Day 54: Prineville OR to Mckenzie Bridge OR

I know I’ve said this a lot but today was my favorite day. I would bike the whole Trans-Am trail again just to do this day again.

It started with us eating our staple breakfast at Mcdonalds! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten this much fast food before this trip. It makes me wonder if I’ll continue to enjoy fast food after this trip. Somehow I doubt it.

After getting out of Prineville the view was unreal. All of a sudden The sisters, Mt. Hood and Mt. Washington was right in front of us. For once in what seemed like forever, the scenery was enough to watch. I didn’t listen to music or an audio book all day. I could stare at the mountains all day. And I did!

I got to the town, Sisters, first although I don’t know why. The town was obviously a tourist town and people were EVERYWHERE! It was too hard to bike in the road due to the cars and people crossing so I ended up walking through town. I was determined to find a sticker but every shop didn’t have one or suggested I try somewhere else. When we all regrouped for lunch the waitress suggested we try some other places. After wondering around and almost giving up we found some okay looking stickers.

I got slightly lost getting out of town but some passing people told me I missed the turn just as I biked passed it. (It was actually kind of funny. They must have seen cyclists do that all the time. As soon as I missed the turn some hikers started pointing and shouting at me.  I stopped and they told me I missed the turn)

The road had huge trees on either side of the road and I new the 15 miles climb was going to be pretty. Compared to yesterday it was a breeze. At some point an older biker (not touring) passed me and told me I’ll see you at the top). It didn’t turn out to be entirely true as he made it to the top and then passed me on the way down. Near the top it opened up to a huge basaltic lava field. Trust me when I say it was literally the coolest thing ever. I got to bike through a lava field! I was the last one to get to the top but everyone cheered me on as I finished the last pass of the trail. It was a little bittersweet as I got to the top. Glad the there was no more hills to climb but sad as the trip was really drawing to a close. At the top of the pass there was an observatory made of the basaltic lava. You could climb it and look out the windows at the surrounding mountains. On the top we celebrated by drinking chocolate milk that was kept cold in out giant 100oz mugs. (although I drank lemonade since I don’t like chocolate milk).  I could have lingered on the top all day and explored the surrounding area but it was going to get dark and we didn’t have any plans on where to sleep that night.

The 16 mile downhill and a dream and I swear I coasted the last 28 miles into Mckenzie Bridge. Mark and Jolee actually had to have cars pull over to let them pass. Near the end I decided that I would never want to bike the Trans-Am west to east. I would want to save that descent as the last one of the trail. I would not want to bike up that pass as the first thing on the map. At the bottom we ate at a newish restaurant that had really good pull pork sandwiches! It was kind of a hipster place. You ordered inside of a small convince like store and then in the back there was a huge outdoor area with picnic tables and a performance stage. The food was cooked in a food truck in the back of the outdoor area. The manger people gave us some suggestions on campgrounds in the area to stay. The first place we tried turned out to be a private campground and we were (a little rudely if I might add) kicked out. The second place was full but there was some other cyclists that we ended up crashing their camp spot. They turned out to be a super cool couple. They were geologists from Netherlands (or maybe Scotland)! I really enjoyed talking to them. They did their PhDs in Thailand and it was super neat to see how they ended doing that. I should have gotten their contact info to keep in touch. (opps)

The campground reminded me of camping in Washington State with one of my geology professors. I guess that made sense since we were in the Cascade range. The temperature started dropping so we went to bed a little earlier than usual.