In search of a dry place to ride.......

.......and found it!


My brother-in-law Dave and I traveled to Lyle, Washington today to do a little scouting of an area I am to lead a club ride on in a few weeks. We choose to do that today because there was a 90% chance of rain in Portland... and there is a reason that the east side of the Cascade Mountains is a desert. :-)

We drove through the Columbia Gorge with the windshield wipers on the whole way.


As we traveled eastward we began to see a few signs of drier times ahead.


By the time we reached Lyle, the sky above was mostly blue with just a few clouds, and dry roads!

We unloaded bikes and started off. The first 5 miles toward Centerville climbed 1500 ft.
here we look over the Klickitat River back to the Columbia River

After a bit of climbing we reached the top.



It was nice to be in new country. The roads were low traffic, and just like Eastern Oregon the vast majority of drivers waved at us as they passed. (with all their fingers, and smiles on their faces!)

We were in arid country, we pedaled across this high treeless plain heading toward Hwy 97.



We began to see power generation windmills and knew what that meant.


As the morning progressed we picked up a tailwind. We were riding along in the low to mid 20's mph with just about zero effort. We smiled, but knew it meant we'd be pushing against that wind on the way back.

We saw a lot of wildlife today, redtailed hawks, osprey, mule deer, wild turkeys, and countless squirrels and smaller creatures.



This was a scouting trip and we found that our planned route was on gravel roads, so we stayed on Centerville Hwy all the way to Hwy 97. Hwy 97 had more traffic as we expected, but also has wide shoulders and good sightlines. We never felt unsafe as we made our way to Goldendale.

We stopped in Goldendale for a bite to eat and a chance to top off our water bottles. We then turned into the wind and rode toward the town of Klickitat. We dropped of the plateau on a fun 4 mile descent and then followed the Klickitat River as it made it's way toward the Columbia River. At one stretch the river squeezed through a narrow slot in the lava flow in a very spectacular fashion.


We arrived back in Lyle, completing our loop with 70.68 miles. With the early climbing and the later headwinds it was tougher than it should have been, but we had dry roads all day, while our Willamette Valley friends were getting soaked.

We stopped in Bingen for pizza then continued west toward Portland. There was little question what we were heading back into.


It was a good ride today, made even better by riding through a new area, and staying dry!


.........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........71..............0.............0..........0...........71
Jan.........105.............34.............0..........0..........139
Feb.........428............108.............0.........24..........536
March.......334..............0.............0..........0..........334
YTD.........867............142.............0.........24.........1023