Day 51-We are in Oregon-Paul's wearing his disguise

She said: It was a beautiful morning in the campground. We packed up our site, ate breakfast, and took off for the Oregon border. It was only a few miles down the road, so after our mandatory border picture we agreed to meet in Halfway, OR. We still haven't figured out halfway to where? We were still riding in Hell's Canyon most of the day, the mountains are close and for the most part it is very dry. When we left Halfway I noticed a house all by itself at the top of one of the mountains. As I wound my way through and up the canyon I spotted the house down below-nowhere to get a good picture from up top-there never seems to be a good place to pull off the road to get a photo. I guess it's hard enough to get the road in on the side of the mountain-no room for extra "pull off" space! Saw 2 mama elk each with 2 fawn (I think that's what you call a baby elk) on the side of the road. There were Jersey barriers where they had stopped and it was something to see those babies jump those barriers like nothing. We ended the day out of the canyon and into more flat land as we approached Baker City. On the Oregon Trail now. We are staying at the Oregon Trail Motel (can you sense the theme). We will be taking a rest day tomorrow, so we went to the movies tonite. it was an old fashioned movie theeater, with a marquee outside with flashing lights and everything. when we left there was a young couple leaving in front of us. they got on their bikes and were off. What a treat. The weather seems to be in our favor for a good week-it was sunny and 90 today.
He said: we were about 4miles from pacific coast time when we left so we gained an hour very early. the campground we stayed in was great. owned by idaho power, it had great bathrooms, showers included and we were right on the water. no bugs either.played nertz, with sharon winning and the competition drawing closer. talked to a gentleman from astoria oregon who had been a longshoreman there. todays ride was nice early, as we were in the canyon with the snake river and all the crappie fishermen (they weren't crappy fishermen, that is what they were fishing for, whatever that is). first stop was Halfway. i wanted to ask someone what two locations it was halfway between but got to talking to a local guy and forgot to ask. you want to see the hunting around here. elk, deer , wild goats, cougars, wildebeasts and yaks.the cougars even come into town so you have to keep an eye on your pets. the rest of the day was pretty uneventful as far as riding goes. we settled in Baker city for tonight and a day off tomorrow. have to clean and oil the bike andget ready for the final push next week. sharon has decided that she would like to try and ride her bike home so i said go for it, so it lookslike we will be switching roles. i hope i don't screw up payroll to bad at the last green valley. really looking forward to tomorrow. it is supposed to be 90 again so we expect to go swimming and otherwise relax. hope everyone is having a nice weekend and the weather there is changing for the better.

Sunrise at the reservoir.

State #10 on the bicycle trip, more to come.

Check out the house on the top of the hill....that must be some view! (Same one I was looking down on later-we really do go up and down some hills)

There was a landslide her in 1984. Enough material came down the mountainside to fill 10 cu. yd. dumptrucks lined up bumper to bumper from Baker City, OR to NYC and back again. There is a 1/2 mile lake where the river used to flow.

You can see part of the old road buried under the material. The new section of 86, which I was riding on when I took this picture, was opened in 1986.