Baker City to Mt. Vernon, OR 90 miles

We saw Irv and Susan again as we all made our way out of town. They were out on their bikes headed for a coffee shop. Then about 5 miles out of town we came across two people traveling towards us. Shaina and Ming were traveling around, coming from Sacramento and moving towards Glacier. Shaina was riding a Bike Saturday recumbent with the trailer. I had to stop and chat while everyone else moved on. Couchsurfing.org/rkmlai is their couchsurfing username. They were delightful to talk to and I wished I had had more time with them, but I was falling far behind the group. They told me I definately would not get service at Bike Friday in Eugene on a Saturday.



Not a lot of variety today. Up down up down. Highlights: a mule deer lying very close to the road under the deep shade of a pine (smart deer- it was about 90 and very dry). A couple of chipmunks (see how excited I get over basic wildlife, I am so desperate to see any). A spring coming out of the hill that Ming and Shaina told me about (wish I had stopped- I thought it was dry). Cows in the road.


This weird sign, which must have been directed at a local organized ride.


I caught up with Janelle and Ted, but Bill had slipped ahead and I never caught up with him. For the whole 53 or so miles I was thinking about how to get to Eugene on Thurs night, so I could go to BF on Friday.
When I got to our scheduled destination of Austin Junction and found Bill, I told him of my decision to keep going. He expressed his desire to keep me company. There was no way to call or text Janelle or Ted, so we told Carol and Dave (who were going to stay at the campground there) of the plan so they could tell Janelle and Ted. I also told an Eastbound cyclist with the expectation she could not miss them and asked her to relay the message.
I was unimpressed with the restaurant: service was slow and a salad, ice cream or bottled tea were expensive.
We ate a small meal and then headed out again at around 3:15.



The 7 mile climb to the third pass of the day was worth it. The next 37 miles were either downhill or entailed a tailwind. We stopped for something cold to drink in every town and it was nice to have an option to stop for the night every 15 miles or so.
Landing in Mt. Vernon, we located the Bike Inn, a bike only lodging which Jamie and Heidi had enjoyed. Beds, a kitchenette, goats, dog and cats were all ours. There was a note to please take care of the dog if the owner was absent. Pretty cool. Here is a photo of one of the three goats taken from the kitchen window.


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