Day 3 - Moses Lake, WA to Baker City, OR

Our day started out perfect. The sun was shining and the temps were pleasant as we rolled out at 8:30am. We traveled south and east through Washington farm land, and it was a nice morning scene with all of the huge irrigation systems sprinkling the crops. We stopped for lunch in Pomeroy, WA before turning south toward the Oregon border. The landscape changed from farm land to desert to rolling hills to mountains throughout our day. We stopped in Enterprise, OR for a break in the shade of the little city park before we motored down to do the Hells Canyon drive.
The road in to Hells Canyon was super fun and twisty but the pavement was pretty crummy so we were dodging gravel and pot holes for a good part of it. We rode 50 miles in to the overlook and stopped to take in the scenic canyon. It was quite a view and we were enjoying the break when the park ranger came up and informed us that the rest of the road that we were going to take to Baker City was washed out and we'd have to go back the way we came. Ugh! We hopped on the bikes and rode the 50 miles back out to Joseph and then decided we'd ride another 114 miles to go the long way round to Baker City. We were burning daylight so we high tailed it west toward La Grande where we then turned South. We stopped at a rest area for a quick break and that's when Steve noticed that I had a nail in my rear tire. Double ugh! He followed behind me the next 30 miles until we made it to our hotel for the night. Now we have to spend tomorrow trying to find a place to fix my tire on a Sunday so that we can make it back to Portland. What a bummer. I hope it works out...will keep you posted.