Day 4 - Vale - Unity

Day In Numbers

Miles biked: 64.4

Total feet climbed: 3247

Pounds of bananas consumed: 3

Pounds of green beans consumed: 1

Rattlesnake roadkill: 1

I woke up to find that my neighbors had already departed and that I had somehow slept through three motorcycles leaving from less than 15 feet away. I took some time to write after breakfast which consisted of a big bowl of hot cereal with three lbs. of bananas. I started down the road and stopped within the first four miles for a rattlesnake that lay perfectly intact on the side of the road. The riding that morning was exceptionally easy and I blissfully peddled to Brogan where I stopped for a snack. Brogan, like so many other towns in the area, consisted of several houses, one store, a park, and a church. I stepped into the store where I met a friendly lady who used to work for the park service. She filled me in on the road ahead as I eyed the fig newtons on the shelf. Newtons securely in hand, I paid and was nearly out the door when the couple who owned the shop shared a brief story with me. Apparently, last year a biker was found dead at the top of Brogan hill which was waiting to challenge me a mile down the road. A driver had passed the young man who lay sprawled on the side of the road and (without stopping) called the sheriff. When the sheriff arrived, he found that the young biker had not perished, but had used his helmet to dig a hole in the shoulder of the road and had buried his face in the hole in search of cool air. While this is a bit extreme, three days prior, the desert had fried my brain as well, but I was not sensible enough to dig a hole with the one thing that would provide my head with protection.

Brogan hill turned out to be a beast. At that point, the climb was the largest and longest of the trip and I think temperature was into the triple digits. I started listening to an audio book at the base of the climb, and this has since become my favorite way to climb. Despite the heat, that climb was a highlight of the day. At the top I caught my first glimpse of the mountains I would climb through over the next several days. In the space between lay nothing but desert and the road I'd follow to get to Ironside, a town 18 miles down the road and the first place I could hope to find water. Normally, the slightly downhill ride to Ironside would have been a lovely change of pace, but the headwind was astounding and I had to fight for every foot of asphalt I rolled over. By the time I got to Ironside I needed a good rest and picked a small house with lots of cars and trees around it. There was no answer at the door, so I sat in the shade and had a snack. The young couple arrived just as I was preparing to look elsewhere for water. They were sweet as could be and had an uncanny resemblance to a young couple I know from Parsons, Kansas. They gave me some info about the road ahead as I refilled my water bottles. I still had 18 miles and another 1,000 feet of climbing before Unity, but the wind had died down and the cow food that flanked me on either side made me feel like I might not be in the desert anymore.

I set to work on my second climb of the day and camp to a stop at the top where I found a woman in a BMW with her daughters, and her husband working on a flatbed from the 1960's. You rarely come across a guy as barrel-chested or friendly as this man. He jumped down from the truck and relished in telling me all about the fossil beds and Picture Gorge. He told me exactly where I could find paintings on the wall of the Gorge (though I never did), and a bit about the history. Rejuvenated by the man's energy, I got back on the bike and started downhill. The  walls of a small canyon quickly rose on either side of the road as I entered Unity Forest State Park. Here there were trees in the proper sense of the word. Massive conifers towered over me and a small stream ran downhill parallel to the road. I felt moisture in the air and it felt like the first time I had smelled fresh air. The sight of the trees and the rich, green vegetation around them overwhelmed me and the wind of the descent whisked tears from my eyes before they could find my cheeks.

Just before dropping into the canyon

I rolled into Unity, Oregon around dinner time and was told that I could camp behind the local market. The shopkeeper gave me four corn dogs, a pound of green beans, and a can of ravioli for less than $5.00. The corn dogs disappeared before I made it to the campsite and I soon put away the pound of green beans with half a box of spaghetti. The $10.00 dollars I spent to camp included a shower and laundry. I took advantage of each of these amenities and met a tree frog in the shower before setting up the hammock and crawling into bed.