| Distance | 71.00 kms | 44.12 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Climbed | 303 meters | 994 feet |
| Ride time (hours) | 4.24 | - |
| Avg speed | 10.4 kph | - |
| Avg climb | 3% | - |
| Max grade | 10% | - |
| Distance | 29,326.88 kms | 18,222.95 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Climbed | 307,818 meters | 1,009,902 feet |
| Ride time (hours) | 2,072.24 | - |
Saturday, June 7th, 2014
I swing by the campground at Medicine Lake to fill up my water bottles when I leave my campsite at Blanche Lake. I've been carrying a water filter more for emergency purposes than for daily drinking water, but lately I have been depending on it more and more. Frankly it's so slow it drives me mad. I follow the cleaning procedures but it doesn't seem to help all that much, the thing just takes forever to filter a liter of water. It's a Sawyer Mini, I had seen some people recommend it on this site, but in my professional opinion it's a POS.
A couple from Ashland, OR flags me down as I'm climbing away from Medicine Lake. They are big travelers, having taken a year and a half to travel around the world. They've also done bike touring in some exotic places like India where they got as high as 18,000 feet on the bikes. Impressive stuff. They give me an apple as a parting gift. Delicious. The pavement ends when the road tops out at around 7,000 feet, then comes a chaotic descent on some really loose sand and gravel all the way down to 4,000-something. I leave the pine forests for Lava Beds National Monument. I check out a few of the craters but I'm not really up for tourism today.
There is a toll booth for the National Monument as I'm heading north towards Tule Lake. I explain to the ranger that I'm just passing through and that I didn't see any other way out of the National Forest going north that avoided the park. She says there is, it was some turnoff up near the top of the pass, but lets me exit the park without paying anything.
The wind is screaming through this valley from the north. After the 10 or so miles around Tule Lake I'm exhausted from fighting it, I come across a motel leaving the town of Tulelake and just give up and get a room. It would be a 3 or 4 mile ride back to the town to get something to eat, I just don't have the motivation for it so I make a tuna fish sandwich in the room for dinner.
