Columbia gorge to Mosier

Monday 4/23 Day 3
Believe it or not but I woke up today feeling pretty good. First thing on our agenda was getting some breakfast so we went to an i hop style breakfast and got a ton of food. Now rising through Portland is not that desirable. Even though it is a biker friendly place it still can be a bit scary riding with all the traffic. There was only one close call with a car coming to close and Pete was called an asshole only once. So our goal was to get out onto the old historic Columbia gorge high way as soon as possible.
We made one stop at a bike shop to get the tubes u needed. And it was here where u figured out the written on my tire meant. I knew that the size of the tube was written on the tire but on mine it is written in both standard and metric back to back. I thought I needed the whole thing for my tire haha. So in case you were wondering I need a 700x32c presto long valve. They were out of those so I got one size smaller and one short valve, one will work until I find the long stem.

Me  Multnomah Falls

At about eleven we made it out of the city and started a climb up the gorge. After about 1000 feet of elevation gain we leveled off to an overlook over the gorge. It was one of the most beautiful sites I have seen. It reminded me of the fiords in Norway but not as sharp. On the way down the backside it was a winding road with one side being a stone wall covered in moss and the other side was the mountain. It was covered in trees so we were riding in shade. Now throughout the road there are huge waterfalls some of the largest in the world and as we cruised into the first one I got another flat tire haha but this time I changed it in about ten minutes. Now a professional at it. It seems we also have a three day streak of flat tires lets hope that does not continue. We stopped at two water falls on the way down the first I forgot the name be the second one was I believe was waloma or maloma falls ok I forgot the name and I don't have Internet to look it up, but look up the largest waterfall in Oregon. ***(looked it up, it is Multnomah falls, I was close)

On the old Highway, same for the next one

There was two parts to our final stretch into Hood River the first being able to ride on a section of the old highway that had been turned into a bike path even cooler than the first part of the day. Pete and I were the only ones on it, besides a friendly homeless man who was camping out of the city for the night. The road had tiny bridges with enough room for only one car, beautiful cliff drops to one side of the road, and an interesting moss that covered the path. The other half of the ride was on interstate 84. About twelve miles of trucks and cars whizzing past at 75 mph. I put my head down during this section and tried to go as fast as I could.

We had an appointment to meet Kris, our warm showers host at the local bike shop so we went there. Now u told you in the last post I would explain warm showers. If you have heard of couch surfing it is that but for bikers only. (www.warmshowers.org) If you have not heard of couch surfing, warn showers is a website that you create a profile and search for people willing to host you at there home for a night or two or sometimes longer. They may t a bed, food, laundry, transportation, and of course a shower. It is also international so if you bike abroad it is a great tool, it specifies which languages the host speaks. So Kris took us to her place and made us some dinner gave us a warm shower and offered us advice in paths we should take the next day. In Tuesday Pete and I would be separating, he would go bake to bend and I decided to go north and fight the snow if I had to. We chatted with Kris till a out 11, she's Does contract work with computers and she spends a lot of time touring the world on a bike. She's been to Asia, South America, Europe, and Australia. She offered us advice in packing bikes to be shipped and also how to make a stove out of a tuna can and cat food can. Look it up.
We think the total miles today was about seventy if not a little more and believe I or not the sorest part of my body is my neck. thanks to my brooks saddle my butt feels great!!!!