Bend to Boise - Day 1

Today we rode 83 miles from Mitchell OR to Monument OR. There is no cell service here and the WiFI service is incredibly slow. As a result, today’s post will have limited pictures. The photo above is from the Painted Hills in the John Day National Monument about 10 miles northwest of Mitchell where we started. Our route today started with a ride into the monument before doubling back, heading back to Mitchell, then northeast to Monument.

This morning, I had the chance to meet the 9 other riders and 2 guides for our trip. We rode in the van for about an hour and a half to get to Mitchell from Bend. When we arrived, we all piled out of the van. I think 4 riders brought their own bikes while 6 of us are using bikes provided by Bicycling Adventures who are running the trip. I did not bring my bike, but I did bring my saddle, pedals, bar end mirrors, bike radar / tail light, helmet, tool bag, and top tube bag. It took perhaps 30 minutes for all of us to get our bikes adjusted and ready to ride.

At about 10:00, we headed off. As I mentioned above, we started by heading into the Painted Hills. The last mile or so of the ride in was on gravel as you can see above. After enjoying the views, we headed back out of the National Monument and on our way. Already, the temperature was quite hot. By the afternoon, it was in the lower 90s with essentially no shade. This made today’s ride considerably harder than it otherwise would have been.

Lunch was at the 44 mile mark alongside the John Day River. After lunch, we rode another 39 miles, gently climbing, as we followed the river upstream.

This is all that I will write for today’s blog post. The timeouts due to the extremely slow internet keep me from doing more. Hopefully, I will have better service tomorrow night.