Day 6, John Day, OR to Baker City, OR, 81 miles

Tom wasn’t able to get out his blog entry yesterday but he called this morning with a few tidbits he asked me to put together for you. He was tired and sore after two hard days in a row. The group had lots of climbing and weather changes to deal with but always with the snow covered mountains for inspiration! He said he saw a porcupine on the road. I asked him if that meant a dead or a live one and he said dead. So, why did you want it included that you saw a porcupine? Because he had never seen one before… dead or alive... and he thought it sounded interesting. (You can be the judge on that fact.)

A rain storm came up on them towards the end of the ride. He was in the head of the group so he got the head winds to deal with. The middle of the pack got the cross winds and the ones bringing up the rear group got the tail winds! The weather changes can be tricky.

When he got into town he made a run to the local Dairy Queen for some treats for several people. He was hit in the rib cage by someone opening their car door into him. He said he was not hurt too badly but when he sneezed this morning he really felt it. He says to tell you that since he is such a superior athlete he was able to stay on his bike and not get hurt any worse. (You can be the judge on that fact, too.)

So, it was a tough day but he said it started out in an interesting way. Tom has two jars of ointment that he carries in his bag. One is for sore muscles and the other is for application to parts of his body that might feel sore from chaffing if you know what I mean. Somehow in the early morning confusion he applied the wrong ointment to the wrong part of his body. So for the first 30 minutes or so he felt like he was sitting on a heated car seat! (This fact might be easier to judge….)

One of the leaders that comes from America By Bicycle writes a journal on-line. Tom thought you might enjoy some of his description of this second difficult day. Mike Munk writes, “The temperature at departure was a bit on the mild side compared to previous days in the desert. As the road rose steadily to the foot of the first climb, it was great seeing the sun rise over the mesa to our left and we started shedding the arm warmers and jackets. The sunrays glistened through the irrigation machines as they spewed their morning quota of water across the alfalfa fields...so serene...so peaceful. No wonder I like doing this sort of thing. It must be tough for the people who live around here to wake up to these scenes every morning...grassy meadows surrounded by mountains...life is good.

Today was another tough day, especially after yesterday which was billed as our toughest on paper. Many of the riders thought today was tougher, but I think it was only because of the cumulative affect of both days together plus they've been climbing for several days now. Today's ride had 3 mountain summits to cross each about 5000 feet high with each ascent at least 6 miles long. We started out below 3000 and descended below 4000 between each summit. We climbed in the neighborhood of 4600' today. I'm sure the riders hate to lose all that altitude each time they work so hard to get to a summit, but such is life. Although the effort was tough, the scenery below was breathtaking (and they already were breathing hard after the effort) which made the work to get to the summit well worth the effort. The great news was that we also had 3 screaming descents to enjoy...ahhhh, life is sweet.”

The town they started out in was John Day. I loved what Mike wrote about what he found out about John Day. Mike writes, “As you know, last night we stayed in John Day. Everywhere around here it's John Day this and John Day that. Seems like this guy's name is on just about everything around these parts! Who was this John Day anyway? I was a bit curious and when I checked it out, I discovered he was a trapper that came through this area in the 1800s. One day he was attacked by Indians and left alive but naked along the river where some Europeans found him and named the river the John Day River (sounded better than "Butt Naked River" I guess). John thought having something named after your self was pretty neat so he took it upon himself to put his name on just about everything around these parts after that incident. Now you know how to get something named after yourself...you don't have to do anything important, you just have to find someplace that isn't already named and get naked. I checked and found everything's already named around here (mostly after him) so I'll have to wait and find someplace else.”

You can go on-line and read more of Mike’s journal at www.Americabybicycle.com. Click on Ride Journals and then on Mike Munk’s Across America North 2008.

Karen, for Tom