Safe Return Doubtful

54 miles (87 km) – Total so far: 807 miles (1,298 km)

Distance 54 miles (86 km) Time riding 4 hours 54 mins Max Speed 36.7 mph Average speed 11 mph Altitude 1101 meters asl Left at 7:15 am Arrived 2:05 pm

There’s always interest when there’s a full campground. Some people’s behaviour baffles me. 3 down the caravan had a separate toilet tent. I haven’t seen one of those for a few years. There were plenty of bathrooms on the site, but perhaps one of these campers needed them closer and more urgently. With the fire alert at extremely high due to the drought all over the west of the country campfires are banned. The people next to me responded by bringing a generator. The noise and fumes were not good for two hours in the early evening.

At 4 pm the temperature topped out at 108F (42 C). Too hot for me. Reminders of bike Spain and Italy and trying to sleep in the tent. It does eventually cool down at night here, but not until 2 or 3 am, and to about 18C. At midnight it was still in the 30s.

At 11 pm one camper shouted at a family to be quiet. They did so for about 15 minutes. At midnight I shouted over. No noise after that, but I did pull a staple out of my back tyre this morning. It was only slightly deflated so not a slow caused by the detritus of the road. It took me less than 10 minutes to repair,mount annoying.

It’s great at 6 am though. It’s light about then. Hard to get out of bed earlier. Breakfast at Roxy’s Cafe on the Marina. With this heat the boss says he is having their best summer ever. The lake is about 8 miles long here and a good spot for water sports.

The easy route out of Pelton is back to the highway and up the 5 miles at 5-6% to the desert plains again at 800 metres. The quiet way is up the little road that continues along the canyon and goes up 2-3 miles at 9% and sometimes steeper. I took the latter and until Metrolius only 2 cars had passed me. After a slow 17 miles the quiet roads join highway 97 just after Culver. From then it’s a reasonably fast and boring ride through Redmond into Bend, climbing steadily all the time.

Luxury tonight, as I’m using the penultimate free Hotels.com motel night. It’s also quite near downtown. Bend is famous for its beers. Amongst many it is home to Deschutes Brewery, one of the most famous of America’s microbreweries.

Heading up the side of the canyon – tremendous little road, no traffic at all – a bit steep though

Looking down at Pelton Dam and Lake Susmitus

Back to the high plains, at 800 meters asl – still very quiet on a Sunday morning

In need of cool drink stops today. Warm morning and a hot night. Metolius village.

Next stop at Culver village.
Lots of fishing and water sports at the lakes along the Deschutes river.

Not much going on riding on highway 97 – there was Oregon Bungee though from this 100 metre drop from a bridge