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Sunday August 15th 2004

transAm sticker on shop doorFrom Halfway Motel, Camping Area to Baker City, Baker City Motel Camping Area. A hilly day of about 54 miles. Met Phil Hinricks, doing transAm West to East (and expecting to finish in October) - doing this after retiring from his job. He's done the transAm before, many years ago. Looks fit - a young retiree. Two Oregonians (I want to say Oreganos!) recommended some locations to camp on the coast - very helpful! We set off rather late, over the pass above Halfway, in hot sun. Then down into Richland to buy lunch - Guy noticed the transAm sticker on the grocery store door. Very faded and clearly dating from a while back - could it be an original 1976 sticker? A holy relic to us anyway. Then up the big climb of the day - through a very empty landscape, mostly just dry hills and sagebrush, with no shops, water, or anything. We found a bit of shade on the climb, so we then had lunch. Then more uphill, past the Oregon Trail Historic Interpretative Centre (not too catchy that name) - which was closing as we arrived (often the case) - though that saved us the steep climb up to it. Then downhill into Baker City for a pleasant chinese meal (tofu - a favourite) at Jimmy Chan's Chinese Restaurant on Main Street and a campsite at the Baker City Motel. We've complete 3670 miles, the coast is getting closer. I sometimes think I can hear seagulls. Wrote up this section of the diary in Baker City library, which was brilliant with heaps of books, computers, and cool air. In the library I wondered - "But we've a big hill to do today - can we reach Prairie City? It's about 2500-ish feet of climbing from here".

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