Week 3-What the Desert Has Taught Us.

Lord God, is it hot. Since leaving McKenzie Pass of the Cascades and the coast of western Oregon behind, Oakley and I have bicycled deeper and deeper into the high desert of Oregon and Idaho. We have been riding for 16 days, averaging about 50 miles a day and have covered over 700 total. This week has taught us a lot. Here are some of the key points:

1) Nobody likes anyone when biking up passes over 4,000 feet when there is no shade, it is over 90 degrees, and it is the end of a long day. This is not a character flaw. It is normal.

2) Desert sunrises are the most beautiful in the world. And the most silent.

3) One should not race down the far side of a pass with so much glee that one doesn’t notice the gravel on a curve when traveling 24 miles an hour. One will crash. It will hurt.

4) Oakley is wonderful in a crisis. He will bring you gauze and Neosporin and offer you sympathy and support. He will also not let you forget — ever — that you dropped the “F” bomb repeatedly. He will gain much pleasure from it.

5) There is nothing sweeter than descending into a place called “Hell’s Canyon,” full of worry about the forecasted 110-degree temperatures, and the certainty of heatstroke and finding, instead, an oasis of green and cool on the banks of the Snake River. One with swimming holes, soft grass, deep shade and all the smart people living in the area enjoying long respite from the canyon’s unrelenting, simmering August heat.

6) The space in the sky and the land of the desert is humbling in its size. It can cause vertigo.

7) Bushes seem to grow from rocks. Turkeys jog down highways, high stepping to keep their feet cool. Coyotes chortling at night will command your full attention. Hawks make a cry that is just like in the movies. Life can happen anywhere.

8) Bodies do get stronger every day. It is amazing to watch it happen to skinny, 16-year-olds and chubby 50-year olds.

9) Skinny, 16-year-olds biking over passes in the desert need more food than one can imagine. Food becomes the focus of every hour, every day. All rules about junk food and soda need to end.

10) We are entirely capable of this and make a good team .

Oakley’s Perspective-Week 3

This week we were in what I call HELL. That is actually also what the name of the area is. We went up and over passes that were straight up and all switch backs. One day, we were going down a pass and we were turning onto a gravel road and my mom bit it, HARD, and there was blood, like, a LOT of blood. She is okay now, though.

Yesterday, we went through a place called Hell’s Canyon. We started on one side of the Oregon border, up above the canyon in Baker City. We woke up at 5:30 in the morning and had to cross the border into Idaho, because we had to get across before the sun got too hot. The border is the Snake River, and it can get up to 110 degrees this time of year. The day was so hot when we were there, it is no wonder it is called Hell’s Canyon. By the time we climbed up and out of it, we were exhausted. Luckily there was a town (Cambridge, Idaho) with a campground that had natural hot springs and a pool.

Today was not that bad of a day. My mom let us we sleep in for once, but that made it a very slow day. The ride was a gradual UP, UP, UP, 48 miles of UP. You have no idea how sick of hills and mountains we are. It’s crazy. We call them all “hells” instead of hills. Tomorrow we are going to climb a hill or pass called White Bird. It is crazy huge. My mom misread it and thought it was called White Fang because she was so scared of it. I hope there are not more accidents, and I hope there are no more hills (after the Rockies, of course).