Day 12
Highlight: biking through part of the John Day Fossil Beds. Very unique and cool geology. Our camping spot in Dayville was also affordably priced with good amenities including a friendly cat.
Day 13
Highlight: brunch in John Day. Highly recommend Outpost Pizza Pub & Grill. Really good prices for what you get.
In short, we are biking straight through what seems to be a heatwave. After about 10:30–11:00am in the morning, the heat becomes borderline dangerous to bike in. It gets to the point where sweat starts dripping down my face and arms. For this reason, we’ve been trying to start early in the morning. Day 12 was a bit too hopeful - it was already uncomfortable after 8 in the morning. Day 13 was better, but we’re still suffering from slow packing in the morning. We woke up at 5am and left camp at 6:45am. Tomorrow I intend on timing my morning routine to see where the time is going.
My saddle sores are starting to become a consistent problem. I’m doing all I can with hygiene and aquaphor but it doesn’t seem to be getting much better. On the other hand, my knees have settled into a pattern of being uncomfortably sore in the mornings/cold, to feeling pretty good/unnoticeable after about an hour or two. That’s probably progress? Also, my muscles are doing fine - I find our current mileage to be entirely reasonable on that front. Saddle sores + heat are the main blocker atm.
We have three climbs in quick succession coming up. Given the heat situation, we’re not going to attempt doing all three in one day. Our plan is to do the first one tomorrow (Strawberry Mountain) and camp at Bates State Park, which puts us at 17.6 miles and 1800 ft of climbing for the day. A short day, but probably a needed one. The day after we’ll send the remaining two climbs and shoot for Baker City, which will be about 50 miles and 2800 ft.