Day Seventeen: 6/10/08

Quick post tonight. We rode over Santiam Pass today. We left in the rain around 9:00. A few hours later at around 3000 feet the rain turned to snow, and so it stayed for the remainder of the climb up to 4700 feet... on June 10. PeterB had the camera and was only able to reel off one shot during the climb. It was so cold that if we stopped for more than a minute or two, all the sweat on our clothes would cool off and chill us badly. The climb kept up us warm with all the activity, but once we crested the pass the downhill was awful.

Without heat generated by pedaling we became wet, cold windsocks on the way down. We wound up pulling into some hoity-toity restraunt at the bottom on the climb to keep our fingers and toes tact. Lucky for us the staff was really accomdating and loaded us us with tea and soup while we dried our gear off near a fire. A huge thanks goes out to the waiter, Andy, who went out of his way for us.

After that we made it into the high desert climate of central Oregon. It was sunny and arid. Go figure. After nearly an entire week of rain on the coast, I think we're finally going to stay dry for a while.