Anne planned this route, but got some mixed messages on the surface quality. Ride With GPS claimed that most of the loop was unpaved, which doesn’t make for a good ride. Google Street View doesn’t cover the roads, but the intersections it does have seems to show paved roads. And we checked out a bit of it yesterday in the car, and it appeared to be paved. So we went for it.

We knew it would be on the hot side — upper 80s in the afternoon, without much shade. So we tried to get an early start. The goal was to rollout at 6. But not surprisingly, we didn’t actually get moving until a little after 7. The kids (mostly Ruth) were grumpy at the start, but warmed up once we got going.

We’re just doing day rides this trip, so don’t need to bring nearly as much stuff. But a lot of it (tubes, repair kit, first aid) is valid on any isolated ride. Plus lunch, food, and jackets for the cooler morning, and it still adds up to a lot more than my commute.

The ride started with a 10 mile slight downhill down OR 19. This was a great start to the day. Traffic was light, the downhill kept us fast but was shallow enough we could pretend we were just strong. Plus we could examine all the cool rocky hillsides, with the layers of basalt in various configurations eroded by the John Day River.

Then we turned north on Alder Creek Road for our first big climb for the day. Over the next 10 miles we would climb some 1500 feet, winding along the hills. For the most part the climb was gentle, but portions were real work. The sun came out, which made what shade we could find under trees, behind hills, or under clouds very pleasant. Alder Creek was even quieter than 19. Across the whole time we only saw about five cars, including the mail carrier and a FedEx truck.

We rode along various ranches, including open range and cattle grates. For most of our rides in California the cows barely seem to notice us. These ones were much more eager to check us out and/or avoid us. We had Frank Sinatra playing on the speaker when passing one group, which joined some of their friends and ran along with us on the hill side. We decided Frank Sinatra must mean its feeding time.

After lunch, the climb kicked up a notch. I was hot and starting to run out of steam. We did zero training for this trip, and it showed. But we made it both to the false summit and the real one, then zoomed down five miles of descent.

Then we just had a short second climb, split into two pieces, before a final steep descent into Spray.

I was ready to be done, but the ride was really quite excellent. The road surface stayed paved. Traffic was light, and we avoided the worst of the heat. After some grumpiness getting started, both kids were very pleasant for the rest of the ride. The terrain was beautiful, and the climbs quite manageable. Even if this is the only bike ride on this trip, it was worth bringing the bikes.