Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Day 10, 5/18/10 - The Dalles to Arlington, OR


Just the Basics: Another very good day! 56 miles with quite a bit of climbing and we rolled into Arlington just after 5 p.m. We had made motel reservations in Rufus (about 28 miles), thinking that might well be as far as we'd get, but got there at 12:30 and that was simply too early to quit so we went on. Today's picture shows our bikes with their rain covers on - they are so bright we are just leaving them on to make us even more visible when we're riding; we also both wear bright yellow vests.

The day began with stormy skies but developed into a beautifully clear day with deep blue sky and white clouds. The Columbia was also very blue with little, wind-generated white caps everywhere. We are leaving the lush green vegetation of the wet parts of OR and seeing more and more of the familiar shrub-steppe we know so well in the Tri-Cities: balsam root, fiddlenecks, lupine, phlox, and mustard. The interplay of sun and shadow on the basalt of the cliffs that line this part of the Gorge has entranced us throughout the day and the occasional meadows are a delight - in one short stretch we saw 4 deer!

We spent almost all of the day on Interstate 84 - noisy, but with very wide shoulders and the wind at our backs to help push us up the hills. It is amazing how many truck drivers kindly changed lanes to give us a very wide berth, even though the shoulders were more than adequate! We celebrated today's ride with Full Sail Amber (brewed in Hood River, OR!) and Salsa Verde Doritos, sitting by an open window in our motel room and feeling very happy. Tonight's dinner will be microwaved here in the room, too.

We plan to go about 50 miles again tomorrow, hopefully to Umatilla, and, more hopefully, to a campground on US 730, just past Umatilla for our first camping night with all our fancy new ultra-light gear!

3 comments:

  1. Hi, Grandma and Grandpa! Wow- camping! Will you toast marshmallows? Thinking of you.
    Love,
    Iz
    :-)

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  2. @Iz: Hi, Iz! Nice to hear from you. We ended up not camping tonight - it looks like rain and we are tired, having cycled 100 miles total in the last 2 days, so we'll camp later!

    Probably no marshmallows or somemores =( On the bikes we just can't cary much extra food and a box of graham crackers plus a bag of marshmallows would take up too much space. Darn!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh. I agree. Darn!
    love,
    Iz :-o

    ReplyDelete