Deschutes State Park, OR
Above: This is a bike trail??
Above: A train snakes up the gorge.
Above: East of Hood River, OR. They say that for every mile East that you go, the annual rainfall drops by an inch. From what I saw, that’s not an exaggeration.
Tuesday, 6/13 9pm
Location: Deschutes State Park, OR
Coordinates:
45.6304 N
120.9092 W
Today’s mileage: about 70
Tomorrow’s destination: Crow Butte State Park
By far, the most fascinating thing about today was the dramatic change in the landscape as I rode east. I began the day only about three miles from a waterfall, and everything around me was green and damp. By the end of the day, the hillsides had become brown and almost barren. Parts of the Columbia River Gorge here look like a scene from West Texas.
I keep surprising myself with how freakin’ long it takes me to get on the road in the morning. I slept until 8am, and I didn’t get on the road until 11:30. On top of that, I got a flat a few miles after leaving, so I didn’t really get going until after noon. I’m going to try my best to get on the road by 10:30 tomorrow.
At about 3pm today, I stopped at a Dairy Queen in Hood River for lunch (Blizzards are engineered for the nutritional demands of high endurance sports activities, in case you didn’t know). Hood River seems like a cool little town. Lots of windsurfing, and there’s a good local bike shop. Anyway, at the Dairy Queen, a guy wearing spandex walked up to me and told me that today is the first day of his cross-country bike trip. He started in Portland this morning, and he’s heading to North Carolina. The guy, named Reid, is amazing/crazy! His flight into Portland arrived at 2am last night, and his first day of riding today was 80 miles. He’s planning to average 100 miles a day. Did I mention that he’s in his 50’s? He’s traveling a lot lighter than I am, but that’s still incredible. Somehow, he has managed to limit his belongings to around 20 lbs (versus my over 50 lbs). Plus, he’s riding a carbon fiber race bike. I sure hope the bike doesn’t break down on him. He rode off ahead of me, but a few hours later, I rode by him in The Dalles, as he was walking to dinner. The chances of me riding by him just as he was walking to dinner seem really small, but on this trip, coincidence seems to be the norm. We’re both planning to camp out at the same spot tomorrow night, so it’ll be fun to chat with him there.
I’m camped out right now about 20 feet from the banks of the Deschutes River. The temperature is perfect, and there are no mosquitos. There’s a family in the campsite next to mine singing songs, and the dad is strumming along on an acoustic guitar. Luckily, they’re pretty good. Things could be worse…
Tags: Travel
daviddmcmillan