Long, and tall ride today

Well, after finishing such a big day yesterday you would have thought we would have taken it easy today. Unfortunately we looked at the map and found that we would either have to stop at a town that we would likely reach by lunch, or move on toward the next summit. Being as there was one campground between the lunch town and the Ochoco Pass, our next summit,  and  it had no water , we decided to push on to the next town, Mitchell OR. This meant another climbing day and this time it was 97 miles away!  
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1I0PkncwkyB7M93USxPS3k3S6EJOE8LDb
Alpaca farm outside Sisters

The day started off well as we were able to get out, get a good breakfast in Sisters, and get some good miles in before lunch in Prineville. Seeing as how my butt has been in pain at the end of all days, and this morning it was in pain at the beginning, we tried to find a good leather saddle at the local shop. Unfortunately the only one they had was really thick and stiff as steel, I chose to keep moving. I’ll find a better one soon, and in the meantime I’ll yelp a lot every time I sit on the existing saddle. This was a bad choice when setting up the bike for the trip, as leather saddles eventually form fit to your, uh, form, and I could have been working it into shape right now. Lesson (painfully) learned. Our traveling companion Pat said that’s what kind of dinosaur I am now - a “mega-sore-ass”. Cute

The afternoon went well and we started up into the Ochoco Pass as it got hotter and hotter. We went through just about all our water and our legs as we finally hit the summit. Then it was downhill for 7 miles then up again into Mitchell. 

We had great scenery today, as when we went through the Santium Pass yesterday the climate immediately changed from lush and green from all the rain to dry and rocky, a lot like I’ve seen in Utah and other western states. What a difference a day makes. 
I’m going to try to post this tonight, but Mitchell’s internet is more like intermittent. Few calls getting through and spotty service even on the hotel’s WiFi. I’ll catch everyone up at a later date 
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1yJfLs6NkIfZJ_o4Hpz0Wz_xsVaXOH6M8
Breakfast at Sisters Coffee Company

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=12fduQzJo8zcEg0A6xFgC61V4Vg0uGt-z
Happy to be seeing this sign, meaning we were over the top

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1gjOBb99IYTidqzEwzZ3hH5Q_ILTN0ZkM
Beautiful (dry)scenes going into Mitchell




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