Over Mt. Hood to Portland!
Jul 28th
That title is actually quite misleading though, as the pass over Hood was dissappointly easy and I have yet to be in Portland, we’re staying in the suburb of Gresham. The ride was great up next to the mountain, and coming way back down to good ol sea level. Dinner was miraculous, with ice cream and apple juice, can’t beat that! A special thanks to Noah’s parents for supplying the chocolate cake and fruit salad as well.
I started the morning with a slow packing of my bin, since I had taken it all apart to organize and clean. Sleeping the night in the hammock (picture of that setup from last post) worked great, and it packs up in 2 minutes, quicker than rolling and deflating the thermarest! Our awesome awesome hosts in Maupin had a wonderful spread of breakfast for us, and I ate lotsss for what had been hyped to be a challenging day. I filled my camelbak for the first time in awhile, and am glad I did.
After our route meeting, and 20 seconds of dancing to no music that I time every morning, and our chant to Paige, I took off with Mark and Dave. Jesse forwent riding with Alyson and was looking to ride fast for the first time in weeks, so he caught up with us. On the climb out of the valley, we lost Dave unfortunately to a mechanical I think, and passed just about the whole group up the climb. Its fun to start at the back and be able to feel the progress passing people haha. If the trip lasted another few months though…who knows and I might be the one getting passed, the improvement of other riders has been awesome to watch.
After getting out of the valley it was pretty much flat as we approached the foothills. Into the pine forest and we went up, gradually for a little while. All the time we were wondering when the climb would start. To our suprise, we saw a sign desisnating that we had ascending a pass of 4000ft…I didn’t notice that much uphill. And then we went down, and lunch was early at 37 miles. Zach had missed lunch so Mark and I went after him with a bunch of food, but after only a little bit more climbing…we went back down. Signs for a 5 mile downgrade of 6% and the fact we were right at the side of the mtn meant we were done climbing, and that was anticlimatic. But the descent was awwwesome, we went down forever!
I thought we’d went down below sea level haha so was suprised to see we were still at 1500ft, and we kept going down. Eventually we made it to Sandy, and made a stop at the very famous Joe’s Donuts. Two of the best glazed donuts I’ve ever had melted in my mouth and I got a root beer float for $1!
It was rolling from there, and it must be the low elevation cuz we pretty easily cruised, without tailwind, at 24mph up and down the hills all the way here.
At our host in Gresham, we got spoiled again with lots of great food, soda and such when we got here. And yeah dinner was good, and now were gonna go out in Gresham. I’m on a hot streak with hammock, check out todays spot haha. (I think the pictures go at the top from the phone though).
Thanks for reading, tomorrow we got to Portland proper to build and brewery!
Eastern Oregon
Jul 26th
So these are the towns I need to write about…but I only got to tonight’s really. If I’m feeling ambitious maybe ill write later, but enjoy anyway ha.
Unity
John Day
Dayville and my 21st!
I slept up in the sanctuary and they didn’t find me to wake me up right before breakfast which was nice. When I woke up, the first thing I told Aileen was how mature I felt now that I was 21 years old. It was a really short day on the bike, which I rode how they had decorated it, although it got really hot and stayed unbearably so inside at the host. in town, I exercized my newfound rights, by the river and it was a lot of fun.
I slept in the kitchen which was cooler and so got a refreshingly good nights sleep.
Fossil
One sentence: beautiful desert valley, huge awesome melting climb, music at dinner, and sleeping in a real bed!
Maupin
Today we started out a tad later, waking at 6 and I won the rock paper scissors face-off to drive to the church. It was only like 5 blocks, but still the first time behind a wheel in two months. Really wasn’t that exciting though. The best part was that when we turned on Tim’s radio we got to jam to “Dancing Queen” for that minute and a half! Breakfast was pancakes and scrambled eggs, everything I could ask for.
Leaving town we hit the first climb within a mile, and although I was already with the lead group, I felt great and took off. Flying up the hill, I was adapting “I’ll Fly Away” in my head to I’ll Climb Away and my legs didn’t tire all the way up. At one point it switched back to where I could see people below me and I shouted to them haha. At the top was one of the ladies I had talked to the night before who did international relief work and had Kristen and Alyson for the night, taking pictures. I stopped and chatted with her for awhile more, and waited for the others. They got there and then down the hill we went together, and it was a sweet dowhill. By the bottom it was just Will G and I, before long though we were going up again. The second climb seemed to last forever, and after awhile Tio got a flat. I waited with him, and took the tiny villanous sharp rock out of his tire. Mark passed us outta nowhere, then Joe and Aileen and then Noah and Emily waited with us.
