Bend to Boise - Day 5
Today we biked 60 miles from Elgin to Lake Wallowa pictured above. From Baker City where we spent last night, we drove about an hour to get to Elgin.
When we arrived in Elgin, there was a flock of large white birds in the distance. I got out my good camera and was able to see that the birds were a flock of about 20 White Pelicans, 5 of which are shown above. Those of you who read my Florida bird blog entries might remember that I photographed White Pelicans there as well.
Once we got the bikes unloaded from the van, we headed east out of town and immediately began climbing. Here is an image looking back down the hill towards some of my fellow riders.
After gaining about 1000’ over the first 9 miles, we descended about 1000’ over the next 4 miles. I took the picture above just as I crested the top and before I had started to pick up speed on the descent. While I do take the majority of my photographs without stopping my bike, doing so while descending at speeds reaching 40-50 mph seems like a bad idea. Our descent followed the Minam River until it merged with the Wallowa River.
At that point we switched directions and started following the Wallowa River upstream towards Wallowa Lake.
At one point, I noticed some elk off in the far distance. Today I carried my good camera and lens in a bag on a rack on the back of my bike. I was able to stop the bike, get out my camera, and take this photo of an adult elk with a baby.
As we made our way gently upwards, we generally followed the Wallowa River although we did drift away some of the time as in the photo above. The mountains in the background reach elevations over 10,000’.
Wallowa Lake is a glacial lake bounded on the south and west by mountains, and on the north by a lateral moraine and on the north by a terminal moraine. The lateral moraine is where the glacier pushed rock and earth to the side of the glacier while the terminal moraine marks the foot of the glacier. This photo is looking towards the southern and western that bound the lake. Our lodge is at the far end.
Tomorrow is a rest day, so I will be photographing birds. Hopefully I will have a nice collection to share.