I woke up ten minutes to six and took pictures of the river while everyone was sleeping. I love seeing the bikes with all the gear leaning against the giant fir trees. I spent some time in the Word, Psalms 23 took on a whole new life for me. I continue to ask God to reveal himself to me. I pray for wisdom. The rest of the group was up making breakfast around nine. Chris had a broken spoke on his bike and after he replaced the spoke, he realized he had a bigger issue he could not fix. I was thinking to myself how frustrated and angry I would have been had my bike needed repair so early in the trip. On the other hand, Chris never got upset or angry, he simply said, "it looks like I'll be hitching a ride today." God was showing me something here... patience I guess. It's funny, Mallory and I prayed that we would have opportunities to be a light to the rest of the group, but in the instance God was using one of them to teach me something I needed for that day.
The ride on the second day was one of the greatest physical achievements of my life. We climbed over 4000 ft. in 22 miles of riding. I never dreamed I would cross a mountain range on my bicycle, but today I marked the Cascades off my list. Oregon is coming alive as I creep across the landscape on my bike. We climbed for five hours, taking a break every five miles. It was hard but I've been through worse, I feel I have great potential on the bike if I only had an opportunity to compete. The view from the Mckenzie Pass was so breath taking because of the hard work we did to reach the summit. No motorist experienced what we did at the summit that day. I'll never forget the view or what it took to get to the top of that mountain.
It was an easy fifteen miles to the bottom where we stopped in the town of Sisters, Or. for the night. We showered in a park with the water faucet coming from the ground. I took full advantage of this running water because I regretted not bathing in the river the night before. We had a nice dinner in the downtown area and ended up setting our camp up right behind the chamber of commerce on a nice patch of green grass. Hooray for urban camping.
-Trey
I love seeing these pictures/video and reading your words. The width of the road is amazing - you had no shoulder!!! What a view of God's wonderful world and you're right, you'd have to climb the mountain on a bike to appreciate the top - I'm enthrawled!
ReplyDeleteThe weather lifted here in Longboat Key today and we drove into Sarasota - you two would love that city!! Great shops and what a terrific Goodwill. . . you would have gone crazy in that huge place.. it was so well organized with colors/sizes/items in place. I wanted to stay there for a week and G was ready to go when he walked in - although he loved my 3 tops that I got for $12. We were right downtown shoping at a place called "Encore & More". It was just for women! I really cashed out there! This is a place where the really rich bring their stuff ~ the profit goes to help women re-establish themselves after a battering/abusive situation. Great place - oh, it also had furniture, but again the "G" was ready to go. I needed a girl friend today :~). He definitely doesn't qualify as a shopper! He wants to go, shoot it, bag it and bring it home. Love you, Gammy