Day 10 – June 10, 2015
Hood River to Maryhill State Park – 50.08 miles
Bumble Bee – Audrey:
This was a great day. The miles were long and the weather hot, temps tipping the just over 85 for most of the day. But, the ride, it was spectacular. Just out of Hood River we climbed for a couple of miles then came upon the Historic Columbia River Gorge Trail. A bike path made for the Gods. It was high above the noisy interstate 84 with only a handful of bicyclists and that’s it. Beautiful. With every turn another magnificent view of the mighty Columbia. We stopped and took loads of pictures and did some filming with the Sony action camera mounted onto Gregg’s handle bar and the larger Sony HDR camera.
As we snaked down the serpentine road we got to the little town of Mosier. It seems to be really bike friendly with various sculptures and even a little “park” with bike tools and a pump. Really cool. I have to say Oregon is really the best when it comes to cycling. One of the coolest things is that the cars just automatically stop for you when you are trying to cross. Amazing!
Well after the Rowena Lookout and the long descent we were back on the river level winding along a country road. That was nice but we were a little concerned as our water was running out. Rowena itself had not facilities. We had a half bottle each left in our water bottles. Gregg said that if it gets bad we will just have to knock on someones door and ask for water. Or, we just find a garden hose, which is not really what I would want to do as I have read so much about the toxins in the rubber of the hoses. I feel bad filling the dogs water bowls from the garden hose so why would I drink from one. But, if we are really desparate in these super dry areas we must resort to survival techniques.
We managed to get on a small Riverside Trail bike path that took us into The Dalles. The Dalles is a town made famous for its huge dam that powers millions up and down the river. I would assume that even Portland gets some of its power from this dam. We resupplied here since we looked at the map and saw that we had many many miles with no stores. Dinner – 2 nights, lunch, and breakfast. I liked the curry so much that I bought ground Bison, cream, brocolini, cilantro, and a frozen bag of hash browns – which doubles as a cooling pack for the meat. I also found some locally smoked salmon, a bag of tuna, some pasta, a little box of cajun dirty rice, an avocado, one Vidalia onion, bunch of green onions, an apple, olive oil, a small loaf of bread, 4 instant cups of oatmeal, and a Columbia Valley Maryhill Merlot. We were set. Couldn’t fit everything so Gregg strapped his little backpack to his back for extras.
Then we hit the road, just another 25 miles to go — most of those were on the Interstate 84. This time the shoulder was wide the whole time and we had a tail wind that kept us at a steady clip of about 15-18 mph without much effort. About 5 miles into it we came across 2 young guys who had tire flat problems. Gregg got off his bike and showed them how to check their tires for issues, the most important of which is check inside the tire for debris. Sure enough he found the culprit a wire from a steel thread tire. Those things are nasty and hard to find, but easy to get when you have the thin road tires one of the young men was riding with.
Got to Biggs (which is actually small!) and stopped at the a little shop to buy cold beer, some water and Gregg got some chocolate milk. Then it was over the little 2 lane bridge to the campsite at Maryhill. Made it. Good day today. We even met up with the 2 young fellows who joined us at the hiker biker. All good. Now just a good night’s sleep and we will be ready to go tomorrow for another 50+ mile day.
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