Thursday, July 7, 2011

In Bend

Today, I continued on the Cascade Lakes Hwy. to Bend where I am staying with my cousins, Pat, Lottie and Jacob.

The ride was pretty easy today. It was nice to go by beautiful mountain scenery without having to climb them (well, the climb up to Bachelor was kind of long, but not too steep).

Last night I didn't set the alarm on my watch. I knew I didn't have to go too many miles so I thought I would sleep in. When I woke up, I thought for sure it was about 7:00. I looked at my watch and it was 5:36! So much for sleeping in! I did lay in my sleeping bag for awhile longer, but then I was just watching the Mosquitos accumulate on the tent walls (outside, of course--if a mosquito, or any insect, gets in my tent, it is an automatic death sentence. Just before I kill them, I remind them it was their choice to come into my domain.). I figured I may as well get up before they got too thick. My new routine is, get dressed, put sunscreen on, THEN put, my friend, Ben (DEET) on before exiting the tent. Still, as I was cooking my breakfast, the hoards of Mosquitos were flying all around me. I have bruises on my legs from getting bitten and smacking the pests. The DEET works well, but not so much on the bike shorts.

I was on the road by 8:00 (no sense hanging around for more blood-sucking). I realized the noise that woke me up this morning was some logging. I think they must have started about 5:00. I rode by the noise, but couldn't really see them. Once past that, it was pretty quiet with little traffic (that's what I always like about the early mornings). I went past several lakes. This photo is at Sparks Lake. I pulled into the Sparks Lake campground to use the restroom. As I was leaving, I ended up talking to a gal named Mary Kay about touring. She and her husband were camping there. They were both riding Cannondales they had brought with them.

From there I started the climb up to Mt. Bachelor Resort (the turn-off anyway). The higher I got, the more snow there was. When the snow banks were pretty high on the side of the road, that's when Stella decided she should to a bike snow angel. I told her I would take the pictures.

From Mt. Bachelor, it was pretty much downhill all the way into Bend. I stopped at a McDonald's that had free Wi-Fi and had some lunch and checked my email. Then I went to Fred Meyers as I was in need of a good restock on groceries (pretty much everything except oatmeal and hot cocoa).

I'm enjoying my visit with my cousins. We had a great dinner and dessert! Now I think I'll hit the sack and try to sleep past 5:30!

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