Fire on the mountain

Tuesday morning was sunny but a bit cool at 60 degrees when I left the Blue River Lodge and headed east on highway 126. After 15 miles I turned right on 242, which goes over McKenzie Pass and is a beautiful, twisty, and delightful road through woods and over a rocky summit that compares to the roads over the Sierra in California, but without the traffic or the elevation - McKenzie Pass is only 5200 feet. I saw very few cars - maybe even more bicycles than cars.

Looks like volcanic  rock at the summit.

The road ends in Sisters, where I stopped for breakfast at the Sisters Coffee House. Everything was gluten-free and organic, and everyone looked just a little too bright-eyed and healthy, but the eggs scramble was delicious, the house coffee was very good, and the staff was friendly. Dan would say that Sisters is entirely too precious, and that may be true - there was a surfeit of yarn shops, galleries, and craft stores. It looks like a retirement community for moderately wealthy people who are also very healthy. After breakfast I spoke with a bicyclist from LA who was on his way to New York. I am not worthy!

Picking up Route 126 in Sisters I rode east to Prineville, where I continued east on US 26 towards John Day. Unfortunately, I missed a sign warning of road closure ahead. It was one of those signs with blinking lights for letters that usually remind you to fasten your seatbelt, and I just caught a glimpse of it as I was passing a truck. Thirty miles up the road (very nice road, suspiciously non-existent traffic) I came  to a roadblock. It seems there was a fire on the summit and the road was closed.

Yep, the road is closed alright

I went back to Prineville and headed north to Madras, where I went north on US 97 for 25 miles to  Willowdale, where I turned  on 293 to Antelope. From  there I took 218 to Fossil and then 19 south back to 26. All of this added at least 150 miles to my day, but  it was worth it because the small roads were a lot of fun and I'd  never been on them before.The roads on my detour went over a couple of passes and they were in good shape, but there was gravel in some of the corners and enough tar snakes that you had to be alert, which is as it should be.

After dinner in John Day I rode another 80 miles on 26 and OR 7 (another twisty and beautiful road over a pass) to Baker City, OR, where I'm spending the night at the Oregon Trail Motel - $42 and breakfast at the restaurant is included. Tomorrow I'll ride into Hells Canyon and Idaho and up to US 12 over Lolo Pass to Missoula, MT, where I'm scheduled to have a new rear tire installed at the BMW dealer there on Thursday.

The long detour and hot weather (it was 95 degrees in the middle of the day) notwithstanding, it was a good day with great roads that I had mostly to myself.

Victor poses in front of a fake town at a tourist stop in Mt. Vernon. It's a lot easier packing when you aren't camping.