After he got it changed we all took off and I started cruisin, then it was just Noah and I. It felt good flying up again, I could feel the first climb though. Eventually we passed Joe and Aileen back, but knew Mark was long gone. After what seemed to be like 12 miles of climbing, we reached a summit and stopped to stretch and wait for ppl. When Aileen pulled up, she looked to horizon and out of the desert we could see giant Mt Hood rising above. It was awesome and I don’t know how we didn’t notice. The mountain appeared so huge and was all snow covered, out of the desert that as other caught up and we pointed, Tio most memorably just screamed “Good lord!!” haha.
Another sweet descent took us into the tiny town of Antelope and to lunch, where we had brown bag lunches complete with cold cuts from our hosts in Fossil! I took off with Mark and Dave, and right out of lunch, up we went. It ended up being just Mark and I, and at mile 40 we made the turn onto the Bake Oven. From here, we could clearly see three giant white mountains…and couldn’t tell which was Hood. The Bake Oven was hot but downhill and tolerable. We had heard of a massive climb at the end of the day, but as we grew closer the only mountain was that giant one, presumably Hood, and were going downhill still. We approached the Descheutes River and its massive gorge, and before long took an incredible descent down to the river level and to Maupin. The town was on the other side of the bridge and up the other side of the gorge a little, which I guess was the climb there but it was nothing, lame. When we hit the steep descent, the hot air hit us literally like an open oven in the face. It was suuper hot in town, and we debated ice cream but went to the host first. Good thing we did, cuz they had root beer floats ready!! And tons of other snacks and goodies, and ac…heaven. Dave was right behind us and before too long others started rollin in.
Tonight I then got to hammock, read, talk to Lauren, sort my bin for the final time and now blog wirelessly from the hammocl before bed! I don’t feel much like doing the other posts on this little thumb keyboard right now tho haha, its finally cooled off and I’m gonna catch some shut eye before our big day tomorrow over the mtn and into Gresham (portland)!
Idaho and up to Ontario, OREGON
Jul 23rd
I first apologize for the lack of updates, I’m loving the west and frankly, blogging has moved down my list haha with the beauty of the country and realization that my days with my awesome Bike and Build group are numbered.
As a state, I really enjoyed Idaho and just today we passed into Oregon. My most recent tweet was incorrect though, because there is one county in Oregon that is still on Mountain Time…and that’s the one we came into haha. Tomorrow we will enter Pacific Time as we bike to Unity, OR.
Here’s what has happened since my last blog:
07/14 Idaho Falls – ID 85
07/15 BUILD DAY
07/16 Arco – ID 72
07/17 Challis – ID 62
07/18 Stanley – ID 62
07/19 Idaho City – ID 90
07/20 Boise – ID 38
07/21 DAY OFF
07/22 Ontario – OR 52
I suppose I’ll try to write a little about each!
Idaho Falls
Leaving Jackson, we climbed over Teton Mtn Pass, and Pine Creek Pass, making for a hard day into Idaho Falls. Over Teton pass, we took the “old highway” which was the original Oregon Trail, was the highway, and has since been converted to a bike-only path. It takes a very direct route up the mountain, with grade approaching 14% at it’s steepest. The newer highway takes a nice sweeping 10% grade up the side of mountain, of which I was a little jealous going up. I pushed hard up the climb, and so did everyone I’m pretty sure because there was no other way up haha. At the top, we could hear the first people up cheering from a half mile away, and we had a big celebration at the top with an arm tunnel, lots of dancing, and the haka. On the descent, perhaps for our own good, Mark and I got stuck behind traffic which was frustrating to get on the brakes when we could’ve had our best chance at 60mph. At the bottom, the whole group stopped and we got world famous (presidents pictures on the walls) huckleberry milkshakes in the teton valley. They were great. The second pass was very gradual and little longer, easy to cruise up. Idaho Falls wasn’t a great town to bike into by any means, it had that strip-mall feel, but the awesomeness of our host made up for that for sure. We were greeted with food, cold water, showers, conversation…and that was great. They provided us with dinner that night as well. The four beard-off participants, including myself, entered the final stage of the competition by grooming the beards into some pretty awesome styles that night.
