July 8: Unity to John Day, Oregon
There was a definite change in terrain today. Shortly after leaving Unity, the first climb started and by the time I had gone uphill long enough to take the chill off, the road was lined with pine trees. I could smell them in the calm, morning air too. It was a nice change after roughly 580 miles through hot, dry, mostly treeless Idaho and far eastern Oregon.
The tradeoff, of course, is the roads are much more up and down now. Today, for example, I went over two 5100+ foot passes and a third one at 4678 feet. It was a total of nearly 2900 feet of climbing which was nearly double the amount of climbing I did on any day of riding in Idaho.
And, so, that brings us up-to-date. Tonight, I’m in John Day. Here, I cross paths with something called the BMW Unrally. It’s an annual rally for, you guessed it, BMW motorcycle riders. A few years ago, I was in the Black Hills just before the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. This rally is much smaller, I’m sure because I didn’t see that many motorcycles around when I walked downtown this afternoon. But, they were all BMWs, they were all quiet, and it was an exception to see something besides full riding leathers and full-face helmets.
I’ve been offline and out-of-touch since I left Ontario in far eastern Oregon. To catch everybody up on the last couple of days:
July 6: Ontario to Brogan, Oregon
I camped at the only lodging available in Brogan: an RV Park. But, it had everything I needed — water, shower, and shade. Down the street was a country store where I picked up dinner and breakfast the next day.
July 7: Brogan to Unity, Oregon
In the morning, as I was searching for something I could call breakfast, the old men hanging around in the Brogan Country Store did their best to scare me into going home. First it was the heat. “You better get going! It’s going to be a hot one today.” Next, it was the road itself. They told me Brogan’s Hill, which started just a mile outside of Brogan, was “six miles of six percent grade.” Well, I suppose the distance depends on where it is you call the start, but the grade should be indisputable. My Garmin GPS records the road grade continuously. There might have been a brief spot here or there at 6%, but I saw most the climb (five and a half miles by my measure), at 3-4% with a couple places where there was a sustained section of a mile or so at 5%. Their last attempt to scare me was about what was growing up between the cracks in the road: something they called “thorn weed.” Maybe that’s the same as what we call “goatheads” back home in Salt Lake City, I’m not sure. In any case, I didn’t see any of it. In fact, I didn’t see much of anything growing in the cracks of the road.
Much to the surprise of the old men in Brogan’s Country Store, I made it to Unity safe and sound. I had three choices for lodging that night. One was Unity Lake State Park which had a very appealing “Hiker/Biker” campsite available for $4! The Park had water, showers, bathrooms, but absolutely no shade. I’m afraid I’m not up to sitting around in the sun all afternoon. My next option was the only motel in town, the Unity Motel. $32 for pretty basic accomodations. The last option was a shady spot in the city park behind the fire station. It was free, but it had no shower or running water. Initially, I decided to stay at the fire station. As the afternoon went by and I spoke with various people in town, there came to be some confusion about whether camping was allowed at the fire station. I imagined being told I couldn’t camp there at, say, 10:30 PM. Then what would I do? I also noticed sprinkler heads dotted throughout the park. What time in the morning did they come on? Those thoughts along with the lure of a shower finally got me to part with $32 so I could take a shower and sleep worry-free.
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