Mount Hood Loop

Before we even left on our trip almost two years ago, we began a campaign to have people meet us along the way. We’ve always hoped that friends and family from home would be a part of our journey by sharing in the experience of it with us. We’ve had lots of family come and use visiting us as a vacation, which has been awesome. But we’ve also been hoping  that someone from home would come along and not just travel with us, but ride alongside us for some period of time. At last the day came!

Meet Brett Warta, a good friend of Dave’s from “the lab” at Georgia Tech. These guys were working on their masters’ degrees at the same time under the same adviser. Brett is an avid traveler, and has been talking about meeting us since before we even left. And finally… the schedules worked out, plans fell in place, and he called us shortly after we arrived in Portland, getting ready to book his flight to meet us there.

Brett and Dave

The logistics are always a bit tricky in having someone meet you for bike touring. Fortunately Brett has most of his own gear–tent, pad, sleeping bag, etc. And even more fortunately, we were in Portland, a place where calling up a local bike shop and renting a touring bike with panniers for the week is a piece of cake. Dave and I talked to Anna, a friend from home who hosted us here in Portland, and she recommended a scenic route we could take for a short bike tour that would drop us back in Portland.

Our route couldn’t have been better for a week-long loop. Each day was filled with unique and breathtaking scenery. We launched from Portland on Saturday for a short day, with only the goal of making it out of the city. The real fun began on Sunday when we started our ride through the Columbia River Gorge. If you Google search Top 10 Scenic Drives in America, this one will be on the list every time. We did 60 of the 80 miles of this beautiful byway, through the heart of the gorge.

One of our first vistas in the Gorge.

The first 30 miles takes you through an area with the nation’s highest concentration of waterfalls. We made a slow day of it, stopping every few miles to hike a short trail in to check out each set of falls along the way.

Rockstar parking.

Multnomah Falls was the highest, at 620 feet. It is the most-visited natural site in the state of Oregon… and understandably so!

Group photo in front of Horsetail Falls, our sixth and final waterfall stop of the day

On day two, we crossed the river into Washington to ride farther up the Gorge to the town of Hood River. We had tail winds, sunshine, and our first clear view of Mount Hood. From there we turned south into the Hood River Valley, where fruit orchards and wineries line the rolling hills. Because we weren’t in a hurry (each day we only rode about 30-35 miles), we stopped for loads of pictures and an afternoon wine-tasting.

Dave and Brett rolling through the Gorge, shortly before we crossed back into Oregon

On day three we decided to take a detour that would take us past a few more wineries… and we were met again with clear views of not only Mount Hood, but also Mount Adams, another towering, snow-capped peak. After our slow morning and some tasty samples, we bought a bottle of wine and hit the road to start our climb up and away around the back side of Mount Hood. We took a small, barely traveled road that took us up to Cooper Spur Ski Area, where we found a spot in the woods and parked it for the night.

Getting closer to the mountain… and definitely going up to get there!

Nature’s refrigerator… we chilled the wine in the nearby mountain stream.

Evening sky over our campsite

Day four took us up to our highest altitude on our short loop–just over 4,000 feet (or about 1,300 meters). It was certainly not like the Andes, but we haven’t done much riding in the mountains recently, so it was a good wake-up call for our climbing muscles to get back in shape! Fortunately, Brett had no trouble keeping up in the hills… and in fact most of the time was leading the way up the long climbs. After beginning our descent, we stopped in the small town of Government Camp for groceries and delicious homemade milkshakes. And that night, for the first time on our short tour, we paid for a campsite and made dinner and s’mores over the fire.

The downhill began with our best views yet of Mount Hood

Dave always takes the campfire-building job seriously.

Our last day was the least exciting, with less scenery and more highway to get us back to Portland. We rode back into town across the river on the Burnside Bridge–a complete loop. We spent another couple of days hanging out before we saw Brett off to the airport, headed back to work in Alaska. We were so grateful to have a friend who was willing to use valued time off to meet us and join in the adventure of bicycle touring. And we were reminded again that relationships are really the highlight of our travels… and of life! Traveling together for this season of our marriage is such a gift, but it’s made even better by the people who are a part of our journey in one way or the other.

For Dave and me, this one-week detour was like a mini-vacation from our normal routine of bike touring… we enjoyed more treats like desserts, daily coffee, and wine with dinner. This 150-mile loop was really the perfect vacation route for a bike tour in the Northwest. We highly recommend it if you’re looking for a short trip to get started on the bike!