Day 7-8 Blue Mountains and Eastern Oregon, the Hi-Viz Boys Peal Off

Day 5-6 East Slope Cascades to Ochoco Mountains

Day 3-4 Willamette Valley and West Slope Cascades, including McKenzie River and McKenzie Pass

Day 1-2 Start of trip and Oregon Coast

greetings from Prairie City OR

We're in Prairie City OR after a most amazing day of biking - a long day but through some of the most spectacular true Western scenery.

We camped last night in a little town park in Mitchell OR, pop. 170 but still big enough to have a high school football team. Mitchell is a former mining/logging outposts many miles from other towns. The California yuppies have yet to screw this town up and it still retains its rural crusty chutzpah. The store clerk didn't have tortillas so she went home next door and got some out of her fridge.

We had a long climb through Ochoco Pass yesterday and some incredible old growth poderosa pine stands. Today we got an early jump on another long steep climb to the top of Keys Creek Pass. The ride down passed through some of the most magnificent western scenery I have ever experienced: canyon walls of basalt columns in the early morning light. The drop ended at Picture Gorge in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, so named because of many Native American pictographs - we didn't get to see them cause we were in a hurry and the Park Service folks won't tell you where they are for fear they will be vandalized.

The rest of the ride was through valleys of grazing cattle and irrigated alfalfa and hay, and a handful of small towns ending at Prairie City, where we camp tonight.

I hope to get photos loaded in Baker City on Monday morning.

Since last post we've headed out of the Coast Range, into the Willamette Valley, through up and over the Cascades, and now in the Central OR high desert. Yesterday we started the day outside Eugene and quickly biked thru the city for the McKenzie River valley. A long steady climb through magnificent forests of Douglas-fir and western red cedar, including patches of old growth. The river is fed by resevoir-impounded snowmelt and runs cold clear and fast.

We camped in McKenzie Bridge beneath a stand of old growth with some trees over 6' in diameter. This morning we climbed to McKenzie Pass, over 3800' vertical climb with narrow switchbacks through textbook Cascades old growth. The pass was a moonscape of ancient lava flows north of the Three Sisters mountains. Add the following major tree species to the list: noble fir, white fir, sub-alpine fir, lodgepole pine, western white pine, mountain hemlock and engelmann spruce. Once you get over the Cascades heading east in the rain shadow it gets very dry and hot. Add ponderosa pine, juniper and sagebrush.

We pulled into Redmond OR with no camping and stopped at a bikeshop. I guess we looked pathetic and exhausted cause the owner put us up at his home - nice folks but they don't have internet so still no photos to post. My attempt to upload photos at the Eugene library failed because I ran out of time on the public computer. Big city libraries have too many rules. Will try to get to a computer soon.

First post of the trip!

Two days into trip, all on Oregon coast. Beautiful beaches, rocky cliffs and capes, and Oregons famous haystack rock formations. Magnificent forests of Douglas fir, sitka spruce, western hemlock, western red cedar, red alder and bigleaf maple. Mostly 2nd and 3rd growth but today we biked through amazing old growth stands on Neskowin scenic drive. Clearcutting alive and well in Coast Range but it seems broadly accepted. Many log trucks on roads - good to see. This afternoon we turned inland and tomorrow head toward the Willamette Valley, Corvallis and Eugene. Photos coming soon!

This is the awesome family I am leaving behind for one month. Thanks family.

This is the Transamerica route. My trip follows the route from Astoria OR to Denver CO, a distance of about 2,000 miles.