RAHOO

Joe Turner has organized a ride around Mt Hood for 5 years running now.  It has always been just a boat load of fun.  Today 10 of us made the 137 mile circuit. We started out just past 6AM from Sam Barlow High School.

We took note of the wind direction (always an important consideration when biking in the gorge!) and chose a clockwise ride. All we had to do was keep Mt Hood on our right today!  The sky was a bit cloud covered to start with.

We rode to the Sandy River then took the Historic Columbia River Scenic Highway east.  We stopped briefly to take the obligatory photo.

We continued on past Multnomah Falls.

And continued east of Multnomah Falls.

After a few more miles east  the powers that be are working at connecting the "orphaned" segments of the old highway. While officially closed yet, as a group we decided that the closed sign only applied to the rock patio work at the trail head. We pedaled on.  The new segment is gorgeous.

We did have one section that had not been paved yet, but with hard packed gravel it was very ridable with our skinny tires.

We eventually got to where there was significant work being done on a connection to the old highway.  We practiced our cyclocross skills and got through it.

Once on the old highway again we rode on into Cascade Locks.

Dean had a flat in this section.  We stood around and cheered him on as he changed the tube.

We rode the last mile or so into Cascade Locks



At Cascade Locks we stopped for a quick snack.

Beacon Rock in the distance over the locks

A few miles beyond Cascade Locks we had to get on the shoulder of I-84 for the last 14 miles to Hood River.  We had a brisk tail wind so the discomfort was short lived.

We stopped in Hood River for food.

We started out of Hood River with a turn south, and up the Dee Hwy.



We started getting views of Mt Hood.

Not to be outdone, Mt Adams also was vying for attention.

We were all having a good time.

Well, except for maybe Dean, who had another flat.

The orchards provided a great foreground for photos of Mt Hood.

We stopped again in Parkdale for our last chance to grab snacks and top off water before making the climb up Bennett Pass.

  It was a warm climb today. Even at a more relaxed pace sweating profusely was the order of the day. Here Paula used a small stream to cool off a bit.

 
 We reached Government Camp and stopped for water and restrooms. Our big descent was about to begin.
  As I rolled in the others said that "Thrasher" was there.  Furnace Creek 508 veterans know each other by their "totems".  Mine is Desert Coyote, Eric Troili's is Thrasher, I knew who they were talking about immediately. Thrasher supplied the mantra "focus on finishing, nothing else matters" that I memorized and lived by for my Furnace Creek 508.  Today Thrasher lives in Everett and still rides bike enough, to as he said, stay fit.  He also flys, and was in Oregon to stretch his wings.  It was nice to see him and his wife Desiree.

We then began the fun descent of Hwy 26 toward Sandy.  There was a headwind, enough to scrub about 10 mph from our speed, but 50 mph or 40 mph, it's still a fun ride!

I didn't think to turn the camera on until I was well down the mountain.  By this time I was down to 30 mph and pedaling.



We stopped at the Barlow Inn and had a piece of berry cobbler. Always worth the stop!

We horsed around a bit taking photos of people taking photos.  ;-)

We jumped off Hwy 26 and rode along the Zig Zag River for a few miles.  It was a very enjoyable reprieve.
After a few miles we were back on Hwy 26 until we reached Sandy, then turned on Bluff Rd.  Before too long we arrived at Jonsrud Viewpoint.  It was hard to not be somewhat in awe of just how far away that mountain that we had just biked around was.

Mt Hood with the benefit of telephoto

Mt Hood is really there, just behind a fence rail. :-(

We continued the last few miles back to Sam Barlow.

After the ride we all were invited to Joe's home for a pasta dinner!

Joe Turner photo

It was a taxing, but rewarding day.  All but one of the riders made the full distance, a record.

Fun on bikes!



...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today................137...........0..............0..........0.............137 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
 July...............261................0...............0..........0..............261 Total...........3711.............0...............0..........0.............3711