Over the Cascades and into the desert

It's hard to know where to begin since Liz checked in last. We spent two wonderful days in Eugene exploring the city and camping in Monica and Mike's backyard and hanging out with them and Monica's sister Bonnie. Eugene was a very bike friendly city, with bike lanes and (as Liz already wrote) bikes waiting behind us at stoplights! Friday we spent most of the day running little errands, like finally getting my hair cut and eating falafel sandwiches in the university district. On Saturday we spent most of the day lounging at the Saturday Market, a farm and arts market in downtown Eugene. We bought some fresh produce and read our books in the shade while listening to some lives tunes and people watching. Monica and Mike had a get together Saturday night, and it was fun to eat barbeque in the backyard and meet their friends. They dropped us off in Walterville (to avoid Eugene/Springfield traffic and give us a headstart on our day) Sunday morning.

It felt good to be on the road again. As relaxing as our two rest days in Eugene had been (and as thankful for them as we were, especially because we successfully avoided the worst of the weekend traffic), I missed the road. We followed the rushing McKenzie River most of the way to McKenzie Bridge, eating a leisurely lunch at a high school halfway, where we were able to pick our own blackberries straight from the bushes that lined the road. We arrived in McKenzie Bridge (the town) around 4:30 and rode a few more miles to Paradise Campground, putting us at about 40 miles for the day. We found an amazing campsite right beside the river and enjoyed some delicious pasta for dinner. As we set up camp, we realized that we hadn't really camped in four or five nights, thanks to friends along the way, and it was fun to be out in the wild again, cooking our own food and exploring the campground.

Monday morning we set out for our long trek over the Cascade Range. Due to a forest fire at Black Crater (SW of Sisters), old highway 242 was shut down for safety reasons. This put us on the alternate route, highway 126 and then highway 20 into Sisters, crossing Santiam Pass. While not ideal (more traffic, less pristine scenery, and 20 miles longer) it was still beautiful, and we managed to cruise through 13 miles of construction before we caught up with highway 20, which cut down on a lot of the traffic. The views were beautiful - tall pine trees, mountains and little lakes, as well as small waterfalls cascading off the mossy rocks. About five miles before the junction, we emerged very abruptly into the lava fields, where vegetation was more sparse and huge boulders of lava rock marked the landscape. It was quite startling in its contrast to the lush, green forests we had experienced until that point. From there we met up with highway 20 and enjoyed some miles of smaller climbs before we hit the real climb to the summit.

I keep having these mental images of how things are supposed to be, or look, and I am continuously wrong. For instance, I thought Santiam Pass would be similar to McKenzie, with snow capped peaks and mountain lakes, but instead (partially due to the forest fires that have ravaged the region in recent years) it reminded me of the "bad region" of the Lion King (sorry, first thing that came to mind!) I also thought the climb would be straight up, and instead the final six miles didn't even really feel like massive amount of climbing, nor was there some amazing summit with snow and fireworks. We just persisted, and in the end it was persistence (and our now-massive calves) that brought us to the top. Similarly, as we continued biking and I got over my initial disappointment in the landscape, I began to see the undergrowth more clearly and the beauty that it held. Even the forboding peak of Santiam began to look beautiful in a more rugged way. We reached the pass (almost 5000 feet!!!), took the obligatory pictures, and settled in for a nice, long downhill, accentuated by stellar views of Mt. Washington and Black Butte. We were over the Cascade Range.

We camped at Suttle Lake (after some extra miles due to my mis-reading of the map) and made pizza on our little stove. The neighbors were all very friendly, and a German turned Canadian woman named Annette brought us fruit and some energy bars. We got a campsite right on the lake, and Liz finally convinced me to jump in the surprisingly warm waters with her. While not quite a bath, it felt invigorating after such a hard day. We went to bed early after dealing with a surprising number of chipmunks who had an unceasing fascination with our bags. While Monday was possibly one of the harder days of the trip so far, I felt relieved to know my muscles were adapting, and at times I found a hitherto unknown strength going uphill (6 mph instead of 4!)

We left the campsite this morning to continue into Sisters. As we pulled out, a cyclist from the Netherlands who was nearing the end of his TransAm trek pulled up, and we chatted for a bit before continuing. In Sisters, we met several of the dozen or so people who are completing the "official" TransAm trip with Adventure Cycling, and got some news of the roads ahead. Scarcely out of Sisters, the landscape became more familiar, with open vistas and sagebrush lining the road. This is the "high desert" everyone was warning us of, but strangely, I feel more at home now where I can see 20 miles in the distance! We're in the Redmond Public Library currently, and I am unable to post pictures from here. We hope to ride another 25 miles or so today and camp at Ochoco State Park before some more massive climbs in the next few days. We'll update as we can, and hopefully the pictures will make their way onto here before too long!