Traveling at Mach 0.012

Saturday July 5

Start: Maryhill State Park
End: Cascade Locks
Day total miles: 69
Journey total miles: 3595

Towns passed through:
Biggs, OR
The Dalles, OR
Rowena, OR
Mosier, OR
Hood River, OR
Cascade Locks, OR

THe days ride starts early to beat the heat and traffic. Slept through the fireworks from the previous night; rumored to be the best in quite a while in The Dalles. Darkness came too late for me to stay up and watch. Besides, if i could not be at Great Meadow to watch the fireworks, i would have to forego them for a year.

Crossed the bridge to leave Washington for the last time and enter Oregon to be in the final state for the remainder of the trip. Over the bridge advertising strong cross winds – there were none. The ride then takes me along a frontage road, then onto the interstate. No real traffic to speak of; guess all of the late night activities for the 4th had people sleeping in. Ok by me. Off of the interstate and then following a path through The Dalles to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and then onto Rt 30. Looking at the map and the elevation profile, i am thinking that looks like an impressive climb. Roll into Rowena and have to decide – take the prescribed route or the interstate to avoid the climb. Glad I decided on the climb. Up the hill I go, onto a winding, switchback road. Lots of bikes are there some passing me from both directions. The views are spectacular.

Once at the top, there is an overlook to complete the climb. So glad i made the decision to climb instead of take the interstate.

The downhill ride was fun and it took me past several orchards and into Mosier. The first store i come to is an ice cream shop, Have to fill up and cool down. Besides, this diet will soon come to an end and it will be back to a much more limited and conservative diet. Yum, strawberry.

After Mosier, continue on to the Historic Columbia River Highway Trail. Another fun and scenic trail through the woods. Many more bikes and walkers to deal with, but all were courteous.

This is where the squirrel incident occurs. As I am pedaling along, I see a grey blur from the left. Then, it is literally underneath me as it ran between the front and rear wheels of my bike. Lucky for both of us that it made it through, as I am sure it would not have been pretty for either of us.

As the trail ended, and I approached EK, was thinking that he is running behind. So, the curse of a flat tire finally hits him too. I told him about the nice ride he had ahead and of course the ice cream. He let me know where the car was parked and that the interstate was not too bad after Hood River. Not too bad was relevant. Maybe his side was better.

Hood River seemed to be full of wind surfers and shops supporting them. Some hills to also navigate. Then it was off to the interstate for about 15 miles. Most of the time, it was a good, easy ride. But one curve had little shoulder and was a bit scary. Was able to successfully navigate the scary part to then get off and take a side road for the rest of my journey of the day. Cascade Locks seemed to be a sleepy little town. With the heat building, was glad to be finished for the day.