Mountains, desert and mosquitoes.

After seeing family in the Ashland area Chris and I picked up Brendon, our fourth rider.


He is a pal from Santa Rosa and is becoming quite the skilled frame builder (he built my bike and the one he is riding). While Ted caught up with his folks Brendon, Chris, and I rode to Lake of the Woods, OR where we met up with Lisa and Rose. We decided to take a rest day at my aunt and uncle's cabin, on the Lake. It was beautiful and relaxing.


Day 8 - Wednesday we left Lake of the Woods and rode through Klamath Falls to Sprague River, OR. Riding along highway 66 was amazing, pine covered forest quickly changed to rolling hills and sage brush desert. We did get a chance to ride along the OC&E Rail to Trail



which runs from Klamath Falls to Bly. While we were excited to ride this trail that goes for 150 miles, we soon found out that only a few of those miles were paved, and the rest varied from hard pack dirt to seizure inducing cattle pasture.

Day 9 - Thursday we finally rode a mile.... high to Lakeview Oregon.


It was a cold nasty day filled with rain, hail and wind. Hearing that it was going to freeze that night we decided to get a hotel room, which all six of us shared, and destroyed.


It is amazing what a shower, a hot meal (bacon burger, fries, and a coke) and clean clothes can do after a hard days ride.

Day 10 - Lakeview to a rest area 53 miles north of Lakeview.
Leaving Lakeview the landscape changes dramatically, and we soon found ourselves in the high desert. Big open skies, miles and miles of sagebrush, and the occasional 5,000 + ft. pass is what we saw for the next few days. The views were incredible but the riding was challenging, due to an incessant headwind.







Day 11 - Rest Area to Rest Area (15 miles outside Burns, OR).
Another day of hobo camping in the luxurious highway rest stops, where warm showers are had in the bathroom sink and we ate dinner under cedar trees along the highway. This was another hard day, and Rose hitched to Burns with an injured knee. Feeling bad for us she met us with an awesome dinner and cold beer. Along the way though, we fell back in time 100 years as we happened upon a cattle branding. This was an awesome experience to witness, and although I may be questioning my consumption of meat again it was really cool to see traditional methods of ranching being used and even more rad to see these traditions being passed on to younger generations. Once they determined we weren't from PETA, everyone was very nice and equally curious about our journey as we were of their livelihood.






Day 12 - We rode into Burns and parted with Rose and then rode out to the Malhuer National Wildlife Refuge which is home to 300 plus species of birds, and about 600,000,000,000 plus recently hatched mosquitoes. After sleeping in a mined out field next to abandoned farming equipment and creeper vans, where curious horses peered down over the hills at us, we determined that we were miles and miles away from the flow.

Day 13 - Rest Day (sort of) in Burns. Lisa goes back to the real world and its back to the four of us, headed towards Boise, ID.