Early morning start back out on Clackamas Highway following the Clackamas River. A cool but beautiful morning to ride. Then Timothy Lake Road up to beautiful Timothy Lake in the Mt Hood National Forest. Lots of really nice campgrounds. They always show up at 10am and not 10:00pm. Then the first Forest Service gravel road. Some incredible views of Mt Hood which will follow me a couple of days. Not many (hardly any) resupply stops on this route. Fish and Chips for lunch (Can of Sardines and bag of potato chips).
Day definitely heating up as the climbing intensifies. Goal is to get to Antelope, Oregon where Antelope Market and camping is. Ride through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. I knew water and calorie management would be a challenge today. 100 miles finally just before 6:00 pm. with 7,342 feet of climbing and still not done.
All up hill to get to Antelope with a nice final descent down to town. Thank Goodness. A beautiful clear evening as I rolled exhausted into camp. There were two other TransAm riders there as well as 3 bikepackers making a local loop out of Portland. Antelope is famous for the Rajneeshees takeover in the 1980’s with Rajneesh and his 1000’s of followers taking over the town. The hut at the campsite were actually huts used by the Rajneeshees and moved to this location.
Super Host Mark allowed me to get in a cabin and not put up the tent. Unfortunately, the Market inventory was pretty much depleted and I would start the ride tomorrow without much other than some fig newtons and no dinner tonight. One of the bikepackers made me up some cous cous that they had extra so that was really nice and helped. At least I was getting to sleep inside, not unpacking and putting up a tent and assured of an early start tomorrow. Plenty of water so going to be good with Hydration. Also wifi so another bonus. Great overnight other than the lack of resupply.
