Saturday June 10, 2023, 59 miles (95 km) - Total so far: 274 miles (441 km)
Today’s Route:
After a very large breakfast and a few items to go, compliments of the Fairfield Inn, we finished our route planning for the next few days and booked a hotel for Umatilla, WA (pronounced Yumatiya). Our destination tonight would be the Roosevelt campground for our first night of camping. We learned that there were only toilets and no showers and no potable water.
Todays route would be 59 miles with no services along the way, so we had dehydrated food planned for dinner and brought plenty of water and snacks. Yesterday, as we approached the bike trail which would be the final few miles riding into The Dalles, we met Alan Root, a local Ironsmith and sculptor, driving his yellow vintage pickup truck. He passed us again this morning and honked at us, pulled up alongside and offered to lead us to the farmer’s market. Unfortunately, we had to pass, as we were getting a late start.
Leaving The Dalles, we crossed the bridge over to Washington. We ended up having to walk our bikes across the bridge due to heavy traffic. After crossing the bridge the road climbs up to HW14 — we experienced very, very strong cross and head winds on this climb. We rode about 8 miles before reaching HW14. Once on HW14 we had a nice tailwind. The next 51 miles on HW14 followed the river and included multiple gradual climbs.
We had a couple of nice surprises along HW14; the first was Maryhill Winery where we were able to stop for lunch. The second nice surprise we discovered as we approached the Roosevelt camp turnoff - a MiniMart where we could get a couple of ice pops, chocolate milk for me, and water.
Weather:
Beautiful sunny day but a bit warmer with temperatures in the mid 80s.
Maryhill Winery - we stumbled upon along HW14.. nice lunch
Another surprise - some ice cream at the very end of our ride
Our home for the night
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