SOOS "Rahoo"

I ride around Mt Hood every year.  Most of the time I ride with a group of friends who have dubbed the ride "RAHOO", roughly an acronym for "Ride Around Mt Hood".  They have even come up with a pretty cool jersey. (I'll take a photo of mine and post it when I get back home)

This year I won't be able to ride with them as the chosen date conflicts with my crew chief duty for Steven Burns at the Hoodoo 500.

I still wanted to ride around Mt Hood.

All of the above verbiage can pretty much be ignored, just know that Ken and I biked around Mt Hood today. Given that Ken has been sick and off the bike for the last month, and I'm old and out of shape, we dubbed today's ride "The SOOS Ride" (sick, old, and out of shape ride)

We started from Main City Park in Gresham. In addition to a popular skate park it is adjacent to the Springwater Trail.  We'd be coming back in on the Springwater, but first took off toward Stark Street and the bridge over the Sandy River.

We started up the Historic Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway.

We climbed up to Women's Forum Park.  It was probably all mental, but with the daunting miles and elevation gain we were looking at today, this little 1000 ft hill felt insignificant.

We continued on past the Vista House picking up speed as we descended back to river level.  There were some clouds that were predicted to clear out by late morning. There was no threat of rain, and the cooler temperatures were welcomed.

Before long we rolled into Multnomah Falls, where we made a brief stop to water/dewater.

Shortly after leaving Multnomah Falls we arrived at the reopened Oneonta Tunnel.

We pedaled past a number of waterfalls, including Horsetail Falls.

After Ainsworth State Park we accessed the newly constructed connector.  When Interstate 84 was built in the 1960's the old Columbia Gorge Highway was sacrificed.  As the water level interstate was built it orphaned many segments of the old highway, and destroyed many features, including the famous "Tunnel of Many Vistas", the Mitchell Point Tunnel

The Friends of the Historic Columbia River Highway and Historic Columbia River Highway Advisory Committee have made it a priority to reconnect all the segments by 2016, the 100th anniversary of the opening of the old highway.  They've done a good job keeping all the new construction matching the look of the original features.

Here we crossed McCord Creek on a new bridge.

We continued along the old highway, here called the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail.

The old road is left hanging at Tooth Rock, where a stairs now brings us back down to river level, where the road used to descend a now non existent grade.

We continued eastward on the HCRC State Trail for a few more miles before having to get on the shoulder of Interstate 84 for the last 7 miles to Hood River.

The shoulder was wide, and traffic accommodating. We soon were riding past Mitchell Point, where the road grade of the now gone Mitchell Point Tunnel can still be seen.

With the aid of a tailwind we arrived in Hood River quickly.  We grabbed "second breakfast" and refilled water bottles.  Talk during breakfast centered around our impending ride conditions which involved significant climbing, and the end of the tailwind that we had enjoyed up to this point.

We started up the Hood River Valley, and were rewarded for our climbing with some nice views.

Mt Adams

Mt Hood

The Hood River Valley is a famous fruit growing area.  Mostly famous for pears, there are also many cherry orchards, and the red cherries were in full splendor.

We arrived in Parkdale, our last stop for resupply before making the long pull up to Bennett Pass,  near 4800 ft elevation.

Ice cream and chocolate milk worked, and a refill of water bottles.  After leaving Parkdale we took the optional route, with bonus climbing, up to Cooper Spur.  It was more scenic, and brought us to Highway 35 seven miles farther up the hill.

Ken used a water faucet at Cooper Spur to top off his water.  He was working harder than I!

We dropped down to Highway 35 and continued the climb up to Bennett Pass.

While the road was busier, there was still some good scenery.

East Fork of Hood River

It was not a steep climb, but relentless.  I climbed slowly, at times excruciatingly so.  Ken was stronger on the hills.  He waited for me, though I told him I knew the way, and had lights along if necessary.  He even got a short nap in at the top of Bennett Pass!  Me?  I just pedaled.

We descended from Bennett Pass losing several hundred feet in elevation, on the way to White River.

We climbed back up to Government Camp and then began the 6 mile long at 6% descent, followed by generally descending all the way back to Gresham.  What had been a tailwind in the morning was now a headwind as we headed west.  It kept our speed reduced to just under 40 mph as we rolled down the hill. There were a lot of orange barrels and construction equipment staged for a road project that is slated to begin on Monday.  We were glad we got through there today.

We continued down Hwy 26, taking parallel roads where possible.  They were quieter, and more scenic.

Just west of Sandy we took the turn to Boring

  From there we jumped on the end of the Springwater Trail and rode it back to Gresham where we finished up the ride.  I was tired, even Ken said it was a workout for him.  All in all, a good ride!

 ..........road bike..........rollers........mtb.........lifecycle....total
Today.........145...............0..............0...............0...........145 Jan............710................0..............0...............0...........710
Feb........... 578...............0..............0...............0............578
March ...........701.............0..............0...............0............701
April..........749.................0..............0...............0..........749
May...........613.................0..............0...............0...........613
June............309...............0..............0...............0...........309
July...............145...............0..............0...............0............145
 Total..........3713...............0..............0...............0..........3713