June 2, Tuesday, Hood River, OR to Wash. State

Campsite at about mile post 120 in WA state, just east of Biggs Dam.

We rose at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast at a local bar. After we headed through the City of Hood River, we realized that if we had traveled a few miles past the Vagabond Inn, we could have saved quite a bit of cash on our first night of paid lodging, by renting a cheaper room in Hood River. From here, we headed east on the Columbia R. historic highway for about 8 miles. These beautiful road is open only to joggers and bicyclists, and believe me, we saw quite a few of both. Twenty-seven miles later we entered “The Dalles”, which is the French name for “rapids” which use to be here before the Columbia River was dammed to harness its power for electricity. Then we pedaled 10.5 miles on I-84. We lunched at Biggs, OR and crossed the Columbia at the Biggs Dam, crossing into Washington, and then went up the hill to the north side of the gorge. The hill up from the gorge was steep and busy. Tom was able to pedal up, but I had to walk due to the steep climb, and heavy traffic. My recumbent is much more difficult to power up hills due to its lower center of gravity, long wheelbase, and the fact that the rider cannot stand over the pedals for additional power.

At the top of the gorge, the wind began its constant push against us. The winds held us to ten miles per hour or so as we headed east. We had been very wrong in our assumption that in pedaling from the west coast to the east the prevailing winds from the west would benefit us. WE WERE VERY WRONG!

Gary found us pedaling hot and tired at mile 107 on highway 14, not far from Biggs. Gary has a part time job delivering vehicles between car dealers, so he was able to find us pushing against the wind at mile marker 104, where we found a sign, “No gas for 82 miles”, so we knew that there would be no services for quite a few miles. It seemed that we had been pedaling for many miles, but we could still see the Biggs dam. DAMN! Naturally, Gary was a welcome sight. Gary, our first and best angel of our journey, traveled ahead, and found us a nice place to camp at mile marker 120, on hwy 14. He also took Tom back to Biggs, OR to the restaurant where we had eaten lunch about three hours ago. Tom bought us both a boxed dinner for each of us for our dinner. We camped under bright stars, ate dinner, listened to the lake water lapping against the sandy shore, and watched an eagle circle overhead searching for his dinner. Paul rinsed his sweat stained clothes in the lake before we slept under the stars.

Today, we biked 70 miles, averaging only 10 miles per hour into the headwind. We’re in the treeless zone now, so the wind has nothing to deter it.