Today’s 41 mile ride was much more challenging than yesterday’s much longer ride. We doubled our elevation from 1400 to 2800 feet but the major factor was that in the middle of the ride we descended sharply over four miles to about the elevation of the Columbia River (about 200 feet) and then climbed relentlessly over the next 20 miles to our destination at 2800 feet. We had never previously used the first gears on our bikes so often or do long.

Kudos to Mary Ann for successfully completing the route today, a route we most often described during the day as “brutal.” Nonetheless, the remote landscapes  (we saw a sign saying “Next Gas 94 Miles”) were beautiful, varied, and otherworldly with so few signs of humans … other than the road winding through them, and all the big windmills, spinning slowly on the ridge tops.

We are now in the Oregon desert. The two types of farms we rode through all day were wheat farms and windmill farms. It’s been a dry spring and the farmers are worried about the winter wheat in the fields, but tonight, after we arrived at our hotel, there was a good rain .

We have now covered about 300 miles and are halfway across the state, hitting our marks.