2011 has been one of the coldest and wettest on record here in the Pacific Northwest and it’s getting a little old. It has rained nearly every day in March and it hasn’t even come close to 60 degrees yet this year. So it was great to see the first day of April turn out to be a nearly 70 degree, sunny, beautiful spring day.
The mountain bike trails are still really muddy; riding on them when they are this wet will cause significant damage, so out on the road we go. The route today was from Rowland Lake outside of White Salmon, WA to Lyle via the old highway that runs through the hills above the Columbia River.
Finally able to ditch the jackets and long tights for some shorts and warm weather gear. A little on the white side after a long winter.
The old highway is a great ride, lots to see along the way.
There are a number of side roads off the Old Highway that lead into the Cascade Mountain foothills. There is a lot of great riding around here.
There is a lot of agriculture around here; apples, cherries, pears and berries as well as horse and cattle ranching. You might even come across a llama or alpaca ranch. Also, this is Washington State wine country. Plenty of places to take a break, kick back and have a glass of local wine.
You can really get into the back country around here. The riding is challenging, the scenery is great and there’s not much traffic.
Yesterday was a great day, today it is cold and alternating between sun and snow. That’s the PacNW for you; if you don’t like the weather, just wait fifteen minutes and you’ll get something else. Tomorrow is supposed to be dry and sunny, then off and on rain next week.
This ride looks amazing…I would love to get some routes out there from you sometime if you don’t mind.
You should look at a map of this area(the Hood River-White Salmon area), figure out how far you want to ride and where you want to and have at it. That’s the fun. I do a lot of road and off road riding, I just pick a spot and ride around.