June 9: Hood River to Biggs OR

Today's ride covered the western half of the Historic Columbia River Highway route and also the western part of the Columbia River Gorge. We awoke this morning to another clear day, with the wind blowing 15-20 mph from the west, giving us a strong tailwind all day. The Columbia River at Hood River is one of the windiest places in the U. S. People come from all over the world to windsurf there. But no one was on the river as we left this morning.

We started with a climb up a few switchbacks to the start of a bike-only stretch of the historic highway. Last year we cycled that segment on our car trip through the area, and also a few miles of the road to the east. Today, we continued climbing, with continuous beautiful views of the river below, to a spectacular overlook above Rowena, where we met three cyclists riding the same direction, who were training for this summer's annual ride from Seattle to Portland. They gave us some tips about the route ahead in Oregon.

Then it was a fast descent to The Dalles and the end of the Historic Highway.

At The Dalles, the scenery changed dramatically. The towering high cliffs along both sides of the river gave way to lower, rounder mountains. And the green forests farther west, which I mentally associate with Oregon, suddenly disappeared. The hills are brown and dry. Evidently we have moved past the wet coastal marine climate zone. And we have done so without any rain, except a few misty drops on our very first day.

After lunch at The Dalles, our route put us on I-84 for ten miles. We covered that pretty quickly with the highway's easy grades and the wind behind us, but we were still glad to finish the last interstate segment for a while. Big trucks roaring by a few feet away are unsettling. A few miles later we reached Biggs, which isn't more than a highway intersection with a very few fast food places and inexpensive motels.

We stopped at Biggs even though it was early in the day and we'd only covered 47 miles, because there is nowhere else within reasonable reach. From Biggs to the next town, Umatilla, is about 90 miles, with no motels and only one campground in between them. So we rested the remainder of today, and tomorrow's ride looks like a short one, to West Roosevelt's city park campground.

Total for the day, 47 miles with 2400' of climbing. None of today's climbs were leg-breakers. We can haul our gear up long 5% grades steadily, but at 10% we run out of steam fast. We'll just have to see how many of the steep ones lie ahead.

We are feeling good after four days on the road; legs a little sore but no signs of fatigue.

Sandy chatting with cyclists we met above Rowena: