Day 8, 5/16/10 - Cascade Locks to Hood River OR

Just the Basics: A challenging day in every regard, despite being only about 20 miles. We made a reasonably early start - just before 9 - and were shortly on a very lightly travelled back country road through gorgeous forest - see the picture. However, we were shortly faced by a STEEP rise of just over 400' - we did a lot of walking today.

Just before we left the rural road we came to Wyeth Campground - a beautiful USDA/Forest Service camp with, unfortunately, no potable water although it boasts flush toilets! (We carry lots of water and had plenty!)

We decided to take a break and sat for a long time reading. Becky is reading Game Change - Obama and the Clintons, and Riley is really enjoying Ambrose's Undaunted Courage about the Lewis and Clark expediton (especailly Lewis) - so much so that we are going to buy the Kindle edition so that we can read it simultaneously and discuss it as we go along. We plan to mainly read American history along the ride.

We stayed on to enjoy our picnic lunch -last night's leftover pizza, a grapefruit, water and cookies. Lovely. Our picture was taken just before we got to the campground.

The last 13 miles or so were on Interstate 84, mostly fine with great shoulders; where shoulders narrowed, we walked.

We arrived in Hood River around 2 and felt it best to stop - 400 more pretty steep feet to climb before the next possible motel. Hood River is a charming place with lots of neat restaurants and a great bookstore which we have visited in the past, and we spent the afternoon and early evening exploring the town on foot and reading. We sat in a local coffee house we've stopped in before and enjoyed great fair-trade coffee and a delicious lemon scone and read for a long time.

More reading before, during and after dinner in a local cafe - great mac and cheese, a shared beer, and a wonderful spinach salad with fresh pears, candied walnuts and bleu cheese - pears are a major local crop.

We're in a modest motel up on a hill so we can sit by our window and read and blog, et cetera with a lovely view of the Columbia and Mt. Adams. There is a prospect of thunder storms tonight - we've had several sprinkles today - and it would be great to watch one from here!

More steep hills tomorrow so we will only go as far as The Dalles - about 26 miles, about 5 miles on bike trail, most of the rest on the Historic Columbia River Highway.