Volcanoshire

Better late than never, my update on the 2nd weekend in Oregon..... I needed another 200 mile weekend to compensate for missing the Etape du Dales.

Friday after work I got ready and set off to the Skyline again. This was a quickish 40 miles with a 860m metres of climbing. Saturday I had had advice from cyclists in the office about routes to do in the Columbia River Gorge and the area around Mount Hood. Mount Hood, shown here, is one of 5 or so 10,000ft+ mountains that dominate the landscape around Portland since they stand alone. The most famous being Mount St Helens which erupted in 1980 causing widespread devastation, killing 57 people. All these volcano mountains sit in the Cascade Mountain range on the pacific rim 'ring of fire', the tectonic plate boundary that has so often caused eruptions and earthquakes over the last several hundred years.

The Columbia river is Mississippi sized, a huge river formed when glaciation retreated and a massive inland lake was unplugged and the floodwater headed south and west. Many of the rock formations are similar to the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, basalt columns and the like. I was told it was always windy in the gorge but during my visit it was dead still ! This was a mixed blessing, there would be no wind to ride against but it was due to be over 90 deg F, over 30 deg C in new money !

I parked at a place called Mosier at the end of a 5 mile stretch of 'historic' highway 30. This stretch has been converted to a cycletrack / footpath with a super smooth surface. 5m later I was in the town of Hood River.

I was looking for a long climb and found one, the profile is shown here, doesn't reach as high as Ventoux but I ran out of road at 3,600ft, so all in all it was probably an 1,100m climb over 20 miles much less of a gradient to Ventoux of course. It was interesting, very quiet once off the main Mount Hood Highway. Hot, hot, hot ! I needed to fill up at roadside streams twice. The run back down was quite fast, found my way back through the town of Mount Hood and onto the old highway cycletrack back to Mosier.

I was back in Mosier at 68 miles and wanted to push the distance to near 100m and the climbing to over 2,000m. I had been advised to travel the road to Dalles as scenic and interesting. It certainly was, often riding high above the Columbia river gorge, great views. I had a circuit planned back via a route called '7 mile hill'. I was tired with the heat and starting to cramp so I decided to simply re-trace my steps. I arrived back at the car with 96 miles on and just over 2,400m. That was enough for the day. I needed about 65m Sunday to reach the 200m for the weekend. See http://connect.garmin.com/activity/5633928 for the details.

Sunday I rose late, battled through the large people in the breakfast area of the hotel and eventually set off towards Sauvie Island north of the city. Sauvie Island I was told was an Indian settlement. For my part it was flat so I planned a fast, flat route around the island and then a finish on the Skyline again. It was so hot again, like well over 30c. I stopped at one point to assist a couple with a puncture and no tube, them sorted I continued on my way. I ascended the skyline via Cornelius Pass this time. Rolled along the Skyline and hit the Pizza shop for some sustenance with 61m on the clock, see route on http://connect.garmin.com/activity/5633921. That was 197m for the weekend. Time to rest.

That was the end of my Oregon cycling trips, it was 4 more days in the office and back to the UK. I managed 3 visits to the gym in the week before my trip home. Got back with the family on Saturday 23rd May fully intending to go cycling in the afternoon but jetlag got the better of me. Sunday I teamed-up with Thomo and Ciaran and attacked all the local hills, 72miles and 1,500m.