Day 2 - Heppner to Starkey (September 11, 2006)

    Morning came on time as always.  I got up at 5am to run by the blue rooms and go to breakfast.  There was already a line by 5:15am.  I remembered to bring my mug for hot chocolate since it was cold this morning.  We had breakfast burritos, sausage, oatmeal, granola, and yogurt.  It was to be another clear, sunny day.

    I packed my stuff up and put it on the first truck myself this time.  Then I rolled off on the second day of CO towards Starkey at around 6:45am.  We started off with a climb out of Heppner on some really rough chip seal (I think that'll be a theme this week...unfortunately).  My legs were cold, and my rear shifter wouldn't change gears as is often the case when it's cold (They are almost 10 years old now, and the predecessor to the current Shimano Ultegra group).  The only thing for it is replacing the whole group.  I couldn't shift to a harder gear.  That ended up being a good thing anyway.  I took my time and rode at a leisurely pace.  I found a sliver of smooth road right on the right side of the road before it dropped off into the gravel.  Not very many folks wanted to brave it, so I gave plenty of warning with both my bell and voice to pass on the right which is not recommended.  However, many people were riding pretty far into the road, so there wasn't much danger.  For the ones that were riding close to the edge of the road, I went around to the left.  Towards the first water stop, I had to abandon my strip completely as it disappeared.  The chip seal stayed with us all day.  Sometimes very rough but tolerable, but others extremely rough.  This portion, of course, was on the steepest part of the day's climb out of the second rest stop.  (They had Pop-tarts at this rest stop and an interesting sign right next to the playground equipment of this park stating, "Play at your own risk".  I took a picture.)  Before that rest stop I took a couple of short videos while riding, of course, to take in the areas in which I was riding through - first arid and brown; next forested and green - both within the same 15 mile stretch.

    Once we got above 5000 feet elevation, the surroundings changed to more of a high desert which we had all the way down on our long, fast descent into our rest stop in Ukiah where we were served lunch in the park of BBQ chicken wraps w/ a veggie cup, chips, apple, and cookie.  I put on my first coat of sunscreen, but must have missed fore arms since I got burned there.  Lunch was served at a more reasonable 10:30am today.

    After lunch featured a 22 mile gradual climb.  It wasn't all that steep, but it was constant.  It was this section where it started seeming like I was very near the front of the pack because I didn't see too many people any more.  I was passed by 3 guys, and I passed a couple people, but that was it.  The summit of the climb was just below 5000 feet (after starting at 2000 feet in Ukiah) and another nice, fast descent with a little sneaker climb thrown in for good measure followed by another drop against a strong headwind into the very small town of Starkey.  The population of Starkey is around 49 folks, and the main drag consists of a single store.  On the final turn onto the road to Starkey, I was told I was number 19 into camp.  I didn't think I was going that fast.  I arrived at around 1:15pm, found my bag fairly quickly this time, setup my tent and hit the showers.  This was our first night on the hard ground of a ranch field featuring cow pies (both fresh and hard), straw, and lots of dust.  I couldn't get my stakes into the ground, so I just tossed my duffel bag into my tent to hold it down against the wind.  It was pretty hot out.  Probably in the upper 80's or low 90's.  After my shower, I came back to find the exact same people that had camped next to me the night before were next to me again.  We all shared a laugh about that.   

    After getting things settled (and my Therma-rest actually inflated tonight), I went in search of a pay phone which I found in the one store in Starkey.  I was still a little too early to call home, but there was a bench on the porch in the shade so I sat down, wrote in this journal a bit, watched cyclists come in, and chatted with some others who were already done and just looking for a cool place to rest.  After calling Jada at school, I spoke to a woman who is riding stoker on a tandem that I almost caught at the top of the last hill before they disappeared over the summit and were gone on the downhill.  We talked about different rides and tandem experiences.   She highly recommended the Northwest Tandem Rally which is held yearly in Washington or Oregon.  Next year's is in Yakima, I think.  I called home again to catch Phoebe before bed time, and then headed back up the road to camp for dinner (more BBQ chicken, veggies, rice, and ice cream)  Then I just kicked around and headed down to the main stage to work some more on the journal and listen to the local talent up on stage.

    Announcements took a little different direction as Johnathan Nicolas, the founder of this grand adventure, brought the 11 year old Starkey volunteer coordinator up on stage to talk.  He called him the mayor of Starkey, but I'm not sure that's true.  We also found out that a couple of the shower trucks had been shut down due to the Fire Department coming to commandeer some of our water trucks to help fight the forest fires in the area.  Tonight's entertainment was the infamous Bike Rodeo.  I've watched before, and I was tired, so I went to bed at 8:30pm as usual after studying the day's ride for tomorrow.  It was to be short with a cold start (28 degrees in the morning).

Continue to Day 3.