US and Canada Tour

Roz and Stan's big trip for 2015

Page 2 (1-4 June)

Mon 1 Jun 2015

Portland to Cascade Locks

Today:82km Total:82km

82km today with one major hill (300m). A long day considering we were still jetlagged and it rained a bit at the end.

We asked the guy at the hostel to take a photo of us for the first day of the trip. We will be returning to this hostel at the end of the trip so it will be interesting to take a similar photo then to compare with this one..

There were good bike paths out of Portland.

Our first look at the Columbia river that we will be following for the next few days.

We liked these floating houses. We were initially a bit puzzled at the 'garages' but then worked out that they are for driving your boat into - cool!.

More Columbia River shots.

For some reason I really liked this wall covered in red moss..

Some great views from Vista House - but my panorama shots don't show it so well.

The guide told us that the original road was built with tourists in mind to pass by all the waterfalls.

Our first chipmunk on this trip. I'm sure we'll see plenty more.

Tue 2 Jun 2015

Cascade Locks to Maryhill

Today:102km Total:184km

We had a rainy night and a wet start to a long 102km day. The first thing we had to do was cross this bridge. It is called the 'Bridge of the Gods'. I'm sure they have their reasons for calling that - but I had my own reasons to pray when crossing it. It consisted of metal grating - like you sometimes get on steps, so looking down you could see the river a long way below. I'm somewhat scared of heights so riding on slippery, see-through metal wasn't my idea of fun. I didn't look down and just kept pedalling.

Some pics from the road.

There were a few short tunnels which had no shoulder on them to ride on. This was pretty scary because as soon as you got into the dark bit the cars and trucks on the road couldn't see you (although we did put our back lights on) and the lanes were very narrow so there was no room for them to overtake and stay on the right side of the road so if something else is coming the other way they would hit you. The speed limit on this road is pretty fast. There wasn't a lot of traffic but enough. (Outside the tunnels there was a wide shoulder to ride on and it was no problem).

They also had this system where cyclists had to push a button before going into the tunnel which lit up the yellow bicycle sign shown here - but whether the other road users understood that the lights meant that cyclists were in the tunnel is doubtful.

More pics from the road.

Wed 3 Jun 2015

Maryhill to Crow Butte

Today:95km Total:279km

Another easy day of riding- apart from 15km of gravel road leaving Maryville first thing this morning. Then a bit of an uphill but with a great tailwind and generally flat.

We stopped for a break at Roosevelt and for were asked to sign the visitors' book in the cafe there. The owner said that she has been amazed how many touring cyclists stop there (It is the only store in about 100km so I would imagine that any passing cycling would call in for a drink at least).

She has a visitor book just for cyclists and it was pretty thick and made for some interesting reading. Lots of cyclists seem to have their own business cards or postcards about their trip - what a cool idea - maybe I'll have to get some of those made once we are in a big town again!

Lovely campsite at Crow Butte - and a hot sunny day to get the laundry done.

I decided to try Stan's method of doing laundry during bike trips. Just walk into the shower with your clothes on and use the liquid soap we have that is for both clothes and bodies. Soap up with your clothes on then remove them to rinse. It did feel a bit weird standing there with my clothes on - but the method worked quite well so I think I'll keep using it.

Stan didn't tell me about this sign at the campsite or his photo of it until we had left the next day.

Thu 4 Jun 2015

Crow Butte to Umatilla

Today:51km Total:330km

A short flat day so we could arrive by lunchtime and have a bit of time off.

As we were leaving the campsite this morning we saw this house on a hill - someone's castle!

Some shots from the road

I'm riding ahead on this road somewhere.

Stan had warned me that when there are only small towns there is not much food to choose from to cook with. This town (Paterson) had an icon of a shopping trolley showing that there was a "supermarket" in the town. This was the total sum of all the food available. I see a lot of canned chicken with canned tomato in my immediate future. There was no fresh fruit or vegetable.

We will stock up when we are in bigger towns but sometimes there may a few days where this is all we will get and you can only carry so much on a bike and stuff that needs refrigeration doesn't last long when it is hot.

Coming into Umatilla someone had an archway with this iron sculpture. Stan liked it so took a photo - I like all of it except for the dead Indian? on the left. But maybe I'm reading it incorrectly.

At Umatilla we stopped in at the visitor center on the way to the campsite and found the friendliest visitor centre I've ever been in. The lady was happy to answer our questions about the location of the supermarket and a cafe where they would be happy for us to sit for a few hours to recharge stuff. And there was a map of the world to pin our home location on and friendly signs about places to see in Oregon - even in the toilets (sorry,... restrooms). And a lovely spot where we could eat our lunch outside.

There was a big cowboy outside the supermarket so we got a shot with him.

Satellite image of all the irrigated fields in the area today.