John Aylward Photography

Today’s Highlights:

Our last day of Cycle Oregon Classic took us 58 miles back to Baker City with only 1800 feet of climbing. It was the easiest ride out of the 6 days, and equally as scenic as the others. In total this week, I cycled 385 miles and climbed 23248 feet.
I started at 6:45 AM this morning and was actually a little glad that it was already 39 degrees. But unfortunately, it dropped to 33 degrees in the first 5 miles across the valley, then took a while warming back up. It was also cloudy most of the time, so it was another chilly ride nearly the entire way.
Our route traveled north to south in the Grande Ronde Valley, which is a beautiful valley surrounded by the Blue Mountains. It has excellent farmland and we cycled passed huge farms and ranches the entire time. About 10 miles in, we passed Hot Lake, which interestingly is a very hot lake giving evidence of the volcanic activity that created the valley and surrounding mountains. We also cycled through a small canyon and up to an elevation that supported a sagebrush plain. There was a windmill farm on the ridge. Cresting that ridge presented a fabulous view of the Elkhorn Mountains jutting straight up from the valley floor, with lush pine forest and topped off with high granite peaks. It reminded me of Jackson Hole, except this valley had more fertile farms. These farm and mountain views just kept getting better as we got closer.
It was a nice flat finish into Baker City and we were greeted at the finish line by cheering staff.
The Cycle Oregon staff and organization are really amazing. Everything ran smoothly for this 2000-person moving city. All the meals were great. The routes we safe and very scenic. If you like climbing, then it was awesome. The only tough part for me was the cold, which of course is not under anyone’s control. But these trips are adventures, and having a mindset to ride in any condition is a requirement for enjoying it. Everyone I met or saw along the route and in camp was cheerful and committed. It was a great experience.

Cycle Oregon Classic Day 7

Statistics:
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Today’s Highlights:

Cycle Oregon gave us another awesome route today. We covered 57 miles and climbed 4662 feet. With all the climbing, a few water stops and a great lunch, it took me 6-1/2 hours. That’s almost double what a flatish 57-mile ride would take me.
I dressed lighter today. For the first hour it was 33 to 38 degrees, so it was quite chilly. We had a slight climb for the first 8 miles, then our big 14-mile climb started. It warmed up to 50, so it was perfect for this climb. It was the most fun climb I can remember, because it snaked up Blue Mountain such that we could see cyclists zig zaggin above and below us. This west side of the mountain is wide open grassland, and the views were spectacular. After climbing about 2500 feet, the route was rolling hills for another 20 miles, slowly gaining elevation. Then another big climb, peaking out at 4340 ft 36 miles from the start. That was a lot of exercise for one morning. I had a flat tire just one mile from the top, which only took several minutes to fix.
The east side of Blue Mountain was beautiful pine forest. The ride down was really enjoyable. Part way down the mountain we had to get on interstate 84 and ride on the shoulder for 12 miles into La Grande. We had a very nice lunch at a park off one highway exit.
I finished at 1:30 and started the usual camp chores. We are at another nice school yard and it’s a beautiful afternoon.

Cycle Oregon Classic Day 6

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Today’s Highlights:

Today we stayed in Pendleton. It was nice not having to pack up and move. The ride today was optional and I, like many others, chose to not ride. Instead, I walked into town and checked out the festivities. The Pendleton Roundup is in progress. I didn’t attend the rodeo events, but I did enjoy all the native American art vendors with their pottery, rugs and jewelry.
I finally attended a yoga class, which is one of the many extras on Cycle Oregon. Tonight, a geology talk and more good live music. Tomorrow we head to La Grande, and it will be another scenic ride.
I was able to transfer photos from my camera to phone today, and posted some of them to previous posts.

Cycle Oregon Classic Day 5

Today’s Highlights:

This morning I tried to wipe the dew off my bicycle seat and it wouldn’t come off. It was ice! I had to scrape it off! It was 33 degrees when I started riding at 7:00. I was bundled up again, but it didn’t really help. Within minutes my feet were numb and I was soon sweaty and freezing, and stayed that way for almost 4 hours. One mile from camp we started a 20-mile climb over the Blue Mountains. The climb was fine for 10 miles, then it got tiring and colder. The downhill was welcome, but even colder going 25+ mph. Finally, at about mile 33, we left the forest and the landscape opened up to vast open rolling hills, and the sun finally shown on us. I felt just a bit of welcoming warmth. At mile 41, we rolled into the little town of Weston for lunch and the temperature jumped up to 60. I stripped off all my wet gear and put on a dry jersey that I was smart enough to pack. The day just turned from torture to good as I sat in the sun and ate lunch.
The second half of the ride was awesome! I even stopped several times for pictures. For the next 35 miles we cycled though beautiful rolling hills of crops, sometimes seeming to stretch 100 miles to the horizon. We had one fun steep winding decent, complete with several hairpin turns. There was a picture perfect sky to compliment the landscape. I rolled into Pendleton at 3:00 after 75 miles and 5000 feet of climbing feeling pretty good. We are camped up on a hill tonight with a nice view. The band is playing and it’s almost dinner time. The day just keeps getting better.

Cycle Oregon Classic Day 4

Statistics:
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