Day 42: Halfway to Baker City, OR

56 miles, 3954 ascent / 3169 descent, 5:35 saddle time, elevations:  start 2645, min 2164, max 3925, finish 3437.  

Pine Valley heading south from Halfway

Today we ate breakfast at the Pine Valley Lodge before heading south on our way to Richland.  Every ridge or mountain range we ride over opens onto a large valley with another mountain range in the distance (that we will also cross over).  The route started with a climb of 1066 ft in 4.5 miles, followed by a descent that went on for miles :) into a lush valley and the town of Richland (appropriately named). Two pretty big creeks ran through the valley and fed into the Brownlee reservoir.  It is interesting that although much of the surrounding area is classified high desert, there were no obvious signs of water shortages.  I haven’t seen significant signs of water shortage since leaving Colorado.  In fact, many of the valleys in Wyoming, Montana and Oregon have large rolling or circle irrigation systems.  

Many of the towns have western themed sculptures.  I saw this one in Richland.

Cowboy sculpture in Richland

After passing through Richland we started climbing up through the Powder River canyon.  

Powder River Canyon

I was having some trouble with shifting on the rear derailleur since riding through the rain and was unsuccessful at correcting it in spite of cleaning and lubricating it.  Today the problem got steadily worse.  I could not get it to stay in gear.  It would seem OK for awhile, and then it would jump to the next higher gear, and then jump back.  I tried everything I could think of to adjust it, but to no avail.  After the canyon I was riding up a long incline when I felt and heard a thunk-thunk that repeated at a regular interval.  I realized the interval was one revolution of the chain.  I stopped to check it out and found this…

Chain failure

A side-plate of a link popped off the pin as the link came around to the tension side, and then popped back on as the link came around .  I had 4 spare links and a chain tool, so I took out two links and inserted the new piece of chain.  I thought that would fix it, but not so fast.  Remember that there were two thunks for each revolution.  You guessed it…there was a second failed link!  It was getting late so I decided not to stop again and attempt another repair, so found that as long as I didn’t push too hard or stand up and pedal, the plate would stay on the pin.  It was a long ride to Baker City.  However, I did stop at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, which is run by the National Park Service.  Unfortunately, it was 360 ft up on a hill above the road I was on.  (It is the little blip on the second peak of the profile map below).  I was supposed to meet Brian there, and he is such a fan of history, I was sure he was waiting for me.  So up I went, but I could not push too hard on the pedals….so I walked my loaded touring bike up about half of it!  I got there about an hour before they closed, and no Brian.  He was smarter than I and decided NOT to go 360 ft up to see it.  Note that neither of us had cell service, so we could not communicate.  Well, it was worth the visit, and the view from the top was quite spectacular.  

View from interpretive center

The story of the Oregon Trail is really striking.  About 400,000 people traveled west on the trail in spite of tremendous hardships.  It took tremendous courage, and desperation, to take on such a journey.  I plan to read more about the trail when I return.  

Our destination today was a WarmShowers host in Baker City, which at about 10,00 people, is one of the larger towns we have stayed in.  We are taking a rest day tomorrow before we face our hardest day (more about that later), and there is a bike shop in town, so my priority tomorrow will be to get my chain replaced.