Friday, June 11, 2010

Into the Wilds

I’m packing my gear for a trip to eastern Oregon to help John and Dave put on the OBM 1000


Not sure what they have in store, but I signed on for the whole event, start to finish, but I am excited about the prospects. I had hoped to ’live blog’ it, well semi-live actually; there are significant stretches of eastern Oregon where phone booths are still state of the art technology.  It doesn’t matter though, I was planning to pick up a ‘netbook’ for that purpose but it didn’t happen. I’ll take lots of pictures and write up a nice little report next week. Think happy thoughts for the riders, I’m sure they will appreciate your support.   Here's where we'll be:

Day 1 - 400 kilometers and 13,300 ft elevation gain
The route follows the Columbia River east to Umatilla and continues east to Westin where it enters the Blue Mountains with a long hill climb. There is a staffed control near the summit at the Tamarack Inn. There are 24 hour services at La Grande and the overnight control is at the Powder River Motel in North Powder.

Day 2 - 350 kilometers and 10,900 ft elevation gain
The overnight control is at the Oregon Hotel in Mitchell Oregon with staffed controls before business hours at Austin House and a campground, possibly Parish Cabin on the south side of Strawberry Mountain. Staffed controls may also be located at John Day and Dayville. The route circles south around Strawberry Mountain between Prairie City and John Day before turning east into the Ochoco Mountains.

Day 3 - 250 kilometers and 12,300 ft elevation gain
From Mitchell, the route goes through the Oregon Painted Hills to Fossil, Antelope, Shaniko, Maupin and back to The Dalles. There will be staffed controls, to be determined, possibly at Fossil, Shaniko or Maupin. Between Mitchell and The Dalles, the route crosses the John Day river twice, The Deshcutes river and several smaller but notable climbs like the hill out of Antelope, the hill leaving Fossil and Tygh Ridge Summit.

Talk to you again next week.

1 comment:

  1. Looking forward to reading about it! My best thoughts and prayers to the riders for a safe and enjoyable ride =)

    ReplyDelete