Originally Posted by
indyfabz
TBT. Second day. Ironside to John Day. Camped on a cattle ranch the night before. Woke up with ice on my tent fly, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. IIRC, it was 88 miles with 5.200+' of climbing. Nearly all of that came in the first 2/3 of the route.
Overall, it was a brutal route that has yet to be repeated. The next day I opted for the 117 mile route. Someone died of a heart attack during the 30 mile hot, uphill slog of the shorter route. The day after that it was a century for everyone in 90+ degree heat. In the end, I think I averaged around 92 miles/day over six days with one rest day.
My goodness! That was quite the week. Great photo!
I’m thinking we might have done a shorter version through the forest and into John Day on Cycle Oregon several years ago. It looks and sounds very familiar. We stayed on a cattle farm for two nights that year. CO paid the rancher to install a well so there would be sufficient water. We did an out and back the first day we camped there as I think the route was interrupted by a cattle drive. Of course there wasn’t any shade but even with temperatures in the 80s it was really hot. I spent 6 hours under an umbrella in the beer garden and was super hydrated afterwards!!!