Epic Waterfalls

Oregon's warning sign!!

The Gorge


Multnomah Falls

Horse tail falls

Today started bright and early at 7:00. First breakfast and then a shuttle out of Portland. Thank heavens we avoided Monday morning traffic! About 20 minutes out of the city we started a 10 mile gradual up hill ride to arrive at the Portland Women's Forum. I have no idea what that is about, but there were beautiful views of the Columbia Gorge.
The Columbia Gorge is a wide, long supervalley that looks like it might have been formed by glaciers. But, it is more interesting than that. About 750,000 years ago, a glacier was blocking the Clarke headwaters (I may be incorrect in that!) As the glacier moved, it released all of the water it was blocking into this area. Over the next 2500 years, this water carved the Gorge. The amount of water is the equivalent of a mile high, mile wide river that extends from Portland to San Francisco. A Lot of Water!!
First the waterfalls. The 10 mile gradual ascent turned into a screaming 5 mile descent. Worth it because of the views, but I hate downhills and I am sure I will need a new set of brakes before the week is over.
After reaching the high point, we rode into a valley of waterfalls. Bridal Veil falls, Horse tail falls, Wakeenah falls, each more beautiful than the last. But the granddaddy of the Gorge falls is Multnomah Falls, the second or first highest continuously running falls in the US or North America. You can see that my exhaustion may have interferred with my ability to listen. Anyway, it is big. There are two viewpoints: one at the lowest point and then a bridge across a higher point, probably a quarter of the way up. In the 70's a wedding party was being photographed on that bridge and a 400 ton rock fell from the top, causing a huge splash and drenching the whole party! OK, so I could listen to the information that I thought was hysterical and gave me the opportunity to laugh at someone!
We had a great picnic lunch -- heirloom tomato, peach and basil salad, quinoa with avacodo, fresh Ranier cherries.
After lunch we rode about 6 miles to the end of the main ride, which totaled about 28 miles. Ridetime, 2 hours and 15 minutes. It took a lot of the day to get there because of the stops.
Now, to the epic. Our guides gave us an additional cue sheet referring to the "Epic" ride, but it was only 14 miles. