We woke up to clear skies. They turned purple just as we were getting ready to roll. I wasn't too sad because clouds might equal some rain and that would be a nice change on the trail. It would keep the dust and temperature down. And since I live in an area that often rains without visual and audio effects, I didn't think we would encounter any danger. We began with about 13 miles of single track, mostly uphill, but doable. And the light rain really was nice.
This opened up to a view, with the route almost making it to the fire lookout on Morgan Butte. The exposed meant we were definitely in danger of lightning that followed each thunder boom. The views were gorgeous! And the smells.... oh my. Imagine fields of sage and cedar shrubs, with some juniper. Then soak it in a warm rain.
The drama for the day was the thunderstorms. We had to ditch our bikes and hide under some shrubs to wait out passing storms. These storms brought lightning strikes that started over 20 wildfires in the southern Oregon area. At least one of these fires created smoke which we met up with later in the week.
Once safe, we headed down, down, down to Paisley, finishing with about 10 miles of pavement from the Chewaucan River crossing to Paisley. Finally, we would get the Cokes, and beers, and candy bars we had been looking for.
Paisley is pretty small and on this Sunday early evening, the mercantile was closed. And purple clouds of doom and danger were rolling upon us again. So, we settled for beers and burgers at The Pioneer Saloon. They don't have a website, but I like this little write-up and learned that it is one of the oldest saloons in the state! As we inhaled our burgers and enjoyed our well- deserved beers, Aliza called Summer Lake Hot Springs to let them know we were still coming. And... to find out if there were any cabins left to rent instead of our camping spot. Owner, Duane said he would "hook us up" and that he would come to pick us up, so we didn't die from lightning.
As promised, about an hour later, Duane showed up in his truck, where we loaded ourselves and bikes and were taken to our Oregon outback oasis. He let us rent the Ranch House Cabin at a steeply discounted rate, with a private "grotto piazza with private soaking pools." We were in heaven. What a treat to have plumbing, electricity, and space to do laundry and organize our re-supply packages that we had sent there. Except for Deann and Bill... their package was still at the post office, due to a miscommunication. But Duane offered to take them to the post office in the morning and drive them to a spot to meet the rest of us the next day. Of course, we enjoyed a soak with a gorgeous sunset, after the avoided thunderstorm.
Check here for route and stats on the day. The miles and elevation don't matter. We were riding our bikes across a state with a lot of hills, mountains, and high deserts!
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