bicycle tour

It was 30 years ago this summer that we made our first bicycle tour. We traveled 500 miles in two weeks. We carried all of our food and camp gear.

Miriam and I were 42, Dea and lora 15 and 16, Linda 11.

Some of the gear we use now, we bought for that trip.

When I think back, it was an awesome project.

We once lived in the top right corner of Oregon for a few years. Up where Chief Joseph was promised a home and protection, but got neither.

So we decided to ride up there for a weekend. We could have taken the main highway both ways, but we decided to go the back roads.

The first day’s ride was about 40 miles. With full packs (25 to 40 pounds) and a lot of bicycles tires to collect roadside debris, that is not a bad day’s run. That was pretty much flat land. The temps were in the high 90’s.

The 2nd was a ride uphill. We gained several thousand feet of elevation, then gave it all away in about 12 very fast miles. That night we camped along the Snake River at the Oxbow dam site.

The next ride was back gaining elevation, a lot of elevation, but we had also left the good roads and traveled almost all day on gravel. That night we stopped at a wide spot in the road and slept hard.

The next day we made our goal of Wallowa Lake. We had been told that there was a motorcycle group coming in and we were expecting noise, but it turned out to be a group of BMW bikes. They are quiet, and the riders were very interested in what we had done and how our bicycles worked.

We had family met us for the weekend and we rested well. The way home was by way of the highway and even freeway at times, not my idea of a good tour, but there was no other road.

One day coming back, we had a couple thousand feet of elevation to loose, which we hoped would make up for some of the long hard uphill runs. But, horrors or horrors we had a head wind and had to peddle to go downhill!

One memory is that there were a LOT of grasshoppers that summer, and as we rode along they would jump into our wheel spokes and make an almost guitar like ping.

It was a hot trip a grueling trip. But it was fun.

Boy did we get some sun.