Today was a day of change. I rode through some amazing areas and huge changing biomes, and finally my brain started to switch into bike touring mode.
Tours are best when you change your thought process to think that biking all day is all you'll ever do and all you've ever done. It really helps to redefine yourself for awhile. That's hard to do on a short trip like this where the end is mapped out even before you start - but it can be done a bit. It's still hard to not feel like an imposter, being set up with enough gear to go for months and thousands of miles, but you need the same gear for a 2-week trip too.
Today was 78 miles, 6:13 on bike, and I got into camp around 6:30pm with an 8am leave time. (Info like that is often more for me in the future).
Immediately upon leaving Wyeth I met another bagger who had apparently stayed there last night but we hadn't seen each other. Weird. He's from the UK and started in Denver and is heading to Portland and then BC. He probably had a rough day today due to winds.
I had a great day though! The wind blew all night out of the west, so I woke up to a 15 mph tailwind. Later it became a 25 mph tailwind. That's insane. At times I was doing 40 mph and not feeling any wind. Occasionally I turned and it turned into a side wind that slowed me to 5mph. I can't imagine riding in to it. It's still blowing now as I type this, and will blow all day tomorrow. Yeesh. Breaks are no-longer about where I can find shade, but are entirely about finding wind blocks!
The Colombia Gorge Bike Route took me on 10 miles of interstate today to Hood River, then a sweet bike trail to Mosier through the Mosier Tunnels (this used to be the old highway), then a almost deserted road to Rowen Overlook (see picture), and then a nice road to the Dalles. There the Gorge route ended and I was doing my own route finding.
I got to the Dalles at 40 miles and 1pm, so I decided to keep going and cut down tomorrows planned 70 mile day. I spent about 1.5 hours in the Dalles farting around at Fred Meyers, then headed over the bridge (great view of Mt Hood, the smoke all blew away) to Highway 14 in Washington. Ariel, Karen, Minwah, and I stayed right across the river back in 2007.
A fast crazy tailwinded 17 miles later through river-side desert got to Maryhill State Park, but they wanted 30 bucks for hiker/biker camping, and the spot wasn't much better than a ditch. There were car camping spots for cheaper. Fuck those guys. I even tried to negotiate with the campground host, saying that is must be a mistake. He didn't care.
It was right across the river from Biggs Junction, and I knew there were truck stops there I could sleep at. I figured I'd find a wind break and sleep in the parking lot amongst the sleeping truckers. The bridge over was crazy! No sidewalk, and a side wind that sounded like a freight train. The gust must have been over 40 mph, I couldn't ride a straight line.
Biggs kinda sucked, so I figured 7 more miles southwest to Wasco through a canyon couldn't be too bad. It had a slight uphill, and usually a tailwind, except a few spots where the canyon got confused and kicked my ass. I got here in less than an hour.
Camping was interesting. They have two parks, one nice, one not, and the not nice one says no camping. It's a tiny tiny town though. I asked a local what was up and she ended up inviting me to stay in a lot by her house. It even has a wind break! Score!
Today was a pretty great day. Although, near the end I discovered they my new pack system puts stress on my ukulele in a different spot and I cracked the face of it. Damn. It made it over 4,000 miles on my bike before breaking. I think I can fix it in Eugene though.
ILYI
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