| Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Time | Elevation gain |
| 88.99 miles | 16.0 mph | 34.0 mph | 5:32:25 | ?? |
With the quick re-route, they don't have the elevation data for the route.
I woke up at 4:30am and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up and got my stuff together a little bit. I got dressed, and stuffed my sleeping bag into the sack. The sky looked angry this morning, like an old man trying to return soup at the deli. (Thank you, George Costanza) Breakfast was served at 5:15am again this morning which was nice - scrambled eggs, fruit, corn bread, ham, oatmeal, granola, and yogurt.
Back at the tent everything was wet from condensation. It was chilly too, and the lighter it got, the worse, the sky looked. I packed quickly and made some last minute clothing changes as it started to sprinkle. I went with toe covers (my only regret on the day), wool socks (they saved my little toes), leg warmers, rain pants, arm warmers, rain jacket, short fingered gloves over knit gloves, under wind stopper mittens, skull cap, and cycling cap.
I got under way at 6:25am. The first leg of the trip was on a main artery into LaGrande where the first water stop was. Looking up into the hills, I got the distinct impression that Sauron was trying to force us back through the Mines of Moria (this got at least a little chuckle when I mentioned it to someone at the rest stop).
The wind wasn't terrible on this stretch, but it was a struggle to keep it going. I was passed by a couple of guys, but I kept catching up to them as they fought into the wind. Eventually, when they caught another long pace line also fighting into the wind, they slowed down, so I passed the whole train. They grabbed my wheel for a while, but after a few minutes, I looked back, and they were way back. I'm not actually all that fast. I'm just consistent with my speed, and a little stubborn about holding my pace.
The next leg was 14 miles on I-84. As promised ODOT had swept the shoulder, and it was nice. It was a nice riding surface too, oh, and it started to rain on this stretch (contrary to Jonathan's comments later that those who left early didn't get wet). I was constantly bathed by passing trucks. Luckily, many of them kept to the left lane, and ODOT had it's incident response trucks out warning motorists which also kept a lot of traffic out of the right lane. We had 12 feet to play with on the shoulder, so it didn't feel dangerous at all. After a while, as the road turned up, I was on my own. I got off at the Hildegard State Park exit for the ODS rest stop. For the first time all week, I was actually hungry before lunch. The ODOT supervisor was at this stop. He was worried about our safety. I thanked him for the effort they put in to help us on this section. After the rest stop, it was back on the highway for a few more miles. I don't recall the name of the exit we took, but we continued to climb, and it continued to get colder. This was when my toes started to go numb from the cold. I wished I had worn my thicker booties which were snugly packed in my duffle bag. It would have been a really fun climb, but I just wasn't able to find my rhythm because of my freezing toes. I had to keep wiggling them to keep the blood flowing around. Everywhere else on my body was fine. The road continued to parallel I-84 crossing over and under, back and forth until the Emigrant Springs exit near Mecham. It was still 5 miles until lunch at this point.
I pulled into the lunch stop finally. The volunteers had a huge fire going out in the park area, and they had also gotten the use of a building for us to sit in with a wood stove where the few of us who keep running into each other sat close to warm ourselves. Some one said it was 34 degrees. Someone else said they had seen 37. It didn't matter that much. It was just cold. They even served us some hot chocolate with lunch. I don't even remember what we ate. It was really hard to leave the warmth of that building, but it had to be done. I stood by the fire outside a little bit longer as people took pictures. I had my camera, but I didn't want to fish it out since it was starting to rain again. My feet were feeling better after the fire, so I rolled out.
The first of what I'm sure were many SAGS dropped off at the lunch stop as I left. I entered the Umatilla Reservation for the next section. The road was above I-84 now, and it started raining again. We went over Dead Man Pass. It was a fast, rolling road, and then a nice 5 mile descent. It was really fun. I was flying along in the rain up the hills. Coming down the last hill, I stopped to take a picture out over the plains with I-84 cutting it's path straight north west towards the Columbia River. This is where we finally left the highway behind.
At the bottom of the hill was an ODS rest stop with another fire. The rain had stopped and the air wasn't as cold any more. I warmed up my feet a little bit more, and I took off again. There were several miles of rollers into the wind to the next water stop. Immediately after that stop was a short, steep 2.5 mile climb which was a pretty fun little climb actually. I chased down a couple guys, but the last one was just a little too far ahead to catch before the top. That guy waited for his friends, but they all passed me on the long rolling stretch into Athena. It seemed to go on forever, but because of the re-route, we didn't have exact mileage. Until coming over the last hill and seeing the city, I had no idea how much farther we had to go.
I took a really hot shower after setting up my tent. We had another nice grassy field tonight. We've been really lucky on this tour with grass fields to camp on every night but 2. I am writing this as I sit at my tent listening to people talk and keeping an eye on the clouds. So far they look ok. They definitely look like they have some more rain in them, but the sun is trying to punch through too. It's probably in the upper 50's/low 60's. I'll be really easy to pack tonight. Everything is dirty except what I'll wear tomorrow which I have consolidated into a small zip lock bag. Only an hour to dinner. Today is the first day I've actually felt hungry all week. They really feed us well on this tour. My body probably just spent all it's energy trying to stay warm today. No forecast for tomorrow yet, but I'll probably get in well before noon. I'm guessing 10:30 or 11am.
Dinner was roast beef, BBQ'd chicken on bone, mashed potatoes, veggie medley, coleslaw, roll, and brownies. After dinner, I called Jada and tried to put away my still damp clothes a little bit before I headed down to the main stage area. I walked around the local vendors and found a perfect Asian pear and an apple fritter. Did I mention how hungry I was today? I pulled up a patch of grass in front of the stage close to the edge so I could make a quick get away after announcements since I'm exhausted again tonight. I talked to one of the locals who said the weather tomorrow was supposed to be dry with a high near 70. Morning to be around 40 degrees. Sounded pretty good to me. Announcements were the usual finale type wishing everyone well, thank you's, and all that. I went to bed right afterward. I don't even remember hearing the band on the way back to my tent.
Continue to Day 7.