Burns to Boise

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  Burns was where we started to see lots of lilacs, which tended to be lighter-colored than I'm used to, but which were just as fragrant as usual.  We got to stay in a Motel in Birms, which gave us the chance to get clean in a shower.  Good stuff.  I didn't get many photos of the Malheur wildlife refuge because there were so many mosquitos that my hands nearly fell off, but we did ride out there and camp in what looked like an abandoned mine.  It sucked. 
  After Burns we decided to go to John Day bbecause we would have a motel room there too, and mght even have the oportunity to make a fatboy breakfast (we made two).  It turned out to be a really good dicision, and we even went out to the fossil beds .   There were a lot more trees going to John Day, and probably the best descent  that I"ve ever done down into Canyon City.  It must have taken at least 20 minutes at around 25 mph, and the views were great.  After leaving John Day, the landscape slowly changed back into sagebrush, and our last camp outside of  the real desert was just west of Unity, Oregon.  We ate a big breakfast in Unity, at the R Water Hole, which was a total trip, and then headed on to Vale, which was actually really cool.  When we got into town, we found a public pool that was only going to be open for another hour, so we got a shower and a swim for a buck each!  Before bed, we went across the park to the rodeo grounds to see the prelims for a rodeo that was to happen there one of the coming weekends.  We slept in between the bathrooms and the baseball field and got lulled to sleep by the rodeo announcer.  They seem to take these things seriously in these parts, as it went on until around 2am.  Finally we made the push to Boise, where we've been for the last couple of days.  We got to ride some Ibis demo bikes in an unexpected bit of good luck, and have been enjoying it quite a lot.  Tomorrow we leave for Stanley.

I discovered black and white on my camera and decided to experiment. This is at the John Day Fossil Beds.




 
This is most of the crew on the way to John Day.





We stopped at an old growth ponderosa pine forest on the way to John day, and the bark was way neato.





Also from the old growth forest.




 


In Canyon City, we found a John Deer model MT tractor like the one we used to have when I was growing up.  I was stoked!

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Some yellow headed blackbirds at the malheur refuge.  I can't remember if they're called something else or what.