Greetings From Belknap Hot Springs, Oregon. After a 60 mile ride with a steady 1000 foot elevation gain, PeterB and I are perched at the edge of our first major climb of the Cascades. Santiam Pass peaks at a little over 4,700 feet, which is 3,700 higher than where we are right now. The good news is the climb is spread out over 25 miles so it won't be too steep. The bad news is that Santiam Pass adds about 10 extra miles of climbing over the pass we were originally going to take: MacKenzie Pass. It's been so abnormally cold in Oregon this spring that MacKenzie Pass is still closed with 200% snowpack, with no opening date in sight.
PeterB and I have been joined by new travelling partner. We met a guy, Anthony, at a bike shop in Florence, just as we were about the head inland off the coast. Anthony is a recent graduate of THE Ohio State University, and was embarking on a solo ride to Virginia via the TransAmerican Route. Since we're now riding the TransAm Route to Missoula he asked if he could ride with us and of course we said sure. He's not in shape yet, and he's riding some questionable equipment – PeterB had to fix his chain that snapped on the second day because he wasn't carrying a chain breaker – so we've spent a fair amount of time waiting for him these past few days. Anthony is riding with much less gear than either of us, so it's only a matter of time before he's kicking our asses up the hills.
The change in access to state campgrounds and facilities between our time on the coast and now as we travel inland is marked. The whole time we rode up the coast we would come across at least four state park campsites a day that charged $3 a night, and most of them had shower facilities on site. Now that's all gone, and it's been replaced by a lot of chintzy private campsites that charge an arm and a leg for the privilege of sleeping near a body of water, (hopefully not too stagnant), and a picnic table. It's not necessarily bad, but it's just not anywhere near as nice as the options we had while on the coast.
PeterB bought a new camera the other day when we got into Eugene, so new pictures will be forthcoming. It's too bad though, because missed out on a lot of good photo ops while we had no camera....
PeterB and I stayed at a hostel in Eugene where we met a very friendly couple from Ireland, and a couple of Swiss girls. Otherwise, all the Americans there were weirdos. We stayed up too late with our new foreign friends and talked about how very different the U.S. is from anywhere else in the world. There were many drinks had by all and a good number of “fookin' 'ell”s uttered from Irish lips. It was great....
Now it's time to rest up for the big climb tomorrow.
By the way, in case you haven't noticed, I've added a link to a Flickr photo stream with most of the photos that have been taken during the trip. Check the upper left hand corner of the blog.
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