Eastern Oregon – Day 17-18; Last of the Wild West. Mitchell to Cold Spring Campground, Sisters

Day: 17 – The Ochoco’s
June 14, 2023

Distance: 40 miles (662 total)
Spoke’n Hostel, Mitchell to Ochoco Lake Campground

Our original plan had been to take the Central Oregon Backcountry Explorer/ Ochoco Overlander gravel route back to Prineville, but we decided to stick to the roads instead (so the Transamerica route). All the flat tires and long hard gravel days earlier in the trip had worn us out and our bikes aren’t in the best shape to tackle more difficult gravel. I do think/hope we’ll come back to do the overlander loop though. I think it’d be a lot of fun, especially if we can pare down our gear a little and return with tubeless tires. (It is nice that we’ve had several other tourers confirm that steep downhill we had done back on day 6 was in fact a difficult downhill, and it’s not just us thinking that. It re-upped my gravel confidence).

Cold temperatures and winds had come in from the west last night with a high of 66 today so our big climb today wasn’t as bad as some of the others. The Ochoco Pass was still long though, but thankfully a shallower grade and the cooler temps made a huge difference.

Terrain wise it was nice that as we got up the pass there were more and more trees. Unfortunately there had been a fire that had come through at some point on the eastern end because there were some pretty barren trees. But fortunately by the time we summited Ochoco Pass, the rest of the trip was lush and green with ponderosa pines.

Sadly we had apparently done a really bad job rinsing our water bottles after washing them, so all of our water had a distinctly soapy taste. Just past the summit we went by the Ochoco Christian Conference Center that had water set out for riders so we were happy to replace our soapy water with fresh cold water. Although, because we didn’t want to waste their water we weren’t able to entirely remove the soapy residue.

We stopped for lunch around noon on some random road pull out, actually choosing to sit in the sun instead of the shade because of the chill today. Sadly we had picked up some hummus that had a funky taste to it. At first I was wondering if it was soap aftertaste from our bottles, but alas, the hummus was a couple weeks expired. Today was not a good day for our tastebuds. Hopefully we don’t have bowel issues later…

As you do with any big climb, we had been looking forward to the downhill, but alas those same winds that made for a cooler temperature were also a headwind for our ride. Fortunately they had been mostly blocked by the pass on the climb itself, but we were confronted with it for the downhill and flats on the western side. Don’t get me wrong a downhill is still a downhill, we just weren’t able to coast as much as we would have wanted.

Even though we’ve ridden various parts of highway 26 now, today’s ride seemed to be the worst stretch of our entire journey traffic wise. The shoulder was pretty minimal and the traffic stayed fairly consistent. Fortunately most of the drivers today gave us more than enough space, so no real trouble.

We decided to stop at Ochoco Lake today. It was a pretty short day mileage wise, but with the climb (2500ft) and headwind we were happy to be off the bikes. There was minimal cell service at the camp so we couldn’t do too much planning wise. So instead we wandered down to the lake and had a relaxing evening. There was a partial TransAmerica rider we also chatted with. Oh and the camp host also had adorable rabbits!

What We Ate

Breakfast: Texas toast with jam, Cheerios, and coffee
2nd Breakfast: Peanut butter burrito with almonds
Lunch: Hummus tomato, cheese, avocado, spinach wrap, dates
Dinner: West African Peanut Stew (sweet potato, spinach, rice/couscous, peanut butter)
Snacks: Cliff bar, fruit snacks, fig bar, brownie brittle, trail mix

Day: 18 – Seeing People Again
June 15, 2023

Distance: 66 miles (728 total)
Ochoco Lake to Cold Springs Campground, Sisters

It was a very cold morning today. We left with our leggings and puffy jackets on. There was a cool fog over the lake we had camped near adding to the cold feeling.

We enjoyed an uneventful downhill into Prineville. Being still fairly early and knowing we’ll pass through Sisters later we opted not to stop for any stores. The ride today was a little interesting in that it had a lot of similar rock formations as we’ve seen previously, but now they’ve been clearly marked by humans with power lines and railroads.

Knowing if we could hold out we’d have a super nice break location, we went a little further than we usually do before second breakfast. But it was worth it. Smith Rock, one of Oregon’s 7 Wonders, was worlds better than a side of the road break location. We enjoyed the scenery and watched a couple rock climbers while we ate before we decided it was time to carry on.

From Smith Rock we were able to follow the aptly named “Sisters to Smith Rock” Scenic bikeway, although we did it in reverse. We actually came across some Canadians riding the bikeway as part of their vacation! It sounded like they were hoping to eventually ride all of them, this was their 4th-so technically they got Andrew and I beat since we’ve only so far done 2 full bikeway routes, although this is our 6th one to ride on at least a part of/most of. Andrew thinks we rode enough of the Sisters to Smith Rock bikeway to count it as complete but there was technically one little maybe 2 mile doodle we skipped because it looked like a silly little detour just to avoid a mile of highway riding.

There were a number of other day riding cyclists we saw out today as well which was an interesting change from our previous day’s remoteness.

This bikeway itself was very scenic. We’ve reached the flat land before the Cascades, so all morning was off and on views of the Three Sisters, Broken Top, Mt Washington, Three Fingered Jack, and Mt Jefferson, as well as others I don’t know the names of.

We rolled into Sisters, 55miles into our day, around 1:30pm. Our first stop in town was for some much deserved ice cream. The main street of town was hopping with people; like you’d think we were at Disneyland or something. Well maybe not, cause the ice cream line went pretty quick. It was a little overwhelming being around so many people after the emptiness we’ve been experiencing.

After our bellies were full, Angela poked her head into a couple shops while Andrew watched the bikes. Then we made our way over to the closer grocery store. It was an organic store so more expensive but more interesting things. Unfortunately being an organic store it didn’t have everything we needed, so we trekked it the whole mile over to the other grocery store to finish up our shopping.

Per a local’s recommendation (we met her back at the Spoke’n hostel) we made our way over to The Barn for dinner. It was a big food truck pod. Oh how I’ve missed bougie food. We enjoyed fancy pizza and vegan nachos. Unfortunately we got there a little early for dinner and after snacking at the grocery store believe it or not we were actually unable to finish our food. Turns out a tourer’s stomach is not endless. Not these tourers at least.

Rather than stay in Sisters, we decided to get a leg up on the climb for tomorrow so we went the extra 4.5 miles to Cold Springs Campground. The road out was beautiful and tree lined. Traffic was also minimal because the McKenzie Pass is closed to cars until Monday! So 5 more miles of maybe cars tomorrow followed by blissful traffic free roads for the entire climb.

What We Ate

Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee
2nd Breakfast: Peanut butter burrito, dates, wasabi edamame
Lunch: Bean burritos
Dinner: Pizza and vegan nachos (The Barn in sisters)
Snacks: Bars, fruit snacks, a whole bag of terra chips, ice cream, cashews

Can O’ Beans so far: 9

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