Mt bike ride around Mt Hood Oregon September 2012

 Portland, OR - Corvallis, OR
(but first.....let's ride around Mt Hood)

Columbia River Gorge



Airport Hotel



It's been awhile since we've been able to get away for a bike trip so when Hap's oldest nephew Bob said he was getting married in Portland OR, it seemed like a perfect opportunity. We have done several bike trips in WA and OR on road bikes so decided to do something different. I heard about a Hut to Hut Mt bike ride around Mt Hood www.cascadehuts.com and thought that sounded like fun. This will be a ride on trails and gravel roads around Mt Hood on our mt bikes (as opposed to our tandem or road bikes). Several years ago we did a Hut to hut trip from Telluride, CO-Moab, UT and had a blast. All we have to carry with us is clothes and tools,parts and a sleep sack and the huts are stocked with the rest. There was a choice of 3,4 or 6 day tours. Well if your gonna go may as well make the most of it, so we signed on for the 6 day trip. Back to the wedding....might as well jfinish by riding on to Corvallis, OR where Hap's family lives and where the wedding was taking place. After we leave the last hut on day 6, instead of riding back to Hood River we will be riding south to Oakridge, OR, spend a couple more days mt biking their trails, and then ride on to Corvallis. Mileage?? Not sure about that yet. We'll let ya'll know when we figure that out! 



Columbia River Gorge



Columbia River Gorge

We flew to Portland OR two days early so that we had a couple of days to get to Hood River, OR, the starting point of the ride. Hood River is east of Portland on the Columbia River.These two days wouldn't be long days, just enough to stretch our legs and spend time riding along the Columbia River. Should be a beautiful ride. The first day was a beautiful sunny day. We had a map of biking the Columbia River Gorge from ODOT so we thought it should be smooth sailing. Maybe 35 miles or so...... have you ever heard the expression "cycling isn't an exact science"? The route said we would be riding on and off of Interstate 84 for most of the day. We opted to take the scenic route instead of the interstate at one point. It was beautiful, great riding. And it was nice to be away from the heavy traffic. We have done alot of interstate riding on our bike ride around the perimeter of the US, so we knew you had to really watch riding in all the junk/trash on the side of the highway. Although riding mt bikes with knobby tires made it not quite so bad. Speaking of tires....since the second part of this ride will be on the road we decided to carry smooth road tires with us and change them for the long days on the road. So we have with us one spare knobby tire, 2 tubes for that, 4 smooth road tires and 4 tubes for that. That's a whole lotta tires! But we thought it would be worth it. Between the knobby tires, the headwind and the traffic it made for a fun day!

What do you mean "Road Closed...Ya gotta go Back.."



So we head off on the side road which was Old Rt 30. We stopped in Troutdale, at the visitor center and asked about the route ahead. The lady was really nice, explained all of the landmarks, waterfalls, Rt 30 etc and said its a great road for bike riding! She also said there was a pretty side road up to the top of the mt that had a really pretty view and would be a great side trip. Just ride up, look at the view and come back to Rt 30. After we left I looked at the map and what she said was to climb up to 4000 feet in 14 miles look out and ride back down.....yeah right..maybe another time! Off we go secure in knowing we are on the right road, no question about it. We started a very long climb of 5-6 miles and almost at the top there was a sign that said "Road closed in 1000 feet".....???...and another "Road closed in 500 feet"....hey Hap what does that mean? It's ok Diane I'm sure we can get through.... We crested the hill and headed down the mt just as a road crew man, stopped us and said you can't go any further. Excuse me? Uh you have to go back. Your kiddin right? Go back to the store (that we had just left) and you can go down to I 84. So we ended up climbing back to the top, going the direction we just came from and then down to I 84. We thought we were riding 35 miles remember? It ended up being 55 miles. Ah well, thats cyclin! Question for ODOT.....if you are going to have a road closed....can you please put the sign at the beginning of the road.....just sayin.....



Bonneville Dam-this is the closest we got!

