Surprisingly we survived our stay at the Junction Inn and departed with the same number of organs with which we arrived. We headed north and quickly passed through the town of Kerby and got to see the Holiday Motel in its somewhat cleaner glory.
We pedaled on along 199 past residences as we looked at nondescript landscapes that paled in comparison to California's beautiful forests (it was at this point that I nicknamed the state "Boregon" in my head). We rewarded with a surprise downhill that led to my new record of 40.0mph on my fully loaded bike.
We made good time into Grant's Pass and quickly grabbed a snack before heading off on highway 99 towards Medford/Ashland. This route was mostly flat, but we started to notice that the mountains were no longer partially barren due to forestry. Instead, we were entering a drier climate as we head east towards Oregon's desert. Interestingly, it was along this road that we passed more wineries/vineyards than we did during our entire tour through California. When we arrived in Medford we decided that we easily had another 17 miles of pedaling ability in us due to the flat terrain. With that in mind, we booked the cheapest motel in Ashland and traveled for another 1 hour 45 minutes.
Ashland is the home Southern Oregon University as well as a popular Shakespeare festival. Due to these attractions, the pleasant downtown area was packed and all hotels/motels showed no vacancies. Ashland proudly displayed their "bicycle friendly" status upon entry and backed it up with well defined bike lanes and signals throughout city limits. Of the Oregon towns/cities through which we passed, Ashland is by far the most comfortable.
It is worth noting that Oregon has already been kind enough to supply us with 1.5 days of a well-deserved tailwind since our arrival. I hope this trend continues!
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