Day 3

its sunday, sitting in mcdonald's, at the dalles, in order to access wi-fi.  Aaargghh!

Yesterday was an incredible day.  we did about everything you can do over the course of 80 mi., except have an accident or bike trouble.  we rode across the columbia river on the I-205 bridge, which has a center bikeway, 3 la nes of traffic on each side.  the bridge is fairly long, sloping down to portland most of the way.
We rode almost the full length of the historic columbia river highway (hcrh), troutdale to hood river, and covered 80 miles for the day.  during which we had a 900 foot climb rewarded by some incredible views up the gorge; stopped at a rural lunch spot; mingle with tourists at crown poiont and got stuck in the traffic jamb at the waterfalls, came across over a hundred cyclists  doing training runs on the hcrh, including over a score of tandem cyclists (why are the men always driving?); walked our bikes over plywood and metal planks at a construction site (yes, john, i can find the roughest routes even here), carried our bikes down several flights of stairs located in the middle of the bike path, rode on the interstate, including a couple of harrowing spots where the shoulder is only 3' wide; and, trying to avoid the interstat, made a several hundred foot climb on herman creek road that jim says was hors categorie (beyond category, i.e. very steep).  we ended it all with dinner and a couple of beers at the full sail brewery in hood river.

Of course, it didn't quite end there, because we didn't have a place to sleep.  no campgrounds and all the local hotels were full, it being saturday, july 4th weekend.  so, at 9:00pm, i convinced jim to head out of town and find some place to sleep on the side of the road.  Immediately we had to climb a series of switchbacks to the top of a hill.  there we were able to slip into a day use state park, continue for another mile or so along the hcrh bike trail until we found a nice place, just after dusk.

a long day.  we were tired.