The local brew and my new glass from the night before
Bike and build breakfast...in all it's glory haha, every morning
View from the back porch eating...spectacular
Packing the trailer
And that's a well-packed CUS2010 trailer if I ever seen one
Approaching the pass...scary road signs
Grand Teton stood to the north
And a bike path, yay!
Yup, teton pass
Where it turns bike-only, and goes UP
Look closely and you can see the path we took. It took oregon trail wagon two weeks to cross
From the top!
And our second to last state!
Huckleberry milkshakes....yummm
The magazine they were in as a world famous milkshake. Mentions Ronald Reagan and Clinton coming to get one
So many bikes! We kinda take over
Over the second pass!
Zach gettin some
Derrick leadin 'em up
Aw, Tio, how sweet
Laura 
And then a lot further down the road
It was so gorgeous
Kazane was treatin me well
Solar panels!
More beautiful views
And I have lots of pictures of the beards…I’ll save those for later haha.
Build Day in Idaho Falls
We worked with the local Habitat for Humanity, which is getting larger and to aid in their expansion goal of building more than one house a year to aid affordable housing in Idaho Falls, they are focusing on expanding the ReStore as a source of funding. We spent the day fixing up the new building that they acquired, which was a VAST improvement to the current one. There was a TV crew there (I don’t know the link to the video) but we got to watch ourselves on the news later that night which was cool.
For dinner, the pastor had us over to his house for a cookout. He had the best set up for a cookout I think I’ve ever seen…it was perfect with a patio, huge grills and serving places, and it was an awesome meal. I think I ate three burgers haha. And when we were walking through his garage to leave, and gawking at his PERFECTly mint 1965 Mustang, he gave Mark, Dave, Jesse and I a ride back to the church in it! The only modification is a hookup for his mp3 player, which he filled with 60’s music and leaves in the car. That was awesome. And below that, I got the YAWYD stem caps in the mail from my parents!!
Arco
The town is famous as the first to be lit by atomic energy, and oh boy do they pride themselves on that. We came in to catch the first night of their annual Atomic Days celebration. On the way there, we passed and took a tour of EBR-1, the first power-generating nuclear reactor in the world. The whole day biking was through desert, and some buttes, and is where the Idaho National Laboratory is located where they do all the nations nuclear research (over 50 test reactors or something). That’s where most everyone in Arco and Idaho Falls work. Coming into town, we stopped our third pickle joint on the trip, this one being the “Pickle Place” for atomic burgers. They made their own seasoning, and the beef was local somehow, one of the best burgers I’ve had on the trip. Also their high school, Butte, were the pirates. Their sign read “Home of the Butte Pirates” hahaha.
Challis
It was another long day through the desert to Challis, with roads that disappeared into the horizon. The whole day we battled massive headwind, with one gradual climb and a great descent. By far the coolest part of the day was the Grand View Canyon that we passed through. Approaching the canyon it looked like we were going to run straight into a mountain, but actually descended through it and the views were epic. We stayed four miles outside of town, up a big hill, and they Living Waters Retreat Center which was like an Oasis in the desert. Before climbing up there, Mark and I waited for Zach and got some good calzones in town. When we got there, next to the stream, I pitched my hammock and took one of the best naps ever.
Lunch below the second highest peak in Idaho, we passed the highest later
Entering the Grand View Canyon
Stanley
It was Kristen’s 21st birthday, and we were on sweep together! After stopping at a diner in town and singing happy birthday to her, and Alyson who’s birthday it also was (although she got slightly overshadowed bc it was Kristen’s 21st haha) with everyone at the diner helping and two candles in two pieces of pie. It turned out being one of my very favorite days of riding, although slow we made it a lot of fun and it was hard not to have fun on her birthday haha. We spend almost the whole day going into a headwind, uphill beside an awesome river, the Salmon River. It’s become an attraction for rafters recently, although the only thing going on there back in the day was a silver mine about half way there. It was in a nowhere town of 29 people, and had a really cool museum that we spent some time at.
At the diner, b-day girls!
