Barbi, Nathaniel, Tony, Joan, Willie, JoyceA little history, Joyce, Joan and Tony ride bikes all the time. Mr. Nathaniel Stairmaster has ridden occasionally and this was my first ride on a bike in, oh say, 15ish years. I was a little out of practice.
We piled out of the trucks west of The Dalles, OR at a point on the Columbia Highway Historic District, hopped on the bikes and took off. Willie quite often counted the bikes out loud for us,
"2 + 3 is 5 bikes". Willie is a really cute, sleepy old man.
Joyce gave us a run down of the ride at breakfast. She did mention the hill, but I apparently didn't quite get what she was explaining. That was good or I would have been really apprehensive. The ride started out level, smooth very easy; about a third of the way into it we hit the incline toward Rowena Crest Viewpoint. By my calculations from the map sitting in front of me, it is about a 600 foot elevation gain. My knees were on fire, my a** already hurt from the bike seat and I was really just learning how to change the gears on the bike. I was greatful for my cheering section, Nathaniel, who kept telling me Natharbi secrets to keep my mind off the pain.
I thought I would die but, I DID IT! Great pride whooshed over me and the motivation to exercise much more welled up (at least at that moment.) Here is the hill looking back down from Rowena crest viewpoint.
The countryside was pretty, not too hot and the views were spectacular.
We continued on and went through Mosier Twin Tunnels.
The rest of the ride was downhill and flat. At some point we stopped for lunch and then finished off meeting Willie in Hood River, OR. This is how we found Willie waiting for us.
Hood River is a cute little recreation town with a great little ice cream place where we treated ourselves. It is apparently the capital of the world for wind sailing and a very busy place this particular holiday weekend.
We were all pretty trounced by the end of the day.
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