Day 55: Back in the Desert (Halfway, OR to Baker City, OR)

Total Mileage: 60ish 

We had a rather hot, dry, and uneventful trip from Halfway to Baker City. Lots of sandy soil and sagebrush - we figure this is the part of Oregon that Oregonians like to pretend doesn't exist.

We were looking forward to stopping at the Oregon Trail Interpretation Center outside of Baker City, though, since we had both heard good things about it. Unfortunately, no one had told us that the museum was off the road on top of a mile long hill and a climb of almost 400 ft! We decided it was worth it and made the trek up the ridiculous grade. We arrived hot and thirsty and set about getting water/eating our lunch before we did anything else.

When we were ready to look at the exhibits, the kind woman at the front desk let us in for free! This was excellent since the cost was $8 (no student discount) and we didn't actually have that much time to spend there. Alice needed a new cleat for her road shoes and we had to make it to the bike store in town before 4pm.

The parts of the exhibit we did see were pretty cool. Interesting/educational/interactive - everything you would want a museum to be! We thought the massive diorama in the front room was worth photographing.

The dead animals lend a surprisingly life-like quality to the thing

Complete with voice recording of a mother mourning a dead child

After skimming the exhibits, we rode the 8 miles into town and hit up the bike shop. Disappointingly, they didn't have the type of cleat that Alice needed :(  Alix did end up buying an extra derailleur cable and tube, though. If you buy more tubes, you don't get flats, right?



Road into Baker City

That evening, we met up with Luke, our Warmshowers host. He kindly showed us into his parent's house. They had just gone on vacation so we got the whole place to ourselves! It was our first shower in a week - woohooooo! After going to dinner with Luke, we curled up in our cozy beds and went to sleep.