Buccs/Bucks on Bikes: Thursday, June 17 - Day 4 - 86.6 miles

Before I forget...all of the missing videos and pictures from past days are at the bottom of this post. But first....today's post:

First off, Belknap Hot Springs was awesome last night. The young lady (we forgot to get her name) behind the counter was amazing. She took care of everything that we needed and more. Since it was rainy, we did not get to explore everything there. It would be fun to go back there sometime and see everything. It was quite beautiful.

Today was a challenging day for us. We managed to get in 86 miles with some good climbing. We started the morning off with a climb that took us to 4817 feet. We were hoping to do the more challenging climb of McKenzie Pass, but the road was closed because of snow. My wife did find out later in the day from the guys at EuroSports in Sisters, Oregon (they rocked, by the way) that we could have actually gone up McKenzie pass...without ANY cars....it was only closed to vehicular traffic. Oh well. When we got to the top of today's pass it was very chilly - 43 degrees at the top. Descending on the other side of the mountain at high speeds made for a very chilly 6 miles.

After our descent, we came into the town of Sisters. It was a really nice, small town. It kind of had the Lake Placid, NY feel that Kim and I visit each summer. We ate in a parking lot of a grocery store and then proceeded on to Prineville, while Kim and the kids checked out Sisters a while longer. Tonight we are staying in Prineville at the home of Dennis and Kim (warm showers hosts...see yesterday's post). Dennis is a school administrator and Kim is a yoga instructor and grows organic vegies. As soon as we got settled into the yoga studio that we are sleeping in, we layed out our maps and started planning the next few days. Tomorrow we are only going to ride 50 miles and we are going to stay on the grounds of a church that agreed to put us up for the night. After that we will probably hit up a hotel and another warm shower host on Sunday night. The planning that goes into this is a real challenge. If you are not bothered by where your next sleep will take place, then this is not a problem. Since, I am past those days in my life...it is a bit more of a challenge.

Tomorrow will definitely be a no-post day from the Dunns. The town we are staying in does not even have any cell coverage. So, WIFI is probably out of the question.