Eastern Oregon – Day 1-3; Rolling Along the Columbia. Portland to Deschutes River State Recreation Area

Day: 1 – Leaving the City via the Columbia River
May 29, 2023

Distance: 44 miles (44 total)
Portland (home) to Ainsworth Campground

You know even as we left the city all geared up it never quite felt like we were heading off for a month long adventure on our own.  Maybe it’ll sink in after we get further out from familiar territory.

Since we live on the north side of Portland already, we (by which I mean me) decided we should just head straight for the Columbia River and take Marine Drive out to the Gorge. While definitely easy and faster, it has its fair share of debris on it.  Enter flat tire number 1 for the trip.  10 miles in and we’ve already gotten more flats then our Pacific Coast ride! Luckily the weather was fantastic, we were on a bike path, and we weren’t in any sort of rush today. So all things considered not a bad spot for a flat.  I told Pablo (my bike) he couldn’t have any more now that he used up his first one; we’ll see if he listens.

As we were riding along we made the unfortunate mistake of stopping to use the facilitrees in what I can only describe as a mosquito breeding ground.  (Some people say there aren’t mozzies in Oregon, but I think it’s just that the entire state’s worth all congregate in a few places, and we somehow managed to find this week’s meetup.) It was made even worse too because not 2 miles later we rolled past an actual park with functioning restrooms.  C’est la vie. At least the park made for a great lunch spot.

Although the route was mostly familiar territory today we did find some fun, albeit way overgrown, double track out by the Troutdale airport thanks to some advice from a friend.  It was great to have a mini adventure to kickoff our ride. 10/10 would ride again. 

After crossing the Sandy river it was all historic highway 30 to our campground, Ainsworth.  While the scenic highway is obviously gorgeous, we ended up zipping past a lot of the sights, I mean I do see most of them at least weekly for my job as a tour guide. Apologies for the lack of waterfall pictures.

We did at least stop at the famous Multnomah Falls although not for the waterfall. It was ice cream stop number one of the trip! What better place to celebrate our inaugural ice cream?  And yes we did roll over to take a gander at the 620ft waterfall while we were there.

Once at the campground we were happy to recognize that we do in fact remember how to set up camp.  Hopefully our first night out goes well, and we look forward to what tomorrow brings! Because while still not new to us, tomorrow will at least be full of areas we see less frequently.

What We Ate

We got a lot of questions leading up to this trip about what food we usually ate. Since all I could confidently remember from the Pacific Coast ride was “fancy ramen” I decided to keep better track of what we ate this time through. So skip post if you don’t care.

Breakfast: 2 eggs on an English muffin with tomato and a banana (at home)
Lunch: fancy vegan sandwiches from New Seasons
Dinner: camp cooked sweet potato curry with tofu and chickpeas with mango sticky rice for dessert! (So fancy and honestly a bit too much)
Snacks: 3 bars, fruit snacks, dried mangos, soft serve ice cream

Day: 2 – Enjoying the greenery
May 30, 2023

Distance: 39 miles (83 total)
Ainsworth Campground to Tucker Park (Hood River)

The day started pretty early. Which is to say it’s harder to sleep in on a mat you aren’t yet used to.  After breakfast and camp take down we hit the road by 8am.

It wasn’t too far into our ride, but we decided to enjoy a second breakfast at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery because it seemed as good as anywhere for a break.  After saying hi to the fishes, eating our almond butter tortillas, and doing general shenaniganery, we hit the trail again.

Today started out with a lot of greenery.  We really enjoyed all the tree time since we won’t be able to enjoy that greenery for a while after today. Today also had a lot of separated bike paths as part of the historic Columbia river highway which was very nice. Although we did still have to tackle some annoying stairs. What a waste of a downhill.

Once in Cascade Locks we stopped at the store for some quick snacks and beverages.  Just as we were about to leave the town, one of my coworkers drove by doing the Mt Hood tour we do.  He stopped to cheer us on, but had to get back to his tour – it’s not every day your guide can introduce you to some bike tourers though haha. There’s a chance we’ll see another coworker tomorrow as well. But honestly it was kind of lucky we saw each other today since the majority of our day was on the separated bike path/ secluded side roads.

After Cascade Locks, we had to climb a stupid 600+ft hill, Wyeth hill. Not only is it stupid long, steep, and without breaks, the top looks exactly the same as the bottom-tree lined. Don’t get me wrong, they were pretty trees, but did I really have to work so hard to see more of them? There was definitely walking/pushing in the climbing of that hill.  The downhill was amazing at least.

After some more lovely riding bouncing between trees, vistas, and a few more waterfalls we unfortunately had to get on the interstate.  That last bit of bike trail (Mitchell Tunnel) isn’t quite done, although we were happy to see all the construction workers out there making progress on it.  The interstate riding wasn’t too bad. There was a fair chunk with bollards out to give us more space, and for the areas that didn’t have it, we at least had our lovely tailwind encouraging us along. 

In trying to figure out where to camp for day two, there weren’t a whole lot of convenient options based on the miles we wanted to do. In fact there seems to be only one campground between Hood River (town) and The Dalles. And that one campground is only accessed from the interstate. The west bound interstate no less. With that option out we decided rather than stop at Viento (just before the intestate portion of riding that we had to do) we would camp at one of the campgrounds up the hill in Hood River (town, but also along the Hood River -river). A 6 mile uphill detour isn’t that bad right? (We also weren’t quite ready to try our hands at wild camping yet).

