120 miles through the desert; day of rest

Like I said in my previous post, it was 120 miles through the desert to Burns, OR and I'm happy to say I made it. When I got to the town of Valley Falls (consisting of one closed-down store, 3 houses, and 2 RVs) I was lucky to see the man who runs Oregon Desert Brine Shrimp outside his shed who let me fill up my water bottles before heading out into the most remote country I've seen yet. I didn't catch his name, but he lives in Portland most of the year but comes out to Lake Abert (an alkali lake, like the Great Salt Lake in Utah) every summer for the last 25+ years and scoops out brine shrimp while sitting in a small raft, takes them back to his shed to bag them up, and spends the rest of the year marketing and selling the wares. A really interesting guy with a really interesting way of making a living--inspiring. If you browse through my flickr page and think "who's the guy with those big trays of reddish-brown stuff?" --that's him. If you ever see this, thanks, friend, for the water.


The first 50 miles were beautiful. There's a rim of rock rising 2000 feet straight out of the ground along Lake Abert for miles, and the bird life is incredible for how harsh the terrain is. Giant boulders line the roadside and there's no traffic. There's a wayside rest area with a drinking fountain and a picknick table maybe 15 miles after the lake where I met up with three kind souls who offered me a fresh carrot and some wild Davis, CA plums on their way to the fiddle festival in Weiser, OR. I'm hoping to go a little out of my way on Tuesday or Wednesday to end up there and maybe meet up with them among the throngs of oldtime musicians.

The second 50 miles were brutal. FYI for any cyclists heading through: at press time, the store in Wagontire is no more, so bring and extra extra bottle to fill up at that wayside station. Also, Alkali Lake Station is just a highway maintainence yard, not a town.

Once I got to Riley, I still had 26 miles to go for Burns, but was able to fill up (and drink, and fill up again) my bottles and have a snack at the store there. Riley, as I learned, is a store and an RV. That's all.

In Burns, I took all of Sunday off for some good walking around ("Obsidian Days" which turned out to just be a travelling sales event for the rock hunter/RV set), napping, mapping, and mechanical maintainence. I feel ready to hit the road in the morning on Monday.

Oh! Good news. My friend DJ had time to upload the shots from my official pre-trip "photo shoot." Here's a photo and a link to the rest.



My body's in great riding shape now and after today's rest I'm ready to really start rolling down the road. For my family who'll be in Sheridan, WY at the end of the month, I ought to make it there just in time. Thanks to all my friends and family who've commented or emailed or SMS'd or called while I'm travelling. It's always nice to hear from familiar voices.