I rode with Makaela. We arrived about 4:00ish. Deb wasn’t far behind, followed by Ginny. We got settled in and sat out on the deck while Debbie and Brian fixed us dinner (our offers to help were declined).
Such a wonderful place!
Dinner was delicious as always. We did what we could to ready our bikes, then hit the sack.
Brian fixed us breakfast (he knows I love me some French toast), and we were well fueled for the day. We managed to get on the road just before 9:00.
Thanks Debbie for taking the photo!
One of the cool things is that my cousins only live about a half mile from the route. In no time we were heading up McKay Rd.
Woo Hoo!
We hadn’t gone much more than 4 1/2 miles (just .3 to the intersection of Gerke and McKay) when we could see something was going on up ahead. Pretty soon a pickup truck was heading our way and signaled us to stop. Apparently, a canal (probably irrigation?) had washed out the road just before the intersection. There was 2 feet of water and mud running over the road. I asked if there was a way around it. We were directed back to Grimes Rd, then worked our way to Gerke, and to the intersection from the other side. It was about a 4 mile detour, but it was fine.
Zoom in, and you can see the Three Sisters. We wouldn’t have seen them were it not for the detour!
We made it back to the intersection, only on the other side.
That’s a little bit of a mess!
Now we were back on the route! We had about 13 miles of pavement, with the last 6.5 being a decent, but doable climb to the gravel. We took breaks along the way. About halfway (and the beginning of the 6.5 mile climb on the climb profile), we stopped at a dispersed campsite and had some lunch.
We took our time. Even with the detour, the day wasn’t going to be that long.
With our bags a little lighter from eating a meal, we started up the more climbing part of the day.
Winding up! That’s Deb ahead.
We reached the top, and the gravel.
Pavement ends here!
From there it was a fun 5ish miles downhill to Skookum Rock/Buck Creek dispersed campsite…our destination for the day. With the detour, we had ridden 31.3 miles.
We got our tents up, and went on a bit of exploring.
Ginny is in the distance off to the left.
Makaela said I had to come see this…
Not one…
But two toilets in the woods! The only problem is they are not 250 feet away from the creek. The red one even has toilet paper (I’m sure it’s because last weekend was Memorial Day weekend).
I also got this photo of Skookum Rock through the trees.
Makaela and Ginny climbed up a steep road and got a better view.
Finally, it was dinner time! I tried a new dehydrated meal from Peak called Sweet Pork and Rice. It was on the verge of too spicy for me (but I’m a negative spice level person), but I ate it. It had a lot of calories and protein for a dehydrated meal. Everyone else also had dehydrated meals.
The wait for food to “cook”.
After dinner, I decided I would walk up the hill that Makaela and Ginny had gone up earlier.
Our tents down below.
A little more view of Skookum Rock.
Spring flowers.
It was a great first day, detour and all. Tomorrow we head toward the John Day River.
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