We got to Hood River (town) around 1pm and deciding it was too early to go to our intended campground we opted to swing into a bike themed coffee shop, 10 Speed Coffee Bar.  It was a much needed treat, albeit up a rather steep hill. We must look like we know what we’re doing, cause after seeing our bikes a traveler asked us for advice on things to do in Oregon. Little did they know they asked someone who would give them more information than they could want!

We still got to the campground stupid early, so after spending probably 20 minutes trying to pick our preferred campsite we eventually settled on one in the back half of the camp with some nice foliage. Our first pick had been immediately vetoed after we realized it was SURROUNDED with a plant that looked suspiciously like poison oak. No thank you.

With all the extra free time, we mostly just relaxed and stretched, as well as wandered down to the Hood River (river) to dip our feet in the icy cold waters. Overall an excellent day, here’s to hoping that tailwind is still on our side tomorrow!

What We Ate

Breakfast: Oatmeal and instant coffee (our go to breakfast)
2nd Breakfast: Almond butter burrito
Lunch: Refried bean burrito
Dinner: Tasty Bites Indian flavors with instant rice
Snacks: Dried mangos, trail mix, fruit snacks, wasabi soy beans (no ice cream, the huckleberry shake place hadn’t switched to their daily summer hours yet!)

Day: 3 – Last day along the Columbia
May 31, 2023

Distance: 54 miles (137 total)
Tucker Park (Hood River) to Deschutes River State Recreation Area

Welp, day three started off with a flat tire. Well technically I guess we didn’t notice it until after breakfast so not quite “start”, but it still wasn’t a pleasant way to start the day. Although, fixing a flat at camp is as good as anywhere to have to do it. Pablo picked up a wire somewhere, probably on the interstate the day before, and it must have just had a super slow leak that I hadn’t noticed. I have renamed my tube “patches”.

Once we got rolling everything was swell though. There were around 30mph winds heading east all day. Thank goodness that’s the direction we were heading as well. Every turn or loop when we got blasted with a crosswind made us very thankful for the winds chosen direction.

After leaving Hood River we were back on old highway bike path. And this one came with a tunnel! -always the crowd pleaser. Although turns out tunnels are great for funnelling winds so we didn’t hang out there too long. We found a scenic vista just east of the tunnels where we were able to enjoy our second breakfast hunkered behind a wall.

As we continued east we made our way up to Rowena Crest. Overall the climb wasn’t too bad. But the summit was so freaking windy you’d think we were drunk trying to make our way around. We snapped a couple photos and hightailed it out of there. Although not that fast because it was a headwind out of the view point, which gave us our first mechanical hiccup- a dropped chain on Andrew’s bike.

Even the downhill was a chore. With the loops it was in and out of the winds, and we were both too scared to go too fast and get nailed with a surprise cross wind. At one particularly headwind heavy spot I decided to test the wind. Reminder it’s a downhill slope, and the winds kept me at around 4mph. Some crazy winds!

After finishing Rowena and reaching the outskirts of The Dalles, we decided to hop over to the river front path. Intending to stop for a quick snack before town, we actually rolled up to a Bicycle Adventure bike tour group’s lunch. And they graciously shared their leftovers and allowed us to join them for lunch! Road Magic.

After lunch we had a lovely ride along the river path. It even had a bonus tunnel! Andrew and I gleefully screamed “tunnel” as we approached, only to realize there was a pedestrian inside who shouted “tunnel” back; he gave us a good chuckle at that.

We swung into The Dalles for groceries, opting to stay along the river path longer, and back track a little. Boy was that wind crazy today. Just the couple of blocks of backtracking where we were fighting the headwind was so crazy. I was happy to practice my drafting while Andrew took the brunt of it. Seriously glad the winds were mostly on our side today.

We still had about 20 miles east of the Dalles to go, and the Google maps took us through some glorious back roads. The scenery has dramatically changed even from this morning and it was so nice to take it all in in relative solitude. The wildlife also changed dramatically, we saw 4 snakes today and 11 quail! Oh and we saw our first tumbleweed of the trip! It was a picture perfect tumbleweed too, at 2-3ft and tumbling across the road.

At one point we switched to gravel roads, and as we turned uphill and into the wind I more than once questioned if we had made a mistake. Seriously I can’t stress the winds enough, at one point they did in fact blow me over! The gravel didn’t help in attempting to save myself, but all appears good after the fall. More funny than anything else.

When we finally turned east again with the winds at our back everything was well again. It was such a cool road! The winds also seemed to be encouraging us along with gusts every few seconds. I swear the last 8ish miles of our ride was probably 75% wind powered; we barely had to pedal at all.

Our campground tonight is at the Deschutes River State Recreation Area, with our campsite steps away from the Deschutes River. There seems to be a school trip or something as there are lots of children running around. But also 3 other tourers! They all seem to be heading the opposite direction though (having given up their days early rather than fight the headwinds). Tomorrow we turn south.

We did it, we finally made it to “the west”.

What We Ate

Breakfast: Oatmeal and instant coffee
2nd Breakfast: Almond butter burrito, dried mangos, trail mix
Lunch: Mediterranean Salad, hummus, pita chips, regular chips, cherries, and Oreos (courtesy of Bicycle Adventure)
Dinner: Rice and Beans with fresh bell peppers and onions
Snacks: Dried mangos, trail mix, fruit snacks, 3 bars, kiwi

Can o’ Bean count so far: 3

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