John Day OR to Mitchell, OR

Miles: 74.9
Total Miles: 929.3
Climbing: 2930’

The start of the day was cold again, but the prediction was for the high 80’s. These 40 degree temperature spans assure that the SAG Subaru is full of the warm layers by 20 miles! The ride was very nice with flat or rolling terrain.

Leaving John Day, OR

Nancy J, Nancy N, and Nancy B...good thing I am using my real name and not my nickname!

We passed through the town of Mt. Vernon. It had a wonderful, marked bike lane…for two blocks. That was how big the town was, too! Just after that, we caused a sheep stampede and later a horse stampede. It is always fun to have horses galloping down a field next to the road with us! There was a sign saying “Wildlife Migration next 30 miles.” Unfortunately, I saw no animals. It was probably too hot by then to move!

We rode along and crossed the John Day River several times today. As we approached Dayville at mile 31, several interesting rock formations were visible.

Outside of Dayville

Entering Dayville

It is always amazing to me what erosion leaves behind in the form of rocks and layers. Several of us stopped for a break in Dayville and played around with the small storefronts which looked like old movie sets in miniature.

Dayville City Hall

Kathie and Anne in Dayville

Picture Gorge...there was actually a road through there

"To many, the sharp, steep walls of Picture Gorge suggest a sudden cataclysm and not the sudden relentless forces that actually shaped it. Each of the seventeen dark layers in the gorge was once a widespread flow of lava that flowed from cracks in the earth 16 million years ago. The average time between flows was 8,000 years."

The road through Picture Gorge

Picture Gorge was named for the pictographs which were made by Indians in one of the brick red, soft stone layers in the area.

Basalt layers in the gorge

Some of the red layers are visible here near the John Day River

Sheep Rock

The area around Sheep Rock was not always juniper and sage. The area was once a hardwood forest which housed many strange and unusual animals, all competing for survival. The John Day formations are made up of many layers, from the top of Sheep Rock to the bottom of Picture Gorge. These rock formations make up only one tenth of the depth of the fossil bearing layers in the John Day Fossil Beds.

The highlight of the day was a trip to these fossil beds. This extraordinary place has some of the richest fossil beds in the world. They span an almost continuous 40 million year record of the diverse plant and animal life that existed in the area. The fossil beds contain evidence of ancient habitats and the geologic processes that formed them. There are fossil remains of jungles, savannahs, and woodlands that once thrived there. The area encompasses over 14,000 acres in three separate sections. We visited the Sheep Rock area which also houses the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center, a wonderful and educational visitor’s center. There, we saw a wonderful movie about the area and the work being done by paleontologists. Their work areas were visible behind glass and the work being done was explained.

Fortunately, the area was recognized as a very important site as early as the 1860’s by Thomas Condon, for whom the center was named. He recognized the treasures of the area raised interest in preserving them. From there, the scientific world has studied, cataloged, and preserved thousands of specimens. This was an area not to be missed and any Transamerica cyclist should make the small detour.

After a snack and water refill, and the heat of the day increasing, we decided to ride the last 34 miles. All along the route, there were rocks along the road and rocks that had fallen into the road's edge and I had this great urge to look at everyone of them to see if there was a fossil!

We had been told to look for a “shoe tree” along the route today. And there was a huge tree filled with shoes deposited on the tree like Christmas ornaments placed by three year olds! There were tennis shoes, hiking boots, ski boots, and all manner of other shoes. Since we had prepared for this with a visit to a local thrift store, we had a pair of tennis shoes signed by all the women on the trip and Barb K was charged with the job of getting them into the tree, and she did! So, we are memorialized in the “shoe tree” of Grant County, OR.

The Shoe Tree

The shoes we added to the tree today!

As we were headed toward our final climb, we came upon a young man (perhaps low 20’s) who, ten minutes earlier, had gotten a wheel into the gravel shoulder, over corrected and run off the road and flipped the car down a 15’ embankment and then landed upright. Seat belts saved both him and his sister, though the car was totaled completely. We gave him water (the sister was sitting nearby in another car, uninjured) and someone went for help as there was absolutely no cell coverage there. After assuring us that he was ok, we rode on and shortly saw rescue vehicles headed his way. Later in the afternoon, we saw the car on a flat bed truck after being towed out. Scary to see, but seatbelts were the lifesaver.

Our last hurdle for the day with rising temperatures was a climb to 4,357’ at Keyes Creek Summit. It was a sleeper of a climb over many miles and the top came before we barely realized we had been climbing steadily for 20 miles, albeit 2-4% grades. The ride down the mountain into Mitchell was wonderful on smooth pavement. The town of Mitchell was tiny and we definitely made people turn their heads! We were in three different motels within a short distance.

Mitchell, OR

Ours has only six rooms and one of them was occupied by Allen Alley, who is running for republican governor of Oregon next year. He is walking through Oregon visiting the people! We think he could visit many more people on a bicycle! There is NO ONE out here for miles and miles!

Nancy J, one of the wonderful women who hosted us at her summer home in McCall, ID last week was my roommate and we have a two room suite! I must say that we probably lucked out this time as the van and trailer were at this motel and the others who were down in the town itself at the other two motels had to walk up a very steep hill for dinner. After dinner, Ramsey and Barb K each did a song related to the day’s events and both were very humorous. It is always such fun after dinner and the map meeting to see what talents show up! With no cell phones and no internet, we sat around outside and chatted about other WomanTours rides and where we have been on rides. Great end to a great day.

Peg, Barbara S, and Nancy J at the Sky Hook Motel