Day 47: Prineville to Sisters, OR

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 seen at the John Day fossil beds and the canyon leading to them.

Layers of lava flow in ridge outside Prineville

We went about a mile off route to visit Smith Rock, which was formed millions of years ago by a volcanic eruption. The formation is quite striking in its size and how abruptly it rises from the valley.




We stopped at the town of Terrabonne for lunch and sat outside on the porch where we got into conversations will multiple neighboring tables and met some interesting people.  Brian was exercising his superpower of connecting with people, which really enhanced the entire lunch experience.  In the end, it was much more than a meal.

On the way out of town we came across these….

Llama ranch just outside of Terrebonne

There were hundreds of them and they had recently been sheared.  It was fun watching them as they watched us :).   The opening photo is a view of the 3 Sisters mountains from just outside the town of Sisters, where we are staying tonight.  

Note that scale in profile is 200 ft per division, not 1000 as in previous days.


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