Saturday, June 26, 2010
It's all uphill from here
Short post: spent a lovely day off with a generous family in Clarkston, WA. Headed for the hills of Idaho. Had a 13 mile 7 percent grade climb. Exhausted. Need more cheese.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Eight days, 350 miles later
I am currently sitting at a computer at the Clarkston Public Library, with only 21 minutes to write this post, which is quickly ticking away as I complete other tasks online. Claire and I have been on the road for eight days, gone from Milwaukee for twelve. We have cycled all the way to the Washington state line and will be in Idaho this afternoon. I'll do my best to summarize the past week in a short paragraph.
We departed from Portland last Friday after being joined by our aunt Sara and uncle Gene who live in Eugene. They are doing their own bicycling trip that will take them around the state of Oregon. We got a late start and headed out to Ainsworth State Park, just a 36 mile ride from Portland. Along the way we stopped at several beautiful scenic overlooks and waterfalls. Our second day took us through Hood River, a small town that wind- and kitesurfers flock to to take advantage of the gusty winds that whip around the Columbia River Gorge. We ended up "dry camping," aka camping not at a campground, outside the town of Mosier, OR. We awoke the next morning to strong winds that were luckily headed in the same direction as us, making our climbs faster for the most part, but making the switchbacks and descents a little hairy at times. We passed through The Dalles and crossed over the river into Washington in order to avoid riding on the interstate, something we had to do for a few miles the previous days. The wind made the river crossing a little scary, and once we passed over the river we still had about three miles to head north with the wind coming from the west. I experienced my first (and thus far only) fall that day. The wind was pushing me so much sideways that I decided to steady myself before it caused me to fall over. I unclipped from my pedals and got my feet on the ground, but not soon enough, as the wind pushed my bike over on top of me. I got a little scraped up, but it wasn't too bad. The wind helped us as we traveled up and down the rolling hills of southern Washington, bringing us to Maryhill State Park where we stayed for the evening and shared a meal with a fellow cyclist headed to St. Louis.
Sara and Gene left us the next day, as they were heading south and Claire and I were continuing our journey west. I was a little nervous to be out on our own, but once we got started I felt more confident. I finally figured out how to use my maps (I had previously been using a Gorge-specific biking map, and was mistaking some numbers on my Adventure Cycling maps for miles when they really weren't) and we made our way westward, stopping in West Roosevelet where we met up with two other cyclists going all the way to New Hampshire. They joined us for the rest of the day and we ended in Crow Butte Park. On day five the heat really got to us, and we only did about 40 miles, crossing back over into Oregon and staying outside of McNary. On day six we re-entered Washington and left the Columbia River and its beautiful scenery. We made it through Walla Walla, a cute little town, and headed through some hellish hills to make it to our campsite outside Waitsburg.
Unfortunately my time is about to run out, so the mundane details of yesterday will have to be excluded. I hope to update soon!
We departed from Portland last Friday after being joined by our aunt Sara and uncle Gene who live in Eugene. They are doing their own bicycling trip that will take them around the state of Oregon. We got a late start and headed out to Ainsworth State Park, just a 36 mile ride from Portland. Along the way we stopped at several beautiful scenic overlooks and waterfalls. Our second day took us through Hood River, a small town that wind- and kitesurfers flock to to take advantage of the gusty winds that whip around the Columbia River Gorge. We ended up "dry camping," aka camping not at a campground, outside the town of Mosier, OR. We awoke the next morning to strong winds that were luckily headed in the same direction as us, making our climbs faster for the most part, but making the switchbacks and descents a little hairy at times. We passed through The Dalles and crossed over the river into Washington in order to avoid riding on the interstate, something we had to do for a few miles the previous days. The wind made the river crossing a little scary, and once we passed over the river we still had about three miles to head north with the wind coming from the west. I experienced my first (and thus far only) fall that day. The wind was pushing me so much sideways that I decided to steady myself before it caused me to fall over. I unclipped from my pedals and got my feet on the ground, but not soon enough, as the wind pushed my bike over on top of me. I got a little scraped up, but it wasn't too bad. The wind helped us as we traveled up and down the rolling hills of southern Washington, bringing us to Maryhill State Park where we stayed for the evening and shared a meal with a fellow cyclist headed to St. Louis.
Sara and Gene left us the next day, as they were heading south and Claire and I were continuing our journey west. I was a little nervous to be out on our own, but once we got started I felt more confident. I finally figured out how to use my maps (I had previously been using a Gorge-specific biking map, and was mistaking some numbers on my Adventure Cycling maps for miles when they really weren't) and we made our way westward, stopping in West Roosevelet where we met up with two other cyclists going all the way to New Hampshire. They joined us for the rest of the day and we ended in Crow Butte Park. On day five the heat really got to us, and we only did about 40 miles, crossing back over into Oregon and staying outside of McNary. On day six we re-entered Washington and left the Columbia River and its beautiful scenery. We made it through Walla Walla, a cute little town, and headed through some hellish hills to make it to our campsite outside Waitsburg.
Unfortunately my time is about to run out, so the mundane details of yesterday will have to be excluded. I hope to update soon!
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