Day 4: June 30, 2005    From McKenzie Bridge over McKenzie Pass and down to Sisters, Oregon.  We are still living on Tulsa Time—going to bed two hours earlier and waking up 2 hours earlier—so we rode out for another early breakfast. We had to ride back west almost 3 miles to find a café open for breakfast but it was sooooo well worth it. Dennis loves to have a good fresh spinach omelet and they made a superb one. I love a good buffalo patty and they had that with eggs and new potatoes and of course fresh baked biscuits. What a treat and it was just what we needed to get us to Sisters!

  Takoda's Cafe was a really good restaurant!              Here we made the choice to take the less traveled road and this is the way it looked most of the way to the treeline

When I mentioned to Dennis that we had to write in our journal tonight—he said that will be easy! “ We climbed the hill!” Well, that we did taking about 4 hours to ride 17 miles up to McKenzie Pass! Total mileage was about 49 miles (with 4094 feet of climb) and but for that 17 miles it was a pretty good tandem route. I love to take lots of photos but 80% of the day was riding up a lane with tall pine trees on both sides as far as you could see so I did not take many.

She went by so fast I almost missed her and then much later he came by and chatted a bit and then we took a rest after we had tried to keep pace and talk!

The only bikers we met today were more or less local and just doing a vacation ride and they were young and fast! Their parting words were “It gets pretty steep up ahead and then a nice climb to the pass!” They were right!

If you look close about 4 O'Clock you see the road way down there --- where we were some time ago ---- just one of many switch backs!

That part of the “Scenic Drive” was practically a private road for us as no trucks or motor homes over 35 feet were allowed on the road. When we got above the tree line the lava beds were pretty spectacular and the views of the snow covered peaks in every direction were awesome!

Finally above the tree line                                           Finally at the top of the hill!                                     Dennis restingwhile I climb!    

When we got to McKenzie Pass I climbed up the steps to the observatory and took some photos. Dennis decided to rest his legs—did not need any extra exercise today.

That is the Dee Wright Observatory                               One of the Three Sisters                                Lava beds with snowy peaks in background

I got to enjoy using the drag brake most of the way down into Sisters. That was a lovely ride and we were happy to arrive at our motel. After rustic last night it was pleasant to have a really spacious and beautiful room. No high speed Internet but they did have laundry facilities so that was a joy for me! We took a quick shower and soaked in the Jacuzzi and that felt great! Once again we found a really fine restaurant close to the motel and enjoyed a wonderful Tri-Tip starter, which turned out to be something I hope I can figure out how to make when we get home. Very gourmet stuff, followed by smoked salmon Caesar salad and Jalapeno potato soup—with another great wine of course. Probably the lightest meal we have had!

As always, there is no way—no matter how hard I pedal—that I can work as hard as Dennis so he is already asleep and I sort of feel like going dancing! Weird!     BACK TO OREGON MAIN PAGE