on the downhills, felt comfortable blazing down. In Halfway we got to camp on another baseball diamond and found ourselves with a relatively large open space to ourselves - which was nice as we camped there for two nights.

(150 miles and 3 days in and we still seem to be getting along and enjoying each other!)