Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Monday, July 25, Biggs Junction, Oregon
The world wasn't built for bicyclists. The hazards for us are both natural (hills, head-
winds) and man-made (bridges, speeding truckers hauling double trailers, fishtailing
RVs). On a long-distance ride, a bite of anxiety accompanies every turn onto a new road.
What awaits?
Still, forces tend to align favorably just about every day, at least for a while. At
one particularly frustrating moment on Day 3 of the trip, after I'd gotten lost climbing
around in the hills southeast of Portland, I was trying to find my way to the town of
Estacada and my GPS stopped getting a signal. I pretty much picked a road at random,
followed it around a corner, and found myself staring at a postcard view of snowcapped
Mount Hood. That was more than enough to keep my spirits up.
Anyway, every day it's a bit of a dance, a bargaining session with the universe: your
legs are jelly and your will is wavering and suddenly there's a gorgeous mountain to look
at; then you find an hour's great ride and pay for it with a dizzying climb, a rough road,
or heavy traffic.
As it happens, I had a generally delightful ride up the Columbia River gorge, a stretch
of seventy-five miles or so, climbing, dipping, and winding through the woods and high
over the water between Troutdale and The Dalles, Oregon.
