Day 13: 1/2 Way

Start: Baker City, OR

End: Halfway, OR

Elevation: 2795 ft

Miles: 55.20

Today’s ride started later than expected, 10:20am. By the time I got breakfast and resupplied at Albertsons it was 10:20am and spitting rain. Yesterday, I talked to a local moutian biker I saw on a trial. He was happy to talk about his new E-MTB. It looked brand new and he was happy to be on it. He gave me local information that Baker to Halfway was a good ride with an added benifit of a tail wind in the morning. It is bad luck to depend on wind information. All morning I had a stiff wind plowing out of the Southeast. Head wind. Hahaha, of course!

I went past more ancient farm equipment and horse drawn carriages. Lots of old grain threshers. Those farmers of old had to work hard. 

At the top of the ridge there was a monument to mark the Oregon Trail. It is amazing that so many people took such a long, hard journey to get to the Willamette Valley. It is humbling to be where they trod.

Today, I dropped into the Powder river valley and followed along it for some miles. It is nice to follow rivers, it gives me something interesting to watch. Lots of water fowl and cows. Lots of cows. 

If my brother Jeff was with me, he would have found dozens of perfect places to build a cabin. Funny things rattle through you head at 10 miles per hour. It is one of the joys of the trip for sure.

At mile 40 I hit a town called Richland, where unexpectedly a cafe was open. YEAH! I was able to buy a 3P lunch. Happy boy for I was running out of energy and I had a big 7 mile climb of 1500 feet ahead. 

After lunch, I felt much better as I started up this 7% grade that was unrelenting. It takes a while to go 7 miles at 3.1MPH. But I did make it. Megan (my travel stalker) was tracking me through "Find Greg, aka Find my Friend" and was able to let me know when the real summit was. False summits sap moral for sure, but I have the best daughters that cheer me on through the hard parts. 

After hitting the summit it was a brisk 3 miles down hill to the town of Halfway. The town is so pretty and peaceful. A lot like Yampa valley in Colorado.

I am not sure who or why a town would be named Halfway, but there was a home made sign I passed, that read “1/2 to Halfway”. You can make up your own jokes around the name but It was a hard day to make it here at the Halfway RV Park. All sites were half off, which was nice.

Tomorrow will be another long day to the town of Cambridge ID, through Hells Canyon.