Oregon Outback - Day 3

Previous: Oregon Outback - Day 2

Rain on my tent woke me before dawn. It's never fun waking up, packing up, getting going in a cold rain.

The cold and wet weather, and a night of noisy cows and coyotes had everyone a bit glum. I was glad I slept with earplugs in. Mark M. told us that he'd join Mark N., also abandoning. He hadn't slept well, listening to the coyotes and cows all night, and feeling anxiety about the trip. “I'm getting too old for this shit,” he said with a smile. I was selfishly disappointed, but I respected their decisions, and understood; this is a hard ride. We all packed up our wet gear, headed over to the FastBreak gas station for coffee and breakfast sandwiches, exchanged goodbyes with the two Marks and headed off.

The two Marks were able to get a ride to Klamath Falls with the manager of the RV site where we had stayed, and a day later, they took the train home. Mark M. tells me: "Mark N and I ended up getting a ride from the RV park owner, Tom (super nice guy) to La Pine where we caught Adam’s bus to Klamath Falls after hanging out most of the day in a local laundromat. The Friday train south had been cancelled so we toured Klamath Falls on Saturday. The highlight was the Favell Museum- lots of Native American artifacts."

The riding was a little tough, with the cold and wet weather, but the rain tapered off. We stopped in front of a ranch for someone to adjust their bags or get a snack, I can't remember which, and while we were waiting a little kitten walked out the driveway toward us. I called it and it came for some very vigorous and friendly pets, rubbing against me and obviously eager for some human affection. It was a nice moment.

Cresting a rise, we saw the giant, volcanic ring named Fort Rock, rising from its ancient lake bed.

Photo by Adam Shapiro

It's really an amazing sight. We reached the town of Fort Rock as the sun began to peek out from behind cold clouds. We had seen tire tracks, and we knew that both Drew and a pair from Portland were in front of us, but we had no desire to try to catch them. We pulled up to the Waterin’ Hole Tavern, which was closed, but a lady came out and asked if we needed anything, offering us sodas and chips and we gladly accepted the offer.

lunch

Looks a bit like Bodie.

Battlestar Galactica

FORT ROCK RD
FORT ROCK STATE PARK
CHRISTMAS VALLEY
CHINA HAT
BIN LAKE RS
COOK WELL
BEND
LAPINE CA
FREMONT

I got a Coke and some Fritos. She said we could eat them in their outside seating area and water up, which we gladly accepted. Out in the Oregon desert, water pressure from the ground (?) is very powerful; opening a valve causes a jet to splash out very hard. We all filled up with almost as much water as we could carry, in my case, 8 L; 4L in the crank tank, 1 L each and the two Nalgene bottles on my fork legs, and then a 2 L Platypus bag that I put in the bottom of my my Aeropack Cargo bag. Eight liters of water is 18lbs, with the food I was carrying, the total weight of the bike would be nearly 80lbs, but surprisingly, while it felt like a battleship, leaning it against a post or maneuvering it on foot, it glided as effortlessly as ever once under power, on gravel roads, just with a bit more inertia, and needing that low gear spin on steeper climbs.

I think it was here that Adam got a bit of signal, and exclaimed surprised that Soph, from Bend had found the titanium cup he'd left in Beatty, and that she'd carry it forward for him. That is a happy ending, well it will be when they finally meet again in Bend.

The sun broke through the clouds, we ate steak sandwiches from our leftover haul with our chips and Cokes, thanked the two ladies at the tavern and began our journey to Fort Rock.

The volcanic feature is a state park, nicely kept. It felt a bit like Moab, UT. There was only one other couple there, at their van in the parking lot, and also a camp host in his RV. It's day use only. We hiked up into the bowl at the center of the ring, and had a majestic view. The formation is relatively recent, pushing up through an ancient lake, rapidly cooling as it hit the ancient lake’s water. We told stories and enjoyed the feeling of the growing sunshine. A sign told us that a pair of sandals found in a nearby cave had been carbon dated to 10,000 years old. The view from the altitude of the bowl was magnificent. Go see it.

After Fort Rock, we entered the Deschutes National Forest, Adam's home turf, but on the far side from his home in Bend. We had reached the ‘red sauce forest,’ which had a reputation for being rough, but in our experience, was delightful to ride; perhaps road work had been done. The road started to climb, and I rolled ahead, preferring to have some alone time and to just enjoy the ride.

I had a really pretty, big deer run across the road in front of me. After a long, solo ride on delightful red roads, I stopped for a regroup as we neared highway 20. We agreed to find a camp on the near side of highway 20, and found one on the last bit of National Forest land, in ponderosa pines, before a scrub plain of chaparral began. We had a cold, sunny, enjoyable camp there. It really felt like Bend, with the pines, the sandy, gravel duff among the rocks. Dinner and conversation was good, I slept well, but woke up shivering. It was very cold in the morning. I had decided against bringing the 15° sleeping bag, as the forecast at the time had shown lows in the mid 30s. I had gone to bed wearing the down pants, wool long sleeve shirt, socks and beanie, and I had to cinch and zip up all the way to warm up in my bag before the sun came up. Consider a 15° bag for October riding on the Oregon Outback.

Next: Oregon Outback - Day 4