 

"Dag" Wish I could see the dam.....

 I wanted to see the Bonneville Dam also, but we got there just after they closed. No problem we thought its not that far back from Cascade Locks where we spent the night. So we decided to get up the next morning, ride back on I 84 and see the dam. When we got to the dam, we were told by Mr. armed guard that bikes weren't aloud on the road back to the dam......your kiddin right? I asked why don't you have a sign posted that says that. He said we do, it's down the road (the one we're not aloud on!) a bit, you can't see it from here. So we peddled back to Cascade Locks and headed to Hood River. We rode on and off of I 84 again today. The scenery is beautiful! Although Lots of traffic on I 84 again. The weather was a sunny 85-90 degrees. The first day of the ride is from Hood River to Surveyors Hut. Basically we are starting on the Columbia River (sort of at sea level) and climbing to about 5000 feet. The ride may be a tough one riding up the mt on the trail. We have ridden from Hood River up to Mt Hood before on the paved road and with a fully loaded tandem on that trip. I think that one was from Seattle, WA-Crater Lake, OR and loop back to Portland. I remember how hard it was on the road. Let the fun begin!

Hood River - Surveyors Ridge Hut

PBJ Break



Hey Diane the turn is right up there!



Whew! What a day. I don't generally talk about distance or how much climbing we do, because it doesn't really matter to us. We just want to make it someplace safe by dark. For this trip we brought our new and improved lights that actually work very well. Instead of using a "pen light and compass" to feel our way around in the dark.As long as we make it by dark...... Anyway, we climbed 6100 feet in the 29 miles for today. And that was on gravel/dirt/rock road/trail. It was fun though! And we made it by dark! Bonus! It was sunny when we started and warm but as we got closer to the top it got windy and turned chilly. The organizers recommended that we use a GPS for this ride, so we have one with us in addition to our maps and directions. The GPS is new for us so Hap is learning as we go. The directions were pretty good though we didn't have any trouble finding the hut. And we didn't have any do-overs either. We only saw a couple of trucks. One of them came right up to my rear bumper...did I mention we were on gravel roads in the middle of nowhere?...where ya goin bub? I was trying to navigate a steep hill, slick gravel and a tight turn.... sorry this is my road right now.....ok now you can pass me.....



Surveyors Hut

We found the hut right where it was supposed to be. Don't you like it when a plan comes together! The huts are stocked with food, water, 4-8 bunkbeds, propane stove and lights and a bivy. We are limited to two liters of water/person/day. Oh and no showers in the huts! We made some pasta, peas and had canned peaches for dinner and hit the sack. Two tired puppies in the hut tonight!

Surveyors Hut - Dog River Hut



Mt Hood view at Surveyors Hut



Solio solar charger

On todays ride we had gorgeous views of Mt Hood. Once again we started out by climbing on gravel roads. It was a shorter day today but we were planning to drop the panniers at the next hut and then do some trail riding. But first....lets see how that GPS thing works. Since we won't have electricity for the next 5 days we don't leave the GPS on all of the time. But it seemed to work. We had a couple of sets of rechargeable batteries to work with. We also had a Solio solar charger for charging our phones, MP3 players. We climbed, and climbed oh I already said that. Well, when we got tired of climbing and climbing we went downhill for two miles and THEN...yep...we climbed back up....Yeah! That was fun Hap, I hope we getta do that again. The Dog River Hut was smaller than the first one. But still had the same set up. We left the panniers and got on the Surveyors Hut Trail that went back down to the Surveyors Hut that were had stayed in the night before. The trail was great. We rode almost back to the hut and then looked at the views of Mt Hood. A couple of riders stopped as we were looking at the scenery. The trails had alot of loose, sand on them. That surprised me. But then we thought maybe the "sand" we were looking at was actually lava dust mmm...not sure. We are in the land of volcanos. We aren't very far from Mt St Helens either.



Hap riding Surveyors Ridge Trail



When we got back to the hut I fixed some rice, beans and chicken (canned). Maybe I should've been a cook....NOT..just kiddin Hap. It just takes better cause we are starving. We played a fun game in the hut called "State Sequence". It is the same as "Sequence" but it used State Capitals which you had to know. Kind of fun! We won't mention who won because someone gets grumpy when  he loses. I went off to the Bivy which was located maybe 50 ft or so from the hut. When I was coming back I saw a streak of brown flash past. You wanna see how fast I can run??? Turns out it was a deer that had been standing close to the hut and Hap had been watching it. Hey Hap do you think you could have mentioned something about a deer before I walked way over there?

Dog River Hut - Eight Mile Hut



I "think" it's this way....... I mean "I'm almost sure" it's this way....

 When we left Dog River Hut (by the way we never did see a river! (We were looking for a place to take a bath and do laundry) It was chilly! And since we ended yesterday with a 1.5 mile downhill, guess what we started with today! Tights and layers were the order of the day at least until it finally warmed up later to maybe 60 or so. It was sunny so no complaints about temps. Hap made us some pancakes to start the day so we were fueled up and ready. On the ride today we didn't have many views of Mt Hood. We didn't see any traffic or people all day. It was a fairly short ride to the next hut so we dropped the panniers and went in search of trails. Actually we were looking for a stream to do our laundry in. We are carrying 3 pairs of shorts, sox and shirts so I really wanted to wash some stuff out. Of course we couldn't find the trail that was supposed to be "right there ya can't miss it!" We were trying to find Knebel Spring Trail. We took what we thought maybe might could possibly the right one. And like Hap always says "Its going the right direction.." So off we went. Oh, remember the GPS well apparently we don't have the exact trail maps for this area so we don't have exactly what we need. But it'll get us close, says my navigator. As we started on the possible trail, we saw some bear tracks. At least they aren't grizzly bears like they have in Montana or we would be worried. I just talked a whole lot as we were riding UP the trail. At the top, or we thought was the top we asked a girl who came up the trail. She said yep your on the trail. We went down the hill and found we were on eight mile trail and it would take us close to our hut. AND we found a stream so I could the laundry. The downhill section of the trail was great! We came out pretty near the hut and found our way back and it was before dark! For dinner we had spaghetti, wine and pears.

Eight Mile Hut - Barlow Hut




 

Awesome Shower!



For breakfast we had some oatmeal, pears and coffee before leaving the hut. The start of course was up, but only 2 miles up. Like I always say could've been worse....it coulda been rainin....We did have a short section of pavement as we climbed to High Prairie. Then the road started to deteriorate from there. We went from gravel, to dirt, to dirt with gravel, then dirt track with boulders, then dirt track with boulders and ruts where jeeps and logging trucks had driven. When we got on the worst section (oh and by the way we are climbing a fairly steep grade while negotiating this), we weren't sure if we were on the right trail. We're having some fun now aren't we Hap! According to the map our next turn was 2 miles up the road, but it really looked like this was our turn. Mmm...maybe the GPS? Oh that's right we don't have the right maps in it. We stopped for our PBJ break and decided the trail had to be further. As I was following Hap up the road navigating throught the maze of rocks, boulders, divets, ruts etc. I was thinking about all the rocks and the different shapes of the rocks and maybe I should name them. Then I watched Hap riding on a narrow strip of dirt ahead of me, and I was thinking "wow that looks narrow, his tires could slip off the side of that, no he made it, must be ok, oh look at that rock what would I call that one, should I go on that narrow strip.....slam...down I went...ouch! My front wheel had hit a huge boulder that I should've seen. I was ok. It was just amazing that so many thoughts could go through my head in such a short period of time! I decided for todays ride I needed to have my two speed bicycle: UP and DOWN. Going up this road I was going 3 mph and going down I hit a blazing 6 mph! We saw a truck heading up the road we were coming down and he was really having a tough time navigating the road. Looked like a bunch of hunters. We came out on a paved section of road that took us down to the White River. Finally a great downhill on smooth pavement. The fastest I could go was 33.5 mph. Darn. We crossed the river then turned onto a dirt road that was called Barlow Road. It was the first road over the Cascades to the ocean. We followed Barlow Rd for awhile and then turned onto a smaller trail that lead to Barlow Hut. We had a pleasant surprise when we got to this hut. We found a solar shower bag in the hut! Awesome! We heated some water, put it in the bag and hung the shower bag on the front porch. Hap was the look out in case someone came up the road as I took my shower. Then we traded places. It was nice to be sort of clean after many days of no shower. For dinner we fixed Rice, chicken, soup and pears.



