Day 49 Oxbow, OR (Hells Canyon) to Enterprise, OR

Thursday 8 Sept 2011 Day "7" of week "7" Day 46 on the Road.

The climb out of Hells Canyon was simply beautiful.  We passed huge mountain lakes and many fast moving streams. It seems so odd to be in such an amazing place of beauty and have no cars on the road.  We had the road to ourselves almost all day long.

Normally solitude on the road while cycling is just a dream.  Here it is not a dream it is reality. For nearly 50 miles no cars, no people and….. no water.  By midday the big climbs had started and temperature had reached the mid 90’s. The super low humidity dries your throat quickly as you are gasping for air making the 8 to 12 mile climbs. Soon we were all critical on water and nobody had enough to get out of the canyon.

You really get nervous when you are exerting a lot of energy in high heat and have no water. We decided to pull off the road and wait for a rolling convenience store to come by. In such a beautiful place one has to go by soon.  They always have all you need.

You never heard of a rolling convenience store?  Well let me clue you in should you ever find yourself in the same pickle we are in. A convenience store is an RV.  Oh yea!  They always have water and other goodies.

 We waited on the side of the road for a while and then there it was.  A big Chevy pickup truck pulling a tandem wheeled camping trailer.

Ken tilted his head back and acted like he was drinking water without a glass. The driver spotted the universal “I need water” sign and pulled over immediately. Remember 99.9 % of all Americans are good people and here was another example.  He was happy to pass out some bottles of water to the dehydrated crew.

78 Miles

6634 Feet of Climbing 

Temperature 42 - 95 degrees