Today’s entry is a short one. Part of this is because it was a day of riding to rack up the miles and because I’m writing this offline in my tent.
The night at Bates State Park in Oregon was cold. I woke up about 2:30am and was shivering. Was wearing most of my clothes and was inside my sleeping bag but the cold was still finding me. My toes were cold and my fingers were cold. I rearranged things a bit and was eventually able to fall back asleep but woke up about 4:30 with the birds and laid there trying to figure out how to get warm.
At 5am I got the rest of my clothes on, put my running shoes on, and ventured outside the tent. There was a pretty heavy frost.
I turned fired up the ignition on my bike and saw that the air temperature sensor said it was 30 degrees. Well, the best way to warm is to get moving and I did so, hiking the nearby trails at a brisk pace. Once I’d been out for 30 minutes I was feeling pretty good. I shot a few photos on my outing.
This state park has an interesting history. It was originally the sawmill town of Bates and the pond in the photo above is the old mill pond that fed the water-powered tools. The area where I am camping was where the housing was and there was also a hotel on the property, yes, the Bates Hotel. Other than the pond, little is left of the original town but they do have some interpretive displays about the history. More can be found here: Wikipedia and Oregon Encyclopedia.
We went though the usual morning routine and hit the road about 8:45. We didn’t have cell service so I couldn't do much with the map but I knew we were following Hwy 26 to the east. The ride is varied, going through farmland and mountains.
Today is all about logging miles, wanting to get back to Billings before things get nuts for the Memorial Day Weekend.. We plan to end up in Wisdom, MT today, getting us back to Billings on Friday. We went though lots of small towns, following the instructions from Google navigator. We stopped for gas and we stopped for butt breaks and a few photos.
In Ontario, Oregon we saw this business. No doubt what is transacted there.
We stopped in Fruitland, Idaho and found a city park. I wanted a break and also wanted to update the last two blog entries. I had good cell service here so it didn’t take very long. Just as we were getting ready to go, a nearby school invaded the park.
On Hwy 21, crossing into Idaho, we got lots of twists and turns so it was fun and challenging. We pulled over here for a photo.
And more.
I used the dashcam a bunch today and will try to extract some images and add them here after I get back. [I'm back so here they are.]
We re-entered Montana and started down the mountain we were on which is near the Lost Trail Ski Area. One of the highlights was slowing down for a beaver crossing the road.
In Wisdom we pulled into their free campground which was already heavily populated by members of the Montana Conservation Corps. They are working on a project at the Big Hole Battlefield site which is nearby. I had fun chatting with their leaders and learning about the the things they’ve done and upcoming projects.
Bill and I had our dinners and got to bed to hunker down for what looks like another chilly night.
It was a 459 mile day.
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