Hunter Bikes Across the Country

Monday, June 3, 2013

Faces of week 2

Too close, unflattering, and utterly exhausted, these are my post-ride faces from week 2 (5/28, 5/30, 5/31, 6/1, 6/2, and 6/3)!

5/28 Day 8
Easton ~> Big Pines Recreation Site
Leave 9:00am • 53°F • sunny
Arrive 3:45pm • 70°F • sunny
60.53 total miles
3h 54m on bike
Pain at start: 0/10
Blue shirt, REI socks
Downhill mostly
Traffic on I-90, but none on other roads
Large shoulders, could sometimes bike on road
Stayed at Walmart
Paralleled the water from the river

5/29 Day 9
Rest day in Yakima

5/30 Day 10
Big Pines ~> Sunnyside
Leave 9:23am 57°F sunny
Arrive 4:05pm 71°F sunny
56.60 miles total
4h 22m on bike
Pain at start: 1/10
Gold shirt, REI cotton socks
Started downhill, then flat
2 flat tires (both goat's-head barbs)
Dog followed for 5.5 miles
Very light traffic
Wide shoulders
Lots of apple fields
Stayed at Walmart

5/31 Day 11
Sunnyside ~> Umatilla
Leave 8:18am 55°F sunny
Arrive 2:43pm 69°F sunny
57.28 miles total
4m 55m on bike
Pain at start: 0/10
(exhausting day)
Yellow shirt, cotton socks
Light hills
Light traffic
Wide Shoulders
Entered Oregon

6/1 Day 12
Umatilla ~> Pendleton
Leave 8:05am 53°F sunny
Arrive 3:45pm 73°F sunny
54.65 miles total
6h 4m on bike
Huge hills
Pain at start: 0.5/10
(exhausting day)
Gold shirt, REI socks
Medium traffic
Met a police officer
Stayed at hotel
Did laundry

6/2 Day 13
Pendleton ~> Baker City
Leave 9:15am 55°F cloudy
Arrive 4:40pm 72°F partly cloudy
80.82 miles total
5h 28m on bike
Pain at start: 0/10
Blue shirt, REI socks/REI cotton socks
Light traffic (interstate)
Wide shoulders
Attacked by a hawk
Forded a stream
Oregon Trail and Lewis and Clark Trail
Stayed in hotel

6/3 Day 14
Baker City ~> Ontario
Leave 9:06am (Pacific Time) 56°F mostly sunny
Arrive 5:52pm (Mountain Time) 74°F sunny
73.30 miles total
6h 16m on bike
Pain at start: 0/10
Gold shirt, REI socks
Light / medium traffic
No traffic on highway (old hwy 30)
Wide shoulders
Stayed at Walmart

A concrete plant...

...a wild and wooly uphill and a giant river in the middle of a desert. Fun times were had by all.

Some desert and some mountains today

It was nice biking today, except for the construction at the end. What started out as a 50 mile day ended up over 70. At least the weather was nice and sunny!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Mountains today

I biked by some monsters. But I didn't feed then.

Random 6/2 shots

They are by me and of me.

A couple vertical panoramas

Yummy.

I forded a creek on the Oregon Trail

For real. I was on I-84, and two lanes and a shoulder shrunk down into one lane and no shoulder! So I walked it on the other side of the barrier for half a mile or so and then came across a creek. So that makes the first time I walked my bike across a body of water this trip. But my shoe fell out of my paneer on the western bank, so today was also the second and third time I crosses a stream. But it was on the Oregon Trail, so yay! Next stop: dysentery!

80 miles on the bike today!

Thanks to a nice tailwind in the afternoon and to finally feeling stronger, I made it past 80 miles today!

I also got attacked by a hawk. I guess it thought my helmet was a turtle.

I-84 isn't as bad as people make it out to be. The traffic was very light and people were nice!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Sunset from Walmart parking lot (a continuing series)

I'm in a hotel tonight, but here are shots from two different nights at Walmart.

Some scenery

And a view of the dessert / music place we stumbled on in Pendleton. Yay Oregon!

Water and an unexpected rainbow

So I've never seen anything like this. At around 11:30 the sun was completely encircled in an amazing single rainbow. I had the cover the sun with my hand to get a picture, but believe that it goes all 360 degrees! Is there a name for this? I'm going to call it a sunbow.