By the time we awoke the Alaska guys had already packed up their tents and gone. We enjoyed our breakfast on a bench beside the lake in the sun. A tiny chipmunk kept poking his head out of a hole beside our feet. This was a beautiful campsite and great value at only $5 each per night for a “biker/hiker”pitch.

We got on our way at about 11.30am. A long gradual climb (24 miles) took us to the top of the Ochoco Pass, where we were heartened to see a sign declaring 7.5 miles of downhill. Woo hoo! There is a campsite here at the top of the pass, but we decided to push on for Mitchell to get a few more miles under our belt. Along the way we passed the John Day Fossil Bed and Painted Hills, but didn’t stop – probably should have.

After another shortish climb (4 miles) we reached the small town of Mitchell. We were worn out and starving hungry. At first we were a bit worried as on entering the town all the stores looked were closed and run-down and it looked like a ghost town, but thankfully rounding the corner we saw some life and parked our bikes against the veranda of the Little Pine Cafe (our first American diner) where we sat in the window and enjoyed a massive burger and fries each and bottomless glasses of Coke and Rootbeer.

Revitalised we rode a few metres further up the street and camped for free on the park, as advised by our waitress at the café. The noticed advised that you could camp for up to 3 days and there were even clean toilets and covered picnic benches.

Total climb:

2440 feet

Passes climbed:

Ochoco Pass – 4720 feet

Animal alert:

Lots of chipmunks

Summed up:

The Burger joint came just at the right time

Total Distance:

40.117 mi

Total Time Cycling:

5h 47m 29s