Although we intended to take our time getting up, I managed to find myself up and out of my tent by 5:30 am and caught the tail end of sunrise. Kate was already up and making her morning tea. This was going to be our hottest day with temperatures around 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky so we were anxious to get on the road. Alas, we ended up being a little too efficient and rolled by the store in Kimberly before it opened. We had planned to fill our water up there, but decided to push on and filter from the John Day if need be (despite the assured presence of agricultural runoff).
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| So many cows out here. |
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| Heading into the fossil beds. |
Despite our best efforts to beat the heat, by the time we got into the fossil beds, it was sweltering. Our half-mile "hike" had us sweating profusely and dreaming of a cold swim hole with shade and hammock trees.
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| Otherworldly... and hot. But some cool fossil replicas and informational signs. |
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| Even hotter was trying to hike up to an overlook. |
We found some respite for lunch at the Cant Ranch just opposite the John Day Fossil Bed Visitors Center. It had trees, manicured lawns, and a little picnic area close to the river. Despite the allure of throwing up hammocks, we wanted to take some time to explore the visitors center and see if we could get some local intel on a good swimming hole.
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| We got a good parking spot! |
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| Learning things. |
Alas, the folks at the visitors center refused to help us. The water levels were too high and they couldn't tell us anywhere to swim. As we approached the hottest part of the day, we had to make a decision. Settle for the less than stellar spot at the Cant Ranch that didn't really have a swim hole, or power through to Dayville and relax there. Maybe there would be a swim hole, hammock trees, and kombucha!
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| Winding though the canyon. |
We had made Dayville out to be some magical land of happiness... and well, it was. It was quirky and its residents were welcoming with that edge that you only find in the wild west. The city park had a swimming hole with crawfish and hammock trees. The local market had craft beer and kombucha. The Presbyterian church was a bike hostel with a real kitchen and hot showers. Seriously, the magical land of cycle tourist happiness.
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| Waiting out the heat of the day. |
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| Uh huuuh. |
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| Happy hour in hammocks! |
After jumping in the river and letting the hottest part of the day pass, Kate decided she would push onto John Day and then drive back to meet us. Since she had to drive back to Portland, she wanted to beat the traffic getting back in. We decided to be lazy for a little while longer, taught Michelle how to fix her first flat tire, and then went to check out the bike hostel at the Presbyterian church and get showers. But first, we got some reading material for the night.
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| Checking out the amazing selection of books. |
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| Yup, looks like it is going to be scintillating evening of reading for all of us. |
We settled into the church, setting up camp and taking showers. There were four other bike tourists there who had just started a cross-country tour. We socialized a bit, welcomed Kate back, made dinner, and then went outside to do some acroyoga and host our own MST3K style reading of our Little Library books. Which really ended up being a semi-dramatic/traumatic reading interspersed with gut busting laughter. Let me tell you, the clear winner was actually the marriage of the Blackfoot Massacre and the Dinosaur with a Sword. That is all.
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| Ani loves real kitchens! |
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| Storytime after dinner (photo credit: Kate). |
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