Pendleton OR to La Grande, OR

It was another challenging Tuesday. We biked from Pendleton to La Grande OR. It was a climb of 4,538 feet. We biked toward rolling hills that did not appear too hard, but it was a very steep climb with lots of switch backs. I had it in my lowest “Granny” gear most of the way up. While climbing, we had spectacular views of the area we had come through the previous day, with all the rolling wheat fields way in the distance. The hills we climbed were barren again, with no trees.

Once we finally reached the top, the other side turned into forested, steeper terrain. It was beautiful. We had several more climbs that day through that type of countryside. The road we were on paralleled I-84 for most of the day. There were 2 places that the road did not go on, so we actually biked on I-84 a couple times. That was scary with all the traffic whizzing by and a lot of trucks. Much of that was downhill and I could coast at 30-36 mph. Just before arriving in La Grande, we had a great view of the town below us in the valley, with snow capped mountains in the distance.

We camped in a city park next to an indoor huge swimming pool. That was a special treat. It even had a tunnel water slide. A couple people were unaccounted for at the end of the day, and Julie and I and one young man that had last seen one of the people went back with the pickup truck several miles and checked one of the exits they may have taken by mistake and road about 5 miles down it and found no one. The canyon was so steep we could not call back to our base camp and by the time we arrived back, everyone had show up. Every cyclist is required to sign in at the end of their ride.

It was in the 90s again, but the nights cool down to the 50s and it really sleeps well. The relative humidity has been very low for the past several days. We have generally been following the original Oregon Trail route.

Missing our kids and grandkids….
Love too all, P & J