Day 46: Mitchell to Prineville, OR

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 lunch.

View of lake Ochoco from my lunch spot

The RV traffic was particularly obnoxious today.  I guess they were in a hurry to get home from their July 4th weekend.  Whatever the reason, I had a couple close passes by big pickups pulling long RV trailers.  After the second one I got pissed off and took the entire right third of the lane to force passing cars and trucks to move over.  Brian and I were not riding together because he left Spoke’n earlier than I did, but he had the same experience.  By moving out into the lane I force trucks and RV’s to choose a line that gives me some space on the right to move over at the last second so that they cannot change their line.  That way I ensure that I get 3-feet between me and them.  

I was disappointed not to be able to attend a July 4th celebration with fireworks.  Mitchell was having an event, but it was 10 miles out of town. We could have asked someone for a ride, but it is probably better that we did not because we would have returned to the hostel too late for a good start this morning.  

I came across this sculpture on my way into Prineville, which has a population of about 11,000.  We won’t have any trouble finding dinner tonight or breakfast tomorrow.

Sculpture in Prineville






 

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