I was out of town this weekend (3/19/2012) celebrating my wife's birthday, St. Patty's day and Double Mountain Brewery's 5th anniversary. I also brought my bike and promised it would not interfere with the trip...as any cyclist knows that can be difficult. So....to live up to my promise, I was out the door before sunrise each morning and on the bike so I could be back by 9:30 am.
Day 1, Troutdale - McMenamins Edgefield, I had a decent size head ache from the night before. Let's just say that our friends and the Edgefield know how to do it right. It was 38 degrees, raining and yet still an amazing morning. I decided to ride on Hwy 30, the scenic highway, and put in a good hour and a half. Little did I know that in that short time, 24.5 miles, I would have 2100+ feet of climbing. The views were great and I was able to do a pretty killer work out. As promised, I was back on time and able to join everyone for breakfast...Yes, of course I showered first!
Day 2, Hood River, Celebrated most of the previous day at Double Mt. Had a great dinner with my beautiful wife and closed the evening with a free concert...The Meat Puppets!!! Once again I was out the door early and immediately reconfirmed what I already knew...there really are no flat spots in Hood River. Right out the door I had an 8% climb, which means absolutely no warm up. I then had a .5 mile relatively flat run until I encountered a miniature version of Alpe d'Huez. Next onto Hwy 30 east with some spectacular views of the Columbia River Gorge. I decided I should turn around when I hit Rowena and was lucky enough to have very little of the areas famous winds. I did 2 hours, 32 miles and nearly 2400 ft of climbing, with temperature near freezing at the start and no rain.
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