Day 17: July 22, 2024 - Rest Day / Mitchell, OR, to Priarie City, OR (by People Mover)
End: Prairie City, OR
Miles: 82 (by People Mover bus)
I was up at 5:30 and saw that the air was still too bad to ride.
The four cyclists who arrived yesterday came to the same conclusion and found a People Mover bus that will take them west into better air. I planned to catch that bus when it returns this evening and take it to Prairie City where I made a reservation at Hotel Prairie. Unless the air there is substantially better tomorrow morning, I will then hitch a ride to Baker City where it is now good enough to ride. I was told by Joni, who is staying at Spoke’n Hostel after evacuating from her home, that it will be easy to catch a ride at the MiniMart.
How much of an adventure can it be if everything goes according to plan?
The People Mover was delayed because of a flat. It departed with the four cyclists at 10:15. The driver told me the flat would shorten his layover and that he expected to arrive on time later today, about 6:20.
I knew that by the time I would arrive in Prairie City the restaurants would be closed, so I ate dinner at the Tiger Town Brewing Company in Mitchell.
I caught the People Mover at about 6:30. At the time the sun was out and the air quality index (AQI) was about 100, low enough for it to be safe to ride. I told Lonny, the driver, how grateful I was for being able to get a ride from him and for taking the four cyclists the other direction in the morning.
I had planned to watch the movie Inspired to Ride on the two-hour trip to Prairie City, but the scenery was so gorgeous that I forwent doing so. I regretted that I would not be able to ride my bike through such beautiful territory.
However about halfway through the bus ride the air became bad enough that I could taste the smoke. (When we were a few miles from our destination I noticed that one of the windows was slightly open, so the air inside the bus was worse than it could have been.)
What a contrast there was between the first and second halves of the bus ride!
Lonny dropped me at Hotel Prairie at about 8:30. The AQI was now about 200. Because of my late check-in a key was to be left for me but it wasn’t there. Fortunately the problem was quickly resolved and I was inside with fresh air. Joni’s friend David, who lives in Prairie City, met me at the hotel and we had interesting conversation about all sorts of things.
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