Day 6: Prairie City, OR

The weather couldn't have picked a better day to turn nice.  We cycled through some of our favorite places in Oregon, and the weather was awesome - reaching into the 70s!

Heading west from Phillips Lake took us through Oregon's gold mining country, which is centered around Sumpter.  We've been to Sumpter plenty of times in the past, so we didn't bother to go a few miles off route to go into town.  But there are plenty of interesting sites in the area.  There is a steam railway, the Stump Dodger, and a huge dredge used from 1934 to 1950, which left huge piles of river rock tailings all along the rivers and streams in the area.  This area was also the backdrop for the Lee Marvin/Clint Eastwood movie Paint Your Wagon.  It is hard not to think of them singing I Was Born Under A Wand'rin' Star as we traversed the area.

The Stump Dodger.

We had three 5,000+ foot summits today.  Alea took the first and her knee did remarkably well.  I took over from there.  She rode the first 16 miles and I did 33 miles, including a great 7.5 mile downhill into Prairie City.

It is hard to beat the vista coming into Prairie City on a clear day.  The green fields, pine forests and snow capped Strawberry Mountain is a scene that is among the most beautiful in the west.  It's isolation from major population centers is the sole reason that it has remained such a scenic treasure.

An Oregon Trail memorial, with Strawberry Mountain lost in the clouds.

We camped at Depot Park Campground ($20, full hookups, heated bathrooms, $1.75 10 minute showers), which is a city park.  The site is shared with the DeWitt Museum, which is dedicated to the history of the Sumpter Valley Railroad.