Good coffee at Barlow Hut! Thanks Hap!

Hap on the road to Barlow Hut



Barlow Hut - Lolo Pass Hut

We started the day with oatmeal, canned fruit and coffee. We road back to Barlow Road and began the long climb up to Rt 26 and Government Camp. Another steep, technical climb. We climbed for 1-2 hrs and came to a place where men were replacing some pipes across the road and had the whole road closed. And heavy equipment was blocking the road! Hap walked up and talked to the workers and asked if we could walk through. The guy said we could but then said "didn't you see the road closed signs". No we didn't, he pointed up the road where we were going and said the signs are up there. We didn't come from that way............We carried the bikes over the culvert and kept climbing. When we got to the end of Barlow Rd and Rt 26, we finally saw the "Road Closed sign". Mmmm... maybe they should put them on both ends of the road! Now there's a concept. 

Climbin' Barlow Road



Does this really need a caption??

The total climb on Barlow Road was 6 miles. It got steeper near the top. When we got onto Rt 26 we decided to check out Trillum Lake. It was supposed to have some beautiful views of Mt Hood. The road to the lake was DOWN, but the views were spectacular, as you can see from the pics. We climbed back to Rt 26 and Governement Camp which was a small town that caters to skiers in the winter. We stopped at a restaurant for a burger and fries. Boy did that taste good! While we ate I did laundry next door in the laundromat. Our plan was to ride to Lolo Pass Hut for our last night. Then tomorrow ride back to Governement Camp, stay in a hotel (with a shower!) and head south on the road to Oakridge, OR with hopefully a stop in Sisters, OR which is supposed to be beautiful. We left Government Camp on Rt 26 for an amazing downhill on the highway. We went 8 miles downhill to our turnoff in Rhododendrum. We made a right hand turn, onto a trail and immediately started climbing again UP to Lolo Pass Hut. Not sure why they can't put the huts at the bottom! We climbed 3 hours up to the top of Lolo Pass. Tough climb! We were getting concerned that we weren't going to make it before dark! But remember our lights so we were good. At the top of the pass we turned onto a gravel road and started a long downhill. Then we climbed back up the gravel road and finally found the hut. What a view! 

Barlow Hut





Diane's cookin!



Since it was our last night in a hut, I decided to cook (or at least try) something special.....uh oh.... Here are the ingredients: black beans, stewed tomatoes, and green beans over mashed potatoes. I know....but it was good anyway. Or maybe we were just starved again.

Lolo Pass Hut - (back to..) Government Camp

Hap

First off we started with a huge downhill back to Rt 26 and Rhododendrum. The views were really incredible. It was a paved road until we got to the bottom of the climb. Instead of taking the "easy" way and ride the road up to Government Camp (remember the downhill yesterday-well today we have to climb back up!) we decided to take the fun way back up to where we were. We took Bridal Trail 5 miles up the road. It was a nice climb on a smooth trail until we had to cross over Rt 26. Then our nice smooth trail turned into a steeper, narrow, rough trail. We went four miles UP and stopped to check our map/GPS. As we stood there a cyclist coming down the trail stopped to talk. We had been seeing alot of cyclist coming down the trail as we were going up. It sure looked like they were having fun! The guy who stopped looked at our bikes with our loaded panniers (gear) and said "are you riding that up the trail?" We said yes and he left laughing. Why was he laughing Hap? At one point the trail passed close to Rt 26 so we got back on the road into Government Camp. The Best Western sure did look good. Hap changed our tires from knobby to smooth tires for the road portion of this trip. I did laundry and.....well look at the hot tub right next to the laundry. Guess I'll have to wait in there.......... For dinner we went next door and had fish and chips. And of course some of the microbeers. It sure was nice to have a shower, good food and a comfortable bed!



