Eastern Oregon: Where It Rains 10 Inches a Year... All On The Same Day

Howdy folks, Ross the Boss here. I understand that we've had some new blog readers recently. Thus, I will sum up what is going on here real quick.

We are 5 dudes who graduated from James Madison University (JMU) in May '09. The past 2 years we spent together living in a rented house on Main Street in Harrisonburg, VA. Since we thought we were so cool, we named our house The Zoo, and we will continue to refer to ourselves as The Zoo until we die (maybe...). It turned out that we all had open summers following graduation (and we all graduated... barely) so we decided that we needed to do something super sweet together to commemorate our time together and do it in style. Therein spawned the idea to ride across the country. I'm pretty sure that Jeff thought about doing it about 10 years ago, but for the rest of us we all were finally onboard as of Winter Break of this past year. On June 2nd, after countless trips to the bike shop (thanks Shenandoah Bicycle Company!) and months of training (for some of us) we departed from the Zoo.

I wanted this to happen months ago but here are some rider bios:

Name: Doug Arms
Nicknames: Dougiee, Arms, Arms Doctor, Dooglas, Lone Ranger, Strong Arms
Bike model: Gunnar (aka the tallest bike you've ever seen) all black
Height: 6'5''
Falls: 2
Flat tires: 6
Notable: Biked 200 miles in 1 day to collect mail!

Name: Jeff Joyce
Nicknames: Chief, Jorts, JJ, Jeff O'saurus Rex,
Bike model: 1985 Specialized Rock Hopper, neon green
Height: 5' 9''
Falls: 1
Flat tires: 5
Notable: The baddest bully on two wheels

Name: Dave Peyser
Nicknames: Davo, Davey, Peysey Weysey, DPR, Active Ingredient, Velvetine Rabbit
Bike model: Trek 520. mocha brown
Height: 5'8''
Falls: 1
Flat tires: 1
Notable: Very slow downhill... no matter what

Name: Little Bear
Nicknames: Saucy Taffy, Boss, Big Engine, Ross Chilcoat, Passenger Train, The Sauce, One Speed, Gravy Train, Puppy Chow, Clyde the Glide, Bossy Taffy
Bike model: Surly Long Haul Trucker, army green
Height: 5'10 3/4
Falls: 1
Flat tires: 10 (6 in 1 day)
Notable: Very fast downhill... no matter what

Name: Brian Michael Picknally Esq.
Nicknames: Pick, Bri, Tony, Gerbil, Hank, Tiny Pete
Bike model: 1987 Specialized Street Stomper
Height: 5'5'' (listed at 5'8'' in Springfield Township High School football program)
Falls: +20
Flat tires: +20
Notable: Managed to pee on the side of the road in every county in the United States

Now that you know us better, the Zoo has now entered OREGON!!


Jeff here for a cameo post updating the blog since entering Oregon:

Aug5 [Council, ID to HELLS CANYON, OR]:
We began the day in beautiful Council, Idaho. Had an excellent breakfast at the local cafe which will be remebered most for our quest to name all of the country music artists on a poster across the room. We got Garth B., Allen J., and Dolly P. easily enough, but who really knows what Waylon Jennings looks like? But like Ross always says, "Quitters never win, and winners never quit" Thus, through perseverence and with the help of the friendly waitstaff [including cooks] we got all 40+ of the twangy greats. It's the little victories that taste most sweet.
So a few miles and sodas later we dropped down into HELL'S CANYON and soon there after into Oregon. We have a bit of a tradition of racing for state lines and this final victory went to Davey "it's all gravy" Peyser. He took it from an unheard of 24 miles out. We didn't see it coming, he was there one minute and then gone the next. Once us other Zoomates saw that we had been had we gave up and went swimming in a nearby lake. This left poor Davo hungry and alone at the state line awaiting our arrival, but he promises that the taste of a blowout victory was enough to satisfy his physical hunger.
The rest of the night, went about as you'd expect and we slept happily along the side of the road after much food, drink and merry-making.

Aug. 6 [HELL'S CANYON to Baker city]:

An odd thing happened this day. The men were stricken with a keen sense of indifference towards trekking west even an inch. At last they mustered their courage, and steadied their hands to mount once more the steel beasts which had faithfully borne them thus far. But the going was slow. Breaks stretched on for much longer than any reasonable person really needs to break.
They broke fast with blinding slothfulness and the mid-day meal took twice what it needed.
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[we have read many tales of mountain men from pioneer days, I have tried to mirror their style in the above]
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But we loved it. And reasoned that sometimes when you ride a bike all the time for 3 months you just need to spend a morning chilling and making terrible time. Unfortunately, our laziness caught up to us and we had to slog it out through cold rain and whipping wind for the final 30 miles of our day. But at Baker City we drank a great deal of coffee, and agreed that the day was a stunning sucess.

Aug. 7 [Baker City to Sumpter]:

This day brought a new year to the life of Big Ern Picknally, which is great! But it also brought heaps more rain, which was not as great from our perspective. And it was cold rain, round'about 48 degrees, with 4 inches coming down during the 4 hours we spent on bikes. But we made 30 big miles to Sumpter [Named and misspelled after the infamous Fort Sumter- This area was a Confederate strong hold, Jeff Davis creek ran by the road we followed into town] and checked into a Motel that looked like a Fort; compliments of the ever graceful and generous Mother Chilcoat whose gift we recieved with bountiful joy and overflowing gratitude.
So we ran from the rain, but made a lovely day of it and made the miles up today.

Aug. 8 [Sumpter to Dayville]
Luckily the rain passed and in its leaving the weather was much cooler. We had three big climbs today [which really make for a much better day of riding than flats] and pulled into the bustling metropolis of Dayville just at sunset.
As many times before, we are enjoying the hospitality of a local Presbyterian church and are delighted by the uncommon luxury of bathing on consecutive days. Which already puts our number of showers in Oregon ahead of other entire states... you really are lucky that the pictures we post aren't scratch and sniff...


All the best to you all & thank you for your patience with my writing. I sometimes take too liberal a license with it, but hope that you at least got that we're safe, dirty, and happy. Too few days left, but we promise to make them count.

We likely love you if you're reading this, so : Love, the Zoo