Mitchell: a Ghost Town 'Mostly Dead'

Monday, June 21
Day 6, approx 40 miles, summitted Ochoco Pass (elev. 4,720ft.)

The day's ride began at a Boat Launch in Ochoco National Forest, the site of Tamara's exhilarating crash. We cruised through rolling hills and one moderate climb, all in the high desert of Central Oregon. Sage and the occasional juniper and ponderosa pine dotted the passing land. Cotton seeds floated through the air when we neared groves of Cottonwood trees growing on the river's banks.

Our day ended early at the town of Mitchell, around three in the afternoon. According the U.S. Census, Mitchell has a population of 170. According to Paul, a slim man with a scraggled beard, sun-leathered skin and yellowed teeth, the number comes closer to 130.

Mitchell was founded in 1873 on the premise of a blacksmith's shop and post office, but by the turn of the century was overtaken by five separate lumber mills harvesting ponderosa pine. It reached a peak population of 451 in the 1950s.

A sign off of Hwy. 26 advertises the Mitchell Business Loop. As you enter, a closed and empty building with a white sign advertising 'Groceries' appears on the left, opposite a cafe selling 'shakes, burgers and pies'. As we approached, the cafe owner sat on a concrete stoop smoking cigarettes with Paul, of the census confusion. She had a jade green necklace, and long brown braids framing a pale neck and sweat shining face.

We asked for shakes.
'You want shakes? Well my machine isn't workin' right. I turned it on this morning and the spigots just wouldn't go. It's from 1957, so I suppose I might have to get it serviced.'

Later, we asked when the grocery store closed across the street. She said six years ago the owner died. As it turned out, the (deceased) owner of the grocery store was also the owner of at least a third of the town- closed houses, former bars ('The Pink Spur'), filled the main street. Most were still on sale from the day he died. No one seemed willing to invest in property in Mitchell.

Otherwise, Mitchell had a general store, the Pine City Cafe, a tidy white clapboard hotel, and a city park- our camping space- with swings and picnic tables and a small pavilion. Huge bushes of sage grew up next to the river near our tents- the smell wafting across the park as we sat and gave back massages, read books.

Later, around six, we were visited by a group of locals, two women and a man somewhere ambiguously between the ages of twenty and forty. The women continued into town, while the man and a small boy ran across the campground to sit next to me and Claire.

"Y'all camping?" And before we could even give him an answer he jerked his head towards the women walking away, "Them two's my cousins. They're drunk, and one of 'em's trying to sleep with me." He laughed. We got awkward.

Kyle, had bleached blonde hair and bounced his leg frantically while he talked. He was unable to tolerate spaces of silence over ten seconds long, and as Claire and I talked as little as we could manage, that meant he kept up a pretty constant stream of conversation. He was seeing a girl in Mitchell, and had family there but otherwise worked in Portland. The boy with him swung from a tree branch as we talked, skater shoes hanging heavily off his feet, and told us he wanted to be an artist.

After a little while, the two women came back up the main street and joined us too. They were both missing teeth, one dressed in a pink tank top and jeans, with her brown hair in a scrunchy, had only three on the front top of her mouth.

'Where you headed to?' She asked. We told her Maine. She didn't know where it was.

'Well, I don't know much about much. I quit school. Then I moved to Vegas.' Her female companion, a blonde, nodded and shoved a twix bar, held tightly in her fist, into her mouth. After a few minutes they left.

We decided one night would suffice for Mitchell.

Fifteen minutes later, however, three tall blonde college boys rolled up on Trek road bikes, creaking at the end of a long ride. From Mt. Vernon University in Columbus Ohio, Jarod, Chas and Chad have become our traveling buddies for the next week or so, as we all continue to Yellowstone. There, they will (at least as planned), head south to the Tetons, across Kansas, and to Virginia, while we keep our northern route through northern Wyoming and South Dakota.