Steve's TransAm Adventure

59 miles, 872 ft scent / 1674 ft descent, elevations: start 1253, finish 438 ft.   Flowers on West side of McKenzie pass Once we crossed over the McKenzie Pass the flora changed significantly.  The plants, shrubs and tree looked a lot like home, except for the logged-pole pines and cedars.  I did not take many photos because the scenery was so familiar to me.  As I rode along I saw numerous plants and flowers that are also in Maryland.  In fact, western Oregon (west of the Cascades) is the same climate zone as much of Maryland.   We spent much of the morning riding along the McKenzie River valley out of McKenzie Bridge.  At first there were a LOT of dead pine trees. It was not clear how many were killed by the Pine Beatle, and how many by fire.  I can only imagine what the valley looked like when it was filled with healthy trees.  Fire and the Beatles really change the whole character of the valley. I saw some signs about removing the Leaburg...

44.7 miles, 2346 ft ascent / 4327 ft descent, 3:38 saddle time, elevations:  start 3219, max 5325, min 1248, finish 12257 ft. Top of McKenzie Pass After getting a quick breakfast sandwich and scone from the Sister’s Coffee Co, we started our ascent to McKenzie Pass.  This was the last pass in my TransAm journey, and the last major climb.  After riding a very gentle uphill grade of 1% for about 2.5 miles, Brian and I started our ascent of 2093 ft in 12.5 miles.  The traffic was light and I was very happy to see this sign… …which meant NO RV’s!  The road was quite narrow in some areas and the shoulders were narrow or nonexistent, so the lack of RV’ allowed me to have a very relaxed climb to the summit. The character of the forest changed gradually as we climbed from sagebrush and cedar trees to the skeletons of trees and a dense shrub covering the ground. The trees were killed by a pine beetle infestation, and burned by a subsequent fire. The road to the summit ru...

52 miles, 1656 ascent / 1323 descent, 3:49 saddle time, elevations: start 2852, min 2542, max 3190, finish 3185 ft. The 3 Sisters Today was the first day in a week that I did not ride up over a pass.  Note that the scale in the profile photo at the end of this post is 200 ft per line, while previous ones were 1,000.  I did gain about 330 ft net elevation today, and that will continue tomorrow when I go over the last pass in the entire TransAm, McKenzie Pass. The route out of Prineville was through a valley and followed the Crooked River.  Along the way I got my first glance of the Cascades and Mt. Hood.  There is something primal and visceral about that experience.  I believe it comes from the same place as our fascination with water and fire.   This whole area was immersed by large lava flows repeatedly over millions of years.  You can see the different layers of lava in this photo of a ridge that rises above the river.  The same layers could be ...

49 miles, 2566 ft ascent / 2504 ft descent, 4:11 saddle time, elevations:  start 2776, min 2348, max 4732, finish 2851. This morning I made four batches of pancakes, and three of us (Emil joined us for breakfast). ate all of them!  We then said farewell to Jalét and the Spoke’n Hostel.  It was, without a doubt, the best hostel I ever stayed in. Our route today started with 4 miles of downhill where we dropped 428 ft before starting a 12 mile uphill climb where we climbed a total of 2384 ft.  Luckily the grades were generally 4 - 6% with an occasional 7 - 8%.  There was a light headwind and the temperature reached 100 F. . Rock formation just outside Mitchell There were no services between Mitchell and Prineville 48 miles away, so I carried 4 bottles of water and bought some bagels on the way out of Mitchell.  I have been carrying a jar of crunchy peanut butter for weeks, so peanut butter bagels were on the menu for lunch.  I stopped at Ochoco Lake for ...

73 miles, 2868 ft ascent / 3142 descent, 6:14 saddle time, elevations: start 3042, min 2227, max 4360, finish 2771 Canyon to John Day Fossil Beds Nat’l Monument We started the day with a rather unusual breakfast at the Timbers Bistro, which was formerly a McDonalds.  A local resident told us that McDonalds does not do well in small towns.  During COVID the Timbers converted to carry out only, and it stayed that way.  We walked up to a drive-thru window to order and sat at a very old picnic table on the lot next door to eat.   The first 30 miles were downhill with a tailwind (that rarely ever happens!). The terrain we were riding through was much like yesterday.  We followed the John Day river through a valley with low ridges surrounding it, until we came to the river canyon (photo above).  Suddenly we were transported into another entirely different landscape.  It is amazing to me that the river could cut such a narrow gorge through solid rock.  W...

80 miles, 4580 ft ascent / 4945 descent, 7:25 saddle time, elevations: start 3451, max 5267, min 3083, finish 3083 ft.   Strawberry mountain wilderness Today we had a lot of climbing and a lot of miles to do, so we got up at 0430 and were on the road at 0530.  We had pre-staged muffins for breakfast to get quick carb hit and packed breakfast sandwiches for later down the road.  It was cold (40’s) riding through the hills south from Baker City.   After 7 weeks I have outfits worked out for any temperature.  The trick is layering so that you can shed layers as it warms up.  Oregon has developed a network of scenic byways.  A couple days ago we were riding on the Hell’s Canyon byway.  Today our route followed the Elkhorn and Journey Through Time byways.   Our route took us over  three passes today.  The first was over Sumpter pass, which was a climb of 846 ft in 3.1 mile.  After an exciting downhill we began our ascent to Tipton P...