Austin House to Baker City

Shorter blog today, I've got things to do!

First of all, yesterday I wrote a song about my friend Casey, who I met on my 2018 Divide near Brush Mountain Lodge.  The song will tell the story.

Then, all night was nuts. We're a day after a full moon and my campsite came alive. More alive than any camping I've ever experienced, even on the divide.

First, I kept hearing what I thought were bull elk or maybe bucks chuffing and honking around my campsite. (My hosts said it was probably this weird bird wing noise) but that made me nervous. Then, these weird birds kept cawing all night. ALL NIGHT.

THEN.. COYOTES. Staring around 1 am they started going nuts until sunrise in a clearing maybe 100 yards from my camp. It was very loud, and kinda scary. I woke up often and made people noises to try to keep them away. I didn't pack my bear spray on this trip because I've never needed it on this route, but I was REALLY missing it last night.  I don't know if you've ever been 100 yards from a whole bunch of coyotoes howling and yipping behind a forest of trees under a full moon, with their songs echoing off the mountains all around, but it's disconcerting.   Awesome, but disconcerting. 

The ride was awesome though, even if I didn't sleep well. I climbed two passes and reached the top of the 2nd one at 22 mlies by 10:30am, then went mostly downhill with a tailwind to get into Baker City at 1pm with 3:40 on bike and 51 total miles.  It was very hot and beautiful and amazing. There is a  6-8 miles dead flat straight stretch near the end that, when I did in 2014 was a killer headwind, and today it was a kind of confused tailwind. Wow what a difference. Also this is day 5 or 6, so I've got my tour legs.

I then hung out in Baker City for about 4 hours until the Brian and Corrine who run the Old School Bike Hostel finished their race duties (they were helping run a 3 day, 4 stage race in the area).  During that time I discovered a Bigfoot Festival in the park.

I'm staying at the hostel because last time I tried to stealth camp in Baker City I was woken up by cops with flashlights at 1am.  It's totally worth it though, they turned an old school into an art gallery / artist commune / music venue / bike hostel. It's called the Old School Bike Hostel and Old Churchill School it's one of the raddist thing I've ever seen.

I had dinner with them and some of the racers at a pizza place, and now I'm back here at 7ish looking to relax, chill, and explore some more.  In fact, while writing this I was invited outside to hang, so that's what I'm going to do. Cheers!

(Tomorrow is some amount of miles into Halfway, OR and then HELLS CANYON into Idaho!)