Two days of cycling

I`ve fallen a bit behind in the blog, so I`ll consolidate Sunday and Monday here.

On Sunday, we left Ainsworth State Park heading east to Ft. Hood.  We had a very pleasant time at the park due to our campmates.  Erich from Texas was riding across the country from Oregon to Maine.  Christa and Kurt were from Portland and were out on a weekend tour.  They had just ridden the section we were going to ride on Sunday and so were able to give us some valuable tips.  The first part of our ride was on a new section of trail, not even on the map yet.  There were a couple of places that were not complete yet and we had to portage the bikes.  Thanks to the info we got from Christa, we knew it was passable.  We eventually had to get on the Interstate 84 because there are portions where Hwy 30, which is the old highway and scenic route, merges with I-84.  It is permissible for bikes to use the interstate in these places, though it isn`t particularly pleasant riding.  There are wide shoulders, but the traffic is very noisy.  We were quite pleased when that portion of the trip came to an end.  We had experienced this once before in Wyoming when no other road was available. Same experience.  

If you have seen the pictures, you also saw the set of stairs we had to descend.  There were approximately 5-6 full flights.  We unloaded the bikes because we knew we couldn`t control them on the way down otherwise.  Then we had to pack the panniers down and reload.  Still a better experience than riding on the interstate.

We arrived in Hood River around 3:00 and called our hosts, Carol and Pete, who arranged to meet us.  Bicycles cannot cross the river bridge so they drove over to pick us up.  They have been the most generous and gracious hosts to us.  They have given us a nice place to sleep, plied us with delicious food and drink, and given us a wealth of information to help us plan our tour.  And today they even loaned us their car so we could cross over the bridge to do a day ride.  

Today, Monday, we rode from Hood River to the Rowena Plateau.  We have posted some pictures.  This was a lovely ride partly on trail and partly on the scenic highway.  For a great part of the ride, we were right along the river with amazing views.  We also rode through some orchards where folks were picking cherries.  It`s cherry season here.  This is as far east as we will ride on the gorge.  Tomorrow we head south on our way to Government Camp, stopping part way to camp tomorrow night.  We will be riding part of what is known as the fruit loop.  There are many orchards along this route, so we are hoping to have opportunities to stop and sample some of the harvest.  

We`ve had 3 days of beautiful weather.  Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so it will be a different experience.  Oh, well.  We will still be riding our bicycles!

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