Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Oregon Big Country-Day 0

The Day We Travel to Frenchglen, and Find Out a Few Things Along the Way

Jana and I left Olympia close to 10:00. 

The bikes are loaded and we’re heading out of town!

It’s a long long drive. Fortunately, the weather had cooled significantly in Olympia. However, the further south and east into Oregon we drove, the higher the temps climbed. The car was reading the temp outside as 115 degrees. Of course, that was partially the heat radiating off the pavement. But it was rather toasty. 

Before Madras, we had called Denio Junction Cafe to make sure they would be open when we go through there on July 4th. Lo and behold, they are not open on July 4th. Turns out, the owner is a big fan of 4th of July, but in the tiny metropolis of Denio and Denio Junction, there is a ban on fireworks this year (no surprises there). He’s closing everything so his employees can go to bigger towns and enjoy fireworks. So, what does that mean for us? Denio Junction is the one and only resupply option for this loop (resupply of food we can carry). Now, we knew going into the route that is was billed as a “meager” resupply, and I planned to carry most of my food, just picking up an additional lunch. However, we were also planning to eat at the cafe there. Instead, we stopped in Madras and picked up the additional food we would need to cover the lunches (one there, and one to carry) in Denio Junction. So, that was a fortuitous phone call. We also looked more closely at the town of Denio. There is a bar there called the Diamond Bar. They do serve food, and it’s probable that they will be open on July 4th. But, ever prepared as we are, we’ll be fine even if they’re not…we think…

When we arrived in Hines, we were able to meet up with Heike (my third time seeing her on her journey), Butch, and Heike’s friend, Ron. They even prepared dinner for us! We had a great visit, and Butch is getting so big. He’s also much calmer than the last time we saw each other. The sad thing is that neither Heike nor I remembered to take any photos! Maybe we’ll see each other yet again!

From Hines/Burns, we had another hour’s drive south to Frenchglen and our campsite for the night at Steen’s Mountain Resort. We had just enough light to set up our tents and do the majority of organizing our gear for our start the next morning. 

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