Day 4: Mountains Beyond Mountains

Today was beautiful. We started in the high desert resort of Kah-nee-ta, on an Indian reservation. The landscape is just beautiful, sculpted and colored by nature to present one gorgeous tableau after another.

Today was a pretty easy day, only 62 miles and 3,200 feet of climbing, all of it at a gentle grade. The weather was perfect. It started cool and I made Paul wear knee warmers to protect his achy catcher’s knee. Paul, always the literalist, interpreted this to mean that he should only wear one knee warmer on his left leg. He made quite a fashion statement. (Pcture to the right is from our website.) We are expecting teenage girls to adopt this as the new in style any day now.

We got to sleep in—until 6:15 (woo hoo!). The ride started with a quick descent out of Kah-nee-ta, followed by a climb back up to the mesa. We were rewarded for the climb with spectacular views. Finally, we saw the mountains that we had passed through the day before and another in the distance, called Mt. Jefferson, a pretty conical snow-capped mountain. Paul called it the mountain beyond mountains, and we joked about the mountains beyond mountains to come. We figure that joke will never get old. As Paul pointed out, there are a lot more mountains in the US than in Haiti (and we’re going over a bunch of them).

The weather warmed up into the 80s but never got hot. We had a nice detour around busy route 26, ending up in the bustling metropolis of Madras, which was less exotic than one might imagine. We stopped off for snacks at the SAG stop and then topped off with meals at Burger King, even though it was before 11am. We get really hungry and can never stomach a big enough breakfast to power us through the morning.

The rest of the ride was pretty, with a very gradual climb for about 15 miles followed by an equally gradual descent into the town of Prineville. We decided to replace our usual “recovery drink” with a milkshake at the Dairy Queen. I can’t remember the last time I had a milkshake, but this one tasted great! For once, we were not famished at dinner.

Looming like a cloud over today’s ride was the specter of tomorrow’s adventure. We start out at 5:30 (ugh!) and ride 117 miles. The cue sheet is easy: get on route 26 east and pedal. We climb up 3,000 feet and then descend almost as far and then climb again. I think there are two towns between Prineville and our destination, John Day. Basically, we will do today’s ride and then do it again. And the scenery might not be as nice. Stay tuned.

About the fundraiser… Before we left town, we got tantalizingly close to our goal of $100,000. You may notice that our thermometer has stalled at just under $94,000 and I haven’t updated it. That’s because it hasn’t moved much. We are really grateful for all the friends (including ones we’ve discovered as part of this project) who have contributed and pledged. If I can ask one more thing, would you please ask your friends and family to look at our website and see if they are moved to pledge? Anyone who contributed over the next few weeks might be the one who pushes us over the top. How exciting is that? How could anyone resist?

We might be out of communications range for the next few days. It would certainly be thrilling for me to sign on and see that we have enough pledges to make our goal.

Thanks for your support. Wish us luck tomorrow.

Len