Today’s route: 49 miles, 1,300 ft. elevation gain
Today we packed up for the last time and faced a stiff headwind for a short but sweet ride back into Umatilla.
The route rolled through wheat farm country dotted with old barns and back through the Walla Walla onion crops I remembered from our first day.
At the rest stop in a tiny town called Helix (population 183), I noticed this wheat farmer talking with one of the riders. This interaction between spandex-clad cycling city-slickers and tough, old-fashioned farmers is a great part of the Cycle Oregon spirit.
The highlight of the day was seeing the Columbia River Gorge open up before us and riding into Hat Rock State Park for our final rest stop.
I pedaled hard through the wind today, playing a mental game that my girls would be waiting at the finish line. They weren’t there, but my spirits were lifted with a free iced mocha, compliments of Nossa Familia Coffee and Cycle Oregon.
The end of Cycle Oregon was definitely anti-climactic. There were no closing ceremonies or fanfare; just a mad dash to locate your belongings amid a sea of 2000 duffle bags.
This completes my ride reports from Cycle Oregon 2006. I hope you enjoyed my words and photos. I have a few more stories I’d like to share, along with some general impressions of the event, so stay tuned for those.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Jonathan,
I met you briefly as we climbed the hill leaving Sumpter. Thanks so much for capturing CO in your words and photos. I was too tired from riding to do either, but was still able to share my incredible trip with friends by sending them a link to bikeportland.org.
Welcome back, Jonathan. Thank you for the great stories and photos. I’m impressed you could do the ride and the reporting – a lot of work.
Jonathan, I am one of team Japan. ( A captain of the tandem: photo)
Thanks to your nice reports and photos. I was joined CO2003 first time with 4 of Japanese, and had great experience. We told the stories to our friends, and then total 9 people flied to Oregon from Japan, just for this event.
See you again on Oregon, or Tokyo 🙂
Jonathan, thanks for posting the great write-ups and photos. If you want to see some more, here’s a link to some of mine on flickr.com (I have a free account so couldn’t post all of mine, but I think I do have one of you in the mix somewhere, taken shortly before my detour to Lehman Hot Springs on Day 2).
http://tinyurl.com/rvtyf
Go, Gauchos . . .
Cecil (Class of 1985)