Day 5: Mount Vernon to Baker City

90 miles
5110 feet of elevation gain
7 hours in the saddle

A visual of our ride today.

Today was absolutely exhausting. My butt is incredibly sore. Originally the plan was to go to Oxbow and then take a rest day, but we've decided that 5 days is enough this week so we'll be spending tomorrow in Baker City resting/getting massages/ getting Dad's bike fixed. I'm so glad I'll get to stay in bed past 6 AM tomorrow morning!


Okay, so back to today. Today is Dad's 50th birthday and in celebration/out of necessity we had what is hopefully our longest ride of the trip. We wanted to make it to Baker City, and we did it, but now we're really tired and a bit delusional so sorry if this post is awkward.

The first part of today I was absolutely wiped. I went to all the effort of going off caffeine about a month ago so I wouldn't be dependent this trip, only to discover I really need it to get my tired legs moving in the morning. Dad finally had to tell me to draft so we could pick-up the pace. We had to stop to buy me a Pepsi before I could even attempt the first hill. The ride today had three big peaks. The first was the hardest. It was about 10 miles of intense climbing following 20 miles of slight climbing. And it was sunny and hot on that side of the mountain. It was really pretty though, with the hills and mountains all around. This was definitely cattle country and we had a cow serenade us for awhile (it took us awhile to get past his field since we were moving so slow). A couple of cows in the next field took up the call, but they weren't as persistent and stopped mooing before we were past.

Jim took a whole sequence of us riding up to what we thought was the top of the first peak of the day. It was a false top and we had another 4 miles to go. It was sad.

Peak 1

Peak 2 was much easier. It was a nice easy climb and only took us about 35 minutes vs. the hour+ we spent on peak 1.

Peak 2

Peak 3 was harder than the second. It had some really steep points and took us about 45 minutes. I was really disappointed that there wasn't a sign at the top. This (#6) is the first peak we haven't been able to photograph. Jim meets us at all of the peaks so we can eat and recoup before the next leg of the journey. We did pass a family on peak 2 and 3. The man was on a tandem with a kid of about 5/6 and the wife had most of the gear strapped to her bike. We passed them easily, they were really struggling up the hills. Dad and I said to each other how thankful we were to have Jim. Life would be much harder and the ride would be even more uncomfortable if we had to carry our possessions. We wouldn't be doing as many miles, that's for sure.

After the three climbs we had a nice downhill followed by what appears on the map to be a 25 mile continuous decline. Looks can be deceiving. At first it was great. We had a tailwind, saw some deer in the Elkhorn wildlife area. Just beautiful. Then, about 15 miles from Baker City when we're feeling a bit tired and ready to be done, we get hit by a major headwind. Oh my gosh. If Dad hadn't been there for me to draft off of I would have had some serious issues. It was just awful. I couldn't even enjoy the valley we were winding through or the nice little river, and I love water features in my landscapes.

Jim took us to dinner at a brew pub for Dad's birthday. They've been enjoying numerous post-ride glycogen boosters and are running low on supplies. After the dinner they decided they needed to buy a couple 2 quart "growlers" to get them through the next day. Jim miraculously got them to fit in the fridge.