Written by Curtis

Day 10 – June 7 – 52 Miles, 2,612 feet climbing (Bates State Park to Baker City)

This morning Pete (newly crowned 2024 UNR alumni of the year) was up early packing to get to Baker City for an afternoon alumni volunteer call. The rest of us took time to dry out our tents following a damp meadow night.  After coffee and oats we ended up leaving Baits State Park 30min behind Pete.

The ride began with a nice shaded 4mi climb to today’s high point at 5142 feet.  By now we assume our positions climbing with Nancy leading the charge, Chris guarding the rear, and Dave stopping to shoot or water the flowers.  On this climb we were frequently wooed by lush high mountain meadows and spied one mule deer safely crossing the road.                                                                     

After a brief downhill climb 2 was a stair step back up to 5080 feet.  At the top Dave, Nancy, and I spoke to a pair of brothers-in-law, who camped near us in Bates, which are one rider and one support driver in a 45 day crossing from Florence, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia.  Near the bottom of descent 2 we began to feel the heat that would become 90 degrees by the time we reached Baker City at 1pm.

Photos of odd things on the road today…

On the way into Baker City Nancy spied a pair of eagle nests and stopped to flag photographer Dave down when she spotted a bald eagle guarding one of the nests.  A few photo (or water) stops later Dave returned to the Curt-chealon and promptly rolled to the front declaring “the head wind is brisk” and something like “hang on” then proceeded to the equivalent of drilling-it as he boosted the pace by 4mph.  About 10 miles later Dave said he wanted to give me a break for a few minutes and then turned the reigns back over.  Thanks Dave for the boost, but I ain’t as strong as you mate.  Hopefully my slow-roll is just enough for everyone to enjoy the ride while Dave captures the photo opportunities.

For the next two nights we are the Churchill School Hostel where we have bunks in a former class room, showers, and a bar down the hall. There are four bunks in the hostel, all of which are full tonight. We’ll see if our team drives any them out early…     

Junior editor’s note: Thanks Curtis well said. Except the part about me going 4MPH faster. I was dying out front and Curtis spends all day there. And as for Pete, all kidding aside, he did learn today that he was just named UNR Alumni of the year. He does a lot for his old school and I’m sure that the award is fully justified. Nearly every article of clothing Pete wears sports a UNR logo of some kind – if nothing else, the alumni marketing department should be very happy to have him on board for the coming year!