After leaving Umatilla this morning, I crossed over the Columbia River back into Washington to take scenic Highway 14. It paralleled the Columbia River for about 75 of the 85 miles that I rode today. The first sign I saw on Highway 14 read “Next Services — 66 miles”.

It was interesting to note the change in terrain today. Early in the morning, the terrain was very flat and the hills on each side of the Columbia seemed barely high enough to contain the river. As I rode west, the terrain got more and more rugged and the road started going up and down more.

On the opposite side of the Columbia, I could see Interstate 84. I could tell it was much flatter than the road I was on. I could also see that there was more traffic on it than the road I was on, but there was still a fair amount of truck traffic where I was. The shoulder on highway 14 was wide and in good condition though, so the trucks didn’t bother me.

One thing that scared the daylights out of me though was a military jet that flew past me at what couldn’t have been more than a couple hundred feet above the ground. It was banking to the right, following the curve in the river and then I watched it bank back to the left and head across the river. It went from a quiet country highway to being very loud very quickly and that’s what scared me. After I realized it was a jet and not a truck about to run me over, I looked up to see what it was. It was quite low. Later in the day, we learned that there’s the Boardman Bombing Range just across the border in Oregon.

I finished the ride today in Biggs, Oregon. There wasn’t any lodging in Biggs, so we drove to the nearby town of The Dalles, Oregon. As we drove down main street The Dalles, walking down the sidewalk and waving at us was Pat’s sister, Susan. She had driven up from her home in Portland to visit with us on our rest day.

Total distance:	85.69 miles
Time:	5:47:24
Average speed:	14.8 mph
Maximum speed:	40.8 mph
Total calories:	5611
Average heart rate:	111 bpm
Maximum heart rate:	150 bpm
Total ascent:	2644 feet
Total descent:	2946 feet
Ride profile:	(click on image to view a larger version)
Ride comments: A clear and sunny day. Cool in the morning. Warmed up to around 80 degrees by early afternoon. Calm in the morning, but a light tailwind by mid-day. It was rolling hills along the north side of the Columbia River. One fairly big climb near the end of the ride.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 9:25 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.