Their bikes in the AM
Tried to capture the oasis around the stream in this desert gulch near the host we left
A bustling metropolis
The museum there
The scenery changed from desert river to pine forest river, which was awesome to go through, and it was just really beautiful riding. 10 miles out from town, we stopped at a hot spring that went into the river and that felt great. It was long day for only 62 miles when we got into town at 4:45PM, but neither of us minded. Perhaps the best moment of the day, maybe the week or even the whole trip, was turning one of the many corners through the valley next to the Salmon River we had been climbing all day, to see the landscape open before us to the skyline of the Sawtooth Wilderness Mtns. Stanley claims that is has the best mtn vista in the west…and they may be just right. To top it off, we camped out on the side of town close to the mountains, the only thing between them and us was a field and some trees. I slept in the hammock, and the stars were out of this world as well.
Hot springs!
Idaho City
Later we would find out that that night, the coldest place in the entire US was Stanley, ID. I had slept in just my fleece blanket off the ground in a hammock, and it was 34F when we woke up. I couldn’t feel my feet.
To make a long story short, I hopped on my bike early that morning and got an early start to stay warm. That put me in front of the group where I stayed all day, missing both lunches but somehow finding the stamina to make 91 miles, 90 degree heat, and a 12 mile mountain climb on 40oz. of water and two clif bars. I got to the host at noon, the same time that sweep made it to the first lunch 30 miles in. Mark got there a couple hours later and I woke up from my passed-out nap, and ate a ton of food haha.
Sorry it's sideways, can't fix it haha
From the climb
Food!
Boise
I didn’t realize at the time, but putting myself out in front of the group by so far was a poor choice in terms of safety, although I am a strong rider….and for this, the leaders put me in the van for the day into Boise. So I didn’t ride, but with a tailwind and mostly downhill ride, Mark made it to town in less than two hours including lunch. I was really let down about not riding, and wrote some angry blog posts that won’t ever make it andyreagan.com, but after a while I got over that…when we heard the news that really shook up our trip, and every Bike and Build-er, past and present.
Paige Hicks, a leader on the P2S route, was struck by a truck and killed. I’m not going to elaborate, but you can read about her and the full letter to the BnB community here: http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/content/view/9188/1/
Our trip was very shaken up, as you can imagine, and we spent all night in prayer and comforting each other. We have learned how strong the Bike and Build family truly is, which has been beyond amazing, and all of thoughts and prayers go out to her family and the riders she led. We took a video the following day, along with many other things we have done, called Bike and Build IS. We’ll be sending notebooks to her family and the trip, and are wearing tye-dye yarn to symbolize that we now are riding on for her.
Day Off
Needless to say, many of us also spent the day off coping with this loss as well. I enjoyed the sleeping in, and spent most of the morning doing things on the computer and planning the end of the trip with Mom. After that I walked around town for awhile, got a milkshake, and then came back to make dinner for the fourth night in a row on dinner crew. Heather shared her recipe for her award-winning grilled cheese, which won the Tilamook grilled cheese competition her first year in it. They were the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had, I think most of the group shared that sentiment.
We were literally across the street
Ontario, OREGON
Sixty-two miles after a rest day is nothing for us now, and so today was definitely an easier day. My legs were sore, but after stretching at mile 15 I was all good. A lot of farms on the way here, including the Idaho University’s experimental ones which seemed…interesting. We all waited for everyone at the state line, and with the two people we had met who were biking across the country for fun who were really cool, to take a state line picture with everyone in our last state!
Leaving the sign looked like a trainwreck though. I forget again what they’re called, but these little thorns gave just about everyone on the trip flat tires. Mark, earlier, and flats in both tires at the same time! Somehow I managed to luck out, I think the record was Emma with three flats. And then in town at McDonald’s, Kristens tire did the weirdest thing ever, it got like pimples haha hard to explain but really crazy. She managed to ride it to the host somehow before it got flat in the parking lot though.
Dinner tonight was spaghetti and salad, which was good and since then I’ve had time to talk to Lauren for a long time for the second night in a row which has been really nice. Also got to take out and fix Raleigh’s fork, read some of a book, and now blog! Although I’ve only got three hours to sleep…but I’m sure there will be more time to sleep when I’m not biking across the country.
84 miles tomorrow to Unity, thanks for reading!