Whamatron

I slept well after the steaktastic dinner last night and had to be woken by Dave rather than by the tweeting of birds for once. Dave had been up since six, cleaning a huge amount of bird poo from one side of his tent, left by what must have been a giant creature apparently!

We were packed and out soon after 7 then 500m later we entered the Pacific Time Zone and so gained an hour. In today's 72 miles we went up 4000 feet in elevation with some pretty hot sun beating down so it wasn't an easy one.

The 30 miles to breakfast were made up of a gentle climb leading up to a steep hill which felt too much for such an early hour but we had the compensation of a 6 mile downhill into the town of Richland. A dishonest sign told me that the library was open on Sundays so I bumped along a gravel track for no good reason before returning to the local cafe to wolf down a mediocre 'breakfast burrito' and some watery OJ.


We had a 41 mile stretch from Richland to Baker City next, with no services or shade so we packed some spare water and slowly began climbing out of town to what was an uneventful section marked by several medium sized hills and attractive cliffs. We didn't meet any eastbound riders today which was a surprise after the last few days so there wasn't much to break the ride up but a few water stops later and we were at the foot of Flagstaff Hill staring at a 5.5 mile climb up 1000 feet which was beaten by a series of one mile pedals and then rest! I can definitely feel the last week catching up with me but have a beautifully light schedule ahead with under 450 miles left to the coast and 10 days to do it in. I am planning some time off to go rafting along the way and may even cycle to Portland once I get to Florence in a week or so...




The final ten miles were accompanied by rain which came from nowhere but actually was welcome after the day's heat and wasn't heavy enough to soak my bags or clothes. We grabbed a £20 motel which has wifi and just had a great dinner at Paizans Pizza restaurant which had the tastiest 'stromboli' pizza which was a pizza wrap/baguette thing and has filled me up to burst.