gambled... and won!

The weather gurus predicted rain in the Willamette Valley. I decided that a weekend of riding on the dry side of the Cascade Mountains might be just the ticket.

I arrived in Hood River following the late night out just as the sun was rising.


Today I was joined by Ken and we rode the Cherry Ride route in The Dalles. There were a few clouds but no rain. There was a very brisk wind though!

We began pedaling in Hood River and made our way along the Historic Hwy...
and through the Mosier Twin Tunnels
before beginning the climb of the 1802 ft 7 Mile Hill.


We zoomed down the east side of 7 Mile Hill buffeted by winds to Chenowith Creek Rd where we learned that what goes down must go back up! We rode to Cherry Heights then down to The Dalles where we stopped at a grocery store to rest and resupply.

We then rode along the Columbia River and past The Dalles Dam then began climbing away from the Columbia River up into the rolling wheat country on the Columbia Plateau.


There is a beauty in Oregon's dry side of the state that really must be seen to be appreciated.



Ken had some time constraints so we skipped the out and back on the upper end of the course saving ourselves about 10 miles. We came back down 8 Mile Creek but the wind kept us about 10-15 mph slower than we'd normally be going.

We got back to The Dalles and got onto a water front multi-use path.


After a few miles of that we returned to the Historic Hwy and started toward Rowena Crest.




We rode the graceful Rowena Loops up to Rowena Crest.


We retraced the route through the Mosier Twin Tunnels and arrived back in Hood River with 20 minutes to spare for Ken's hoped for departure time.

I had no such constraints so I pedaled off in search of 11 miles.

Mission accomplished. ;-)

It was a tough ride today, plenty of climbing was expected. The wind was no surprise, but hadn't been planned on. The wind was near 30 mph at times, enough to buffet us around and make pedaling difficult. I had leg warmers on all day and arm warmers for most of it. Once again I learned that when I'm a bit too warm I don't pedal well. Ken is a strong rider and made me earn every mile today.

You can see all the photos of today's ride HERE



.........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.......100..............0.............0..........0.........100
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......502..............0.............0..........0.........502
April.......524..............0.............0..........0.........524
May........1003..............0.............0..........0........1003
June.......1016..............0............10..........0........1026
July.......1148..............0.............0..........0........1148
August.....1049..............0.............0..........0........1049
Sept.......1153..............0............50..........0........1213
Oct.........100..............0.............0..........0.........100
YTD........7405..............0............87..........7........7589