Tuesday, July 21st, 2015

Start/End: Unity Lake/John Day, OR
Mileage: 50.3+
Weather: Sunny, but not too warm by the time we rolled in!

Today started out pretty refreshing. As we had just crossed the time zone, we were back to a point where the sun rose pretty early, but that did not stop most of us from getting a great nights sleep along Unity Lake. For breakfast. As usual with camping, we had big bowls of delicious cereal and milk. Just a few more days of this as opposed to our usual oatmeal routine!

Today’s ride was dedicated a rider’s great grandparents whom she had the pleasure of knowing while she was growing up. Doris and Orville Schmid both were very impacted by cancer as Doris was a breast cancer survivor and Orville also had fought a type of cancer.

Our route started off as we left the state park and wound around the lake back to some heavily forested hills where we were reminded that trees do in fact exist! As we have traveled through Utah and Idaho and even pats of Colorado, scrub brush really became the only type of vegetation that we saw in nature. The first big climb of our day was right off the bat with the Blue Mountain Pass. It was a big one to climb, but the grade was not too steep and there was such beautiful scenery to look at. After conquering this, we stopped and had some fruit to eat. While at this stop, we saw a deer safely cross the road, but other than that, no wildlife today!

So we kept climbing again up to the Dixie Pass. This climb seemed longer, but still was not too steep. Additionally, it was still cool enough to be comfortable. It was great to be in this forested area as it was very beautiful to look at, but as we began to descend again after the summit, the forest went away and the desert characteristics returned. This was ok, because it opened up some very scenic views of the area, including one that was near a giant covered wagon! It was so cool and many of us stopped for some fun pictures.

Today’s ride was a shorter one, so we have been in John Day for a while today already. Some of us have sought out food or coffee shops, while others are enjoying a calm afternoon at the campground. Tomorrow we will start a little early, taking advantage of the early sunlight and the lack of heat to begin a long day with lots of climbing and a good amount of distance. We will be camping again in a region that we have been warned is very remote, so as many of us did not have cell service yesterday/today, we may not tomorrow as well. I look forward to updating you in a few days about all of our adventures though! I can’t believe it is already July 21st….
-LAH