Day 9 Pendelton to La Grande Uphill 4538 ft Downhill 2946 ft

First off I must make a retraction. Someone pointed out an error in my Saturday blog. I have corrected it, but for those who read it…..no, you did not sponsor me $10,000 to spread the gossip (it should have read, gospel). Spell check didn’t catch it (gossip wasn’t spelled wrong) and I didn’t catch it when I proof read the blog. Usually my husband will tell me to, ‘open mouth, switch feet’ but this time it was my fingers that gave me the problem. So I apologize if I offended anyone, it wasn’t intentional. A few people in camp know about this error so before I rode off this morning I was greeted with, ‘have fun spreading the gossip’. I fear it will be a while before I live that one down.

Now, on to the day. We left early (6:30 am) because it promised to be another hot day and we knew we would be climbing quite a bit. We had some problems leaving town….the map can be a tad difficult to follow. I did get a photo of the fields of wheat before we started the climb. Oh, never crouch down in a wheat field to relieve oneself….you could end up with little prickles on the inside of your shorts. This makes for a prickly ride the rest of the day. Now mind you, I’m just giving you a ‘for instance’ here.

Today was my first experience cycling on switchbacks. The first long climb was over 10 miles. We started at just over 1,000ft and finished at just under 4,000ft. Someone figured that the climb was at a 5% grade. At one point I heard some rustling in the bushes, I put my head up and saw some cattle grazing at the side of the road. We also noticed to two fawns and several horses. In retrospect today’s climb was not as bad as last Tuesday. I found it quite manageable….difficult, but doable.

After the first climb was finished we had an up and down section, then another 500ft climb. The scenery changed from wheat fields to pine trees rather suddenly. The rest of the day whizzed by….downhill the rest of the way.

Just as we were coming into town (shortly after noon) we noticed an ice-cream store. The advantage of coming in early is that you beat the heat (when we climbed the first climb the temp was around 65F, for others later in the morning it was in the mid 90’) I had a peach cobbler ice-cream cone. Mmm good, another first for me (the peach cobbler, not the ice-cream cone.).

Tonight we are staying in Pioneer Park, a city park. Large shade trees offer much needed relief after a day on the road. We can also use the indoor pool and showers.

I’ve been told there will be no internet tonight. I wish I could post at the library, as some cyclists are doing, but alas I’m on sweep duty tonight. Not quite sure of all the details of this duty but we needed to unload all the cyclists gear bags before setting up our tents and then I helped set up the dining tents and tables. At 5:30pm we start setting up for supper, then we help serve supper and clean up the kitchen dishes. Tomorrow morning we will set out and serve breakfast (from 6:30-7:30am), clean up the camp site and then we’ll be the last cyclists out of camp. Our job is to offer encouragement and do whatever it takes to get all the cyclists in. We will also be the last cyclists in, so I hope that tomorrow has no climbs so that I’ll get into camp mid afternoon. One can always hope. As I type this up the sweep team from today is still not in (it’s 4:30).

Gotta go, I have to report to duty. Till tomorrow, Cynthia

Average speed 21.2k Maximum speed 60.0km Time on the bike 4:15