Sunday, June 24, 2007, Baker City, OR to Ontario, OR, 83.3 miles, 7 hours, 6 hours on the bike, Ave. speed: 13.6 mph, Climb:2011 ft.

What an awesome ride today! It was basically down hill all the way - and with a tailwind! It was like having Christmas come early. It also wasn't too hot, so that made it nice too. Bright blue skies and sunshine.

One interesting aspect to today's ride was that we had our first experience riding on the interstate. It is doable, but not a lot of fun. One of the major hazards (besides cars and semi's whizzing by at 65 mph) is flat tires. With the blown out tires on the shoulders of the highway come small pieces of steel belting. They are so small you can barely see them, but they work their way into your tires and cause flats. Every time we stopped after being on the freeway, we checked our tires for bits of metal sticking out. I did not find any, but we'll see if I have air in my tires in the morning.....

Once again, the hardest part of the ride was the last 20 miles. We were following the Snake River for a while and then we had several miles of flat road with a little headwind into Ontario. I lucked out again and got to ride in a pace line with two other women (both at least ten years older than me - what is wrong with this picture???!!!!) for the last 10 miles or so. We celebrated the end of the ride at Dairy Queen.

Tomorrow it is on to Boise. I will check in at the hotel, stop and see folks at my work place and then bike home. I'm most excited about being able to do laundry and repack - especially now that I know what I really need for the rest of the trip.