It was our first morning waking up in the tent. We had survived day one and were ready to pedal on. We had decided the evening before to skip about 8 miles of single track and opt for 10 miles of pavement instead. It was going to be a hot day, with limited water and who cares about how we are getting anywhere? We are riding our bikes through the state of Oregon!
Cows. The national forest lands are leased to farmers to graze their cows and we came across a few. It was comical at times. Cows really don't give a damn until you're right up on them and then they run... down the trail... in the direction you are headed. We felt like bike cow ranchers. Heeyah, bike pony! Round up them cows. Bill was the best at getting them to skedaddle (I just had to look up the spelling of that), so we gave him the trail name: Cow Patrol.
Along the way, we came across two men and a dog hiking- our first other humans on the trail. At a later water stop, we got to talking with them and learned they were land managers for that area of the forest. They, of course, knew about The Oregon Timber Trail. I mentioned the lack of water and both were interested in helping to get a water tank or other resource available. Cool!
It was a pretty warm day as we dropped down from our cow lined single track on to highway 395 for a couple miles and then on to exposed gravel Cox Creek Road (there is no creek of the Cox right now.) We mostly rode solo and spread out in this stretch, moving quickly in the exposed sections, and more slowly in the intermittent tree shades. About 4 miles in, we saw a car pulled over, with two people standing and a familiar dog's head poking out the back seat. Our forest manager dudes had driven to the top of where we were headed, noticed there was no water along the way, and had stopped to offer us some. Extra cool!
Before much longer, we were at a trailhead and our gravel road became a forest service "road." To get to Mill Flat, where we were pretty sure there was a marsh or pond, we had to ride on what may have been Road 100 once upon a time, but was barely a trail now. But after some hesitant stop and trail finding, we made it to Mill Flat. We laughed to see a group of guys at this pond with a small creek running from it. They had driven here... from the other direction for a guys weekend. One of the guy's wife was expecting a baby and it was his last hoorah. Another Coors light was offered as I later did laundry and we all took a creek bath.
Ride stats for the day: 32 miles, 3200ft. elevation, 4.5 riding, 9 hours total (because lunch and cows and view and water and snacks- so many snacks.)
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