Mt bike tire (left) / Road tire (right)


PLAN A: Take off mt tires and put on smooth tires because after Government Camp we will be riding several long days 70 + miles. The smooth tires will make for much smoother riding!

PLAN B: Mmmm.....we don't need a plan b because plan A is going to work!

More on Plan A and Plan B later!









Government Camp - Detroit Lake

"Diane's Cross Bike-road tire on front/mt tire on back

Detroit Lake, OR

In the morning we tried to find a bike shop in town to top off our tires with air. Hap used a hand pump to change all four tires which was alot of work, by the way. We found a rental shop that had a pump, but as we were leaving the hotel a guy started talking to Hap about our bikes we were wheeling out. Hap asked him if he had a pump and he said yes but my wife has it in the car and she's not here right now. We thanked him anyway and went out the door. As we were going out the drive Hap noticed a lady drive in and stopped by her car and said her name and asked if we could use her pump. Boy was she surprised since she couldn't figure out how Hap knew her. We pumped the tires up and road through town. I noticed a thump thump in my front tire so we stopped to check it out. The bead wasn't fitting right so that's why I had the thump. I'm going to make this a quick story but actually we spent several hours in town outside the rental shop trying to get the tires to fit right. We ended up with a smooth tire on the fronts and mt tires on the rear. We are starting a new trend. Remember Plan A and B above? Well, we skipped clear over Plan B and went directly to Plan D (Dag how did that happen?). But we got it together and headed for Detroit Lake. We had about a 70 mile ride ahead with no idea of how many hills / climbs we would have and it was after 12:30 when we left. We started out by going down Rt 26. Just before making our turn we came upon a hay wagon that had lost it's load in a turn. Hay was all over the road/on both sides. Lots of traffic in both directions. We needed to move to the center of the lane to avoid the hay so I put my hand out to let traffic behind know what we were doing. Thank goodness "Melvin" wasn't following us. We all made it around the hazard and made out turn on the exit. Only after Hap almost missed the turn and I was yelling at him to turn! We were going pretty fast down hill at the time, so it was exciting! The route today was really pretty but we didn't spend to much time looking at scenery. Oh, I forgot there was another hay wagon that lost its load just up the road. I think it must be an epidemic! We had a really pretty downhill through a park, that I wish I could ride on my lightweight road bike. It was an awesome downhill! We stayed at the Detroit Hotel and walked across the street for deli sandwiches, brownies and beer. Today was my birthday and I just wanted to sit and watch football on TV. Not very exciting for a birthday, but I had food, shower and a clean bed. Thanks! For tomorrow, we have a decision to make. There is a big fire over the Cascades at Sisters, OR where we had planned to go. It looked like it was right where we were going to be. I called the Fire Incident Command to see what the status of the fire was. He said the smoke was really bad in Sisters. He said there was an air quality warning. And the fire was close to the road we would be bringing back over the Cascade mt range. We opted to not go to Sisters and just stay on the west side of the mt range.

Detroit Lake, OR - Rainbow, OR

Leaving Detroit Lake "Hap coasting downhill"



Hap and Mr. Oregon U.



Which way Hap?

We stopped for a real breakfast before leaving Detroit Lake. Our decision to not go to Sisters was reinforced when several couples in small sports cars pulled up at the restaurant and told us they had just come from Sisters. They said it was terrible. They had just come across the pass we were thinking of going over. Thanks Lord for the direction! We knew that we were going to have a long climb to Rainbow but what we didn't know was that we when we started climbing right out of the gate, we would be climbing for another 30 miles! But remember that ol' sayin' " It could always be worse..................: Just keep peddlin you'll get there! At one point I was chasing I mean following Hap downhill. I was riding as hard as I could downhill and just couldn't keep up with him. It was crazy I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Finally I yelled at Hap and said somethings gotta be wrong....somethin...it can't be me.... He felt my rear (mt tire) and said mmmm....that's alittle low...he checked it and it had 20 psi (that's almost flat)....then he spun the front tire and it didn't spin freely....oh look at that your brake is dragging! mmm...maybe that's why it felt so difficult! Thank goodness it wasn't me this time anyway! We turned onto a busier highway and had a close call with an RV. We always say "There is always ONE" and this guys was it! He came up behind Hap very close to his wheel. The RV was planning to pass at the same time as a car that was coming toward us. When I do the math....we weren't all going to fit! He slowed just enough to let the car pass coming toward us. He was so close to me when he went by that I could've had a conversation with the passenger, he was THAT close! I just don't understand sometimes. But nobody died and we all got to where we were going. We got to Rt 20 and turned right towards Eugene (where we were going to be in a few days). We stopped at a store for something to eat, we were both starved then headed out again. Another cyclist came up behind us. He had just come over the pass from Sisters. We asked him how the smoke was and he said "oh it wasn't that bad..I only spent two hours where I couldn't see or breath very well...." Then he said he was a student at Oregon U. Oh maybe that explains it........ He was going into Eugene so he went on his way. We were flying down the road when all of a sudden at the same time we realized that we were passing our hotel. It was supposed to be another 5 miles away (downhill). Thank goodness we didn't go blasting past. We had enough climbing for one day thank you very much. The hotel let us do laundry in there washer/dryer. That was really nice of them. We went across the street for a great dinner and watched some football games.

Rainbow, OR - Oakridge, OR

A smoky Couger Reservoir

Couger Reservoir

I need a banana break...................

We had breakfast at the Iron Skillet and then turned off of Rt 20 (that went to Eugene where we would be in a couple of days) and head south on Rt 19 toward Oakridge. I'm not sure what I expected of todays ride but we sure didn't expect what we got! Rt 19 was a narrow winding low traffic road that cut through the forest to Oakridge. We started climbing right away. The smoke from the fire was pretty bad in the am but cleared as we moved further south. We climbed up to Couger Resevoir. It was beautiful although the smoke made for some low visibility. We spent all day climbing, and more climbing. Most of the day we were riding next to a beautiful river. We rode 70 miles today, I don't know how much of it was climbing but I'll just say most of it! Finally we got near the top, we knew we were getting close when it got steeper, and I started my three mph climbing again. The downhill into Oakridge was a welcome relief! When we finally got to Oakridge we couldn't find the hotel and finally we found it at the far end of town. Whew what a day! But we're still smilin.......or at least half of us is! We stopped at the grocery store for some food/beer and had a snack before riding back (to the other end of town........) for a great dinner at a cafe. The plan for tomorrow (Plan A at least) is to put our knobby mt tires back on and hit the trails around Oakridge. Are there any flat trails around here Hap?

Oakridge OR (Mountain bike day! Yeah)


The Flat trail along the river



We stopped at the bike shop and picked up a map of the mt bike trails. But first lets try out that coffee shop, read the paper and just sit. How about that?? We found a trail along the river (it has to be flat doesn't it?) that we started out on. But then.....mmm...what about this trail over here it doesn't look that bad. After all the name of the trail is Flat Creek Trail. How bad can it be? But first you have to find the trail.......how about that GPS Hap? Oh that's right it doesn't have the right maps in it. We have a map it must be around here somewhere. This road goes up the trail must be UP there! You guessed it we started climbing up a trail. Flat Creek trail remember? Not only a long steep climb but it got narrower and narrower. Scary! Don't mess up and fall to the right. It's a long way down. We got to the top, took a power bar break and then had to go down that narrow, steep trail. That was alittle scary but we made it. All in all it was really a nice trail. Our legs were just alittle tired from 12 days of riding, including the last three 30 + miles of climbing EACH day! We're aloud to be tired aren't we?

Oakridge OR - Eugene OR (I told you we would end up here!)




We stopped at Mcy D's for pancakes and then rode west toward Eugene. We had two choices of roads. We could either take the main highway (i.e. smooth road) or a gravel road that went alongside a beautiful reservoir. We opted to leave our mt tires on so of course we went the funnest way (i.e. funnest as defined by the Eaton's). It really was a pretty road. But it of course was hilly, sometimes steep, sometimes not. We climbed all day again of course. Not sure why we would expect anything else. We stopped for a power bar break and just to take in the pretty reservoir. The weather has just been awesome this whole trip. This was really a surprise for riding in Oregon. I thought that Oregon was a wet state. I had planned on rain and temps of maybe 50-60 degrees. Boy was I wrong. We have had sunny warm weather every day. There was only one day that we even had to wear our tights. We didn't have to wear any of our Gortex raingear thank goodness. Perfect weather every day. Remember how I keep saying it could be worse. It would have been very difficult to do some of the climbs we did on the trails/gravel roads in the rain!
When we finally got to the top of the hill, we had a fun downhill to lunch! Let's eat .... again.... pie? You have pie? ..... Bikin sure does make you hungry. We left our lunch stop all fueled up for the trip back into normal society. Back to traffic...cars, and humanity. One thing about Oregon that is just awesome are all of the bike trails, most people are much more tolerant of bikers (except for one RV! I wonder if he knows that he is the one....remember there has to be one!). The ride into Springfield / Eugene was smooth sailing. We even found a bike trail close to the hotel. When we got to the hotel I asked her if there was a store close by. She started to name several places...if you want real food go here..if you want this you could go there....if you want...wait I said.. we just want some beer and chips/salsa. Oh just go across the street. Perfect...thank you very much. Nice hotel! Today was Hap's birthday. Since our birthdays are so close together we just celebrate them together. So today Hap and I are 122 years old. I'll let you do the math! We ordered pasta and salad for dinner. It didn't taste good and we didn't order enough so dinner wasn't the greatest. Sorry about that Hap!

Eugene, OR - Corvallis, OR (the final riding day!)
Breakfast at the hotel was really good. But then we were starved! Getting around Eugene was really easy with all of the bike lanes. Now that's the way to build roads. Before we left town I decided to stop at a mall and buy me some pants to wear to the wedding. Remember the wedding? That's why we came to Oregon! We had shipped a suitcase with clothes to Gail (Hap's sister) and Walt's house. I thought I was going to be wearing a dress but somehow managed to bruise/cut/slash my legs and thought pants would be better. I hate shopping so it didn't take me long! Hap waited for me outside and off we went. Today was the first and only day the weather has been overcast and even a few sprinkles. It was cooler, maybe 50 but eventually the sun came out. We stopped at a cafe for some food. We were hoping for some good pie. But the waiter said we don't have any pie but there's a place across the street that sells pie. Hap said can I go buy some pie and bring it over here. She said sure. He went across the street but came back empty handed. They only sold whole pies. I told him he should've bought one and we could've shared it with everyone in the cafe. Oh well! We got back on the road. We are riding in the Wilminette Valley. We finally found some flat ground! The are has a lot of agricultural farming. We couldn't figure out what the flat fields, that had a layer of gravel on it that looked like it had been rolled. We finally figured out it was sod farms. Corvallis had an amazing amount of bike lanes, very easy to navigate. We arrived at Gail and Walt's and were welcomed with birthday cake (German Chocolate), homeade ice cream (cherry, chocolate). We celebrated our birthday with the other birthday girl, Katie.

We spent three more days in Corvallis, attending the wedding, spending time with family. It is always fun when the Eaton's get together. Bob and Annette's wedding was beautiful. They looked so happy. What a great time!