10 Sep 05 Boardman, OR 15.4 miles I kept looking for Bend Chain Gain cycling buddies, but none were to be found! The city’s park on the river’s edge was spacious, and the tents weren’t crowded in! There’s actually a town of Boardman too! The old town was flooded out by the building of dams, and this one was built in the 1970's. The town is clean and well kept; a bit of a surprise from what I’d seen from the freeway!

11 Sep 05 Boardman, OR to Cordon, OR 81.9 miles 6:36 riding time elevation gain 6,100 ft

Boardman's pep band set up and played for us as we left town, but what was really noticeable was that in the first three miles I was passed by only three cyclists! Could this be Cycle Oregon? Early mornings are usually the worst as fast riders who leave late pass early rising slow riders and everyone jockies for position. This wasn’t the case today. One of those 3 riders who passed me was on a full suspension mountain bike. I wonder why anyone would ride such a bike on these good paved roads, but I saw two others on mountains bikes this year though the other two weren’t full suspension! Cycle Oregon’s material says the day is “rolling”. It wasn’t. It was up and down hill all day; much like the Pump Up the Pulse Course TRC used to do at Pomeroy! Climbing 1000 ft and descending 500 ft isn’t really “rolling”! The dry farms looked a lot like the Pomeroy area too. Jonathan, the MC, acknowledged this was the toughest first day in Cycle Oregon history, and joked it was the real reason those 500 riders hadn’t shown up! Ione was a great lunch stop. The town closed main street for us, insisted every rider sign their “wall”. The local high school band teacher provided the lunch music- a great folksy style sometimes accompanied by his wife. He’d be my pick for the best singer of the ride! I rode with Mark, a pilot for Delta most of the day. He kept dropping me on the downhills. He has Mike Riddle’s ability to tuck in and use every trick to make maximum speed on the downhills. I enjoyed kidding him that I could catch him on each uphill. He was proud of himself that he’d dropped his much younger brother early in the day! Toward the end of the day Mark lost me on one of the longer descents, and I rode in with Jeff, a Portland attorney. The small town of Cordon said they had no place to put us but the golf course! What a great place to camp! My tent went up on one of the greens as did Jeff’s! Maybe my best camping spot ever! Excellent roast pork for dinner with a cheesecake that was the best dessert of the trip!

12 Sep 05 Cordon, OR to The Dalles, OR 72.0 miles 5:47 riding time elevation gain 3,332

This was the only morning cool enough to require tights and a jacket, but the uphills soon has us shedding them. What great views of the Cascades! We could see to Rainier at times and most of the day could see Jefferson, Adams, and St. Helens. The descents nearly doubled the elevation gain, and we were soon back down at the Columbia. I rode with Jeff some again today, but he’s a faster rider than I! At the afternoon snack stop, there was reportedly skinny dipping at Celilo Park. I didn’t see this year’s episode, but rumor had it they lacked the Greek god and goddess like bodies you might hope to spy skinny dipping! We had to ride the freeway today between Celilo and The Dalles. It wasn’t bad, the OR ODT had swept the rumbled stripped shoulder which was clean. What was bad was the headwinds! Why didn’t CO run this west to east to take advantage of the prevailing westerlies? The Dalles put us up in a great park overlooking the Gorge- a beautiful view! I happen to put my tent up next to Jeff’s again and had dinner with him: Glazed salmon!

13 Sep 05 The Dalles to Rooster Rock SP 70.3 miles 5:27 riding time elevation gain: 2,900

Our weatherman had forecast steady 25 MPH winds from the west with gusts up to 35MPH which wouldn’t be too different than the day before except we’d be headed straight into them today! These winds were forecast to moderate some in the afternoon, but the wind died down sometime during the night, and the winds were probably 5 to 10 MPH with the forests protecting us from much of their effect. This is the same route Chris and I rode two years ago on the Lewis-Clark route. I loved it then, and I still do! The Old Columbia Highway is scenic and my favorite parts are open only to cyclists and pedestrians. I stop at all the falls, do some hiking, and still as I ready to depart Cascade Locks I realize I’ll be into camp by 3:00. I have a rule against arriving in camp before 4:00, so I talked to more people, and looked around the area more. Rooster Rock has plenty of space, so the tents aren’t crowded in at all, but somehow I’m set up next to Jeff again. I've never accidently found my Cycle Oregon companions before! We eat dinner together and discuss the day’s events.

14 Sep 05 Rooster Rock SP to Champoeg SP 101.1miles 8:04 riding time elevation gain: 6,725

We’re on the wet side of the mountains. Those who washed clothes last night woke to find a heavy dew had fallen on everything, and the clothes need wrung out again! Tents were soaking, but there is no choice but to bag them up wet! The century option today has 6,725 feet of vertical gain! I couldn’t believe it! Up, up, up, to the top of Larch Mountain a steep steady climb from our camping spot on the Columbia! What a great view spot though! I didn’t know there was a place with such a view of the Cascades! Simultaneously, one could see all the peaks from Rainier to the Sisters with not a cloud in the sky! What I hadn’t noticed on the ascent was that the temperature was a bit cool. The road was mostly under the forest canopy, but the shade was dappled enough with light to hide defects in the pavement. Although this slowed the descent, I donned my rain pants and windbreaker, kept the speed down, and started wondering where all the riders were! I saw no riders from the top (where I left probably 25) until almost the morning snack at mile 48! This on a Cycle Oregon! I took a long break there, ate a lot, and met up with a couple groups with many riders doing their first century! Three of the hills in the Willamette held surprises for us though. An 18% grade! Fortunately, I had my touring bike with 19" gear! (That’s a 0.77 ratio for you who know little about gear inches, and for those of you who somehow know nothing about gear inches: freewheel teeth: 34 cog teeth 26). Anyway, this gear was bought to impress other self supported tourists- not to be used for a supported ride, but I was glad I had it! I saw lots of cyclists pushing up that thing! I enjoyed finishing with several cyclists completing their first century, but with generous breaks, I got in about 7:00 PDT. I thought it best to eat, set up camp, and then shower- the reverse of my preference, but I wanted no chance of missing dinner- grilled halibut- a meal not to be missed!

15 Sep 05 Champoeg SP Oregon Gardens loop 67.8 miles 4:59 riding time elevation gain: 733

This was an optional layover day for those who wanted to recover from their first century and for those riders who were still complaining about all the elevation gain on day 1! It was also the warmest and driest morning of the trip. My tent could have gone into it’s bag entirely dry! Since we weren’t moving camp, it was a chance to sleep in a bit- arising after dawn, and cycling away about 8:30! No one ever gets lost on the well marked Cycle Oregon ride, right? We’ll, several of us went the wrong way this morning. It seems an eager but uninformed young deputy decided to take down the Cycle Oregon signs. My first clue was arriving at a Y in the road and having no signs. “I must be on the wrong road”, I thought but I’d ride on to the next intersection which was near the freeway and figure it all out. Sure enough there were no signs there either. I reversed course, and much to my surprise there were signs directing me back into camp a different way than I’d come out. We’ll, I arrived back at camp with 12 miles on my bike but determined not to miss signs the second time. When I got to the corner that several of us had missed, there were two traffic directors pointing the way. They’d just figured out the deputy culprit but not yet replaced the signs. Jeff, who left late this morning, caught up with me; we rode together thru lunch when he tried to talk me into extending the ride into another state park. Knowing him to be a faster rider than I, I was slow to agree, but when I asked what the road was like and he responded “bad”, I wrote that off. Seems it might have been a mistake not to join him. He’s a native there and has long wanted to do this alternate ride which went into some old growth timber, and with no traffic! Jeff had a flat that day, but just as he dismounted, up drove the manager of the Bike Gallery to change it for him. Jeff breifly resisted having the tire changed, but with the advice that he was on vacation, he sat back and watched the Bike Gallery fix his flat for no charge! Reminds me of the luck Sam usually has on Cycle Oregon- until this year when he had to cancel the night before (and CO as a money making entity gives no refunds!). The Bike Gallery big-wig fixed his flat while Jeff rested in the shade. Jeff had over 100 miles for the day, and with my morning 12 mile loop it would have been a long day, but probably one worth doing! After all, my tent was already up! If he just hadn’t used that word “bad” to describe the road he’d never been on!

16 Sep 05 Champoeg SP to Veronia, OR 69.3 miles 5:10 riding time elevation gain 3,020

Our weatherman had promised rain beginning about midnight, but we lucked out. My tent was loaded in the truck and I was a couple miles down the road before the rain started! It wasn’t a hard rain, but it was enough to make me glad I had my fenders! I met a gal with fenders and asked if she was glad she had them. She was very enthusiastic about that, but lamented forgetting a jacket or leg warmers! We’re headed into the Coastal Mountains, and rain is more common there than in the Willamette. In the afternoon the sun comes out again briefly warming things. Veronia is the first time we stay on a football field this year. Camp is for the first time a bit crowded. But wait, 400 people joined us in Champoe! This brings the numbers up to almost the usual 2,000 and brings a return of that “crowded” feel that’s been missing this entire Cycle Oregon.

17 Sep 05 Veronia, OR to Astoria, OR 73.6 miles 5:23 riding time elevation gain: 1,929

Worse than rain “fog” moved in last night! Several riders rode off in the dark fog this morning without any lights! I couldn’t believe it as I was headed to breakfast! The fog soaked everything during the night as it condensed on everything. A fine mist fell most of the morning. With my rear light, rain pants and windbreaker I was warm and secure enough, but if there’s one condition that’s not enjoyable riding it’s misting fog! At the first snack stop we seemed to drop below the fog where we remained until just after lunch when the fog began lifting. By the time we arrived in Astoria, it was a clear sunny day!

Cycle Oregon was organized and well run again this year, and I especially liked having 1,500 fellow riders instead of 2,000! The bus back to Boardman created some grumbling. We were asked to be there at 4:00, and then told to come back every half hour until the bus actually left at 6:30! Astoria is an interesting town I could have enjoyed for those 2 ½ hours and everyone else seemed to feel the same way. My companion in the bus was an executive with Microsoft; his wife bought him the trip as a reward for losing 50 pounds! He's wondering how he can swing CO next year away from the wife (who doesn't exercise) and kids. Oh, there is another change to CO that I forgot to mention: Tent and porter service has been added. For an extra $250 you use their tent, get a folding chair, and only have to pack up your personal belongs and leave them in the tent! You just walk away from the standing tent and arrive at it standing in the next town with your stuff in it! That meant there were only 2 trucks hauling the gear of us traveling tourist class instead of 5! The service is popular and decreased my perceived need to “rush” to get a decent camp site. Yes, the tent and porter tents do tend to get the best spots!