Day 7, June 3

Below is the view of the lake that I had while I did my morning stretches.

Mike and I hit the road about 7:30. The first part of the road into Baker was a drop down a canyon following a river.  The later part was farmland and pastures.

Coming into Baker some farmer had a row of cars for sale that had me drooling. Among them was a dead ringer for Christine. There was also a 68 Polara that was begging me to somehow take it home.

After we stopped by a laundromat,  stocked up on food and supplies (goodbye 30 spf sunscreen, hello 50) and had lunch, Mike was interested in hiting a bar. Since I had in mind many more miles that day I headed off for either Richland or Halfway or Oxbow, Or, depending on how things went. 

After a climb out of town I had about 25 miles of rolling hills and sagebrush.  There were some very long straight stretches. The scenery was great though and I made good time.

Then I entered the begining of the very appropriately named Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. It was gorgeous but was hot as hell. 

I eventually ended the day just past the tiny town of Richland at a campground at the local reservior. It was nice but had more mosquitoes than I have ever seen before. There were so many that when they started to come out you could hear them.  I covered up with long pants, a hat with a neck/ear cover and long sleeves. That and the deet based spray I had kept me free from all but one or two bites. I don't know if you can see it but in the picture below there was a 20 or so ft tall column of mosquitoes right above the tree.

The mileage for the day was a relatively low 62 miles but was not too bad given the extended stop in Baker, which probably chewed up 3 hours.