Today I went on a road bike ride from Hood River, down old Highway 30, into The Dalles, up and over Seven Mile Hill, down through Mosier and back to Hood River. A little over forty miles, this is a pretty popular bike route.
Here’s the view from about 3/4 of the way up Seven Mile Hill. You can see the Columbia River snaking off towards eastern Oregon near the top of the photo and Seven Mile Hill Road winding it’s way up Seven Mile Hill
What you can’t see in the picture is the howling 20-30mph wind. Blowing from the west/west-southwest, it was a headwind pretty much up the entire Seven Mile Hill climb. At times, I was in my lowest gear, barely moving uphill against the wind. If you weren’t paying attention, the crosswinds could blow you off the road. More than two hours of pedaling into a 20-30mph headwind; not a lot of fun. Good training, I reckon.
Even the downhills were sketchy in the wind. Seeing Mt. Adams in the distance meant two things; you were headed directly into the wind and you were on your way home
The adventures never end around here. I think I’ve had enough wind for a while, hopefully it will calm down so we can do a little kayak fishing. Because of the late spring rain and snow causing high water and keeping higher elevation roads closed, it’s been a slim year for kayak fishing so far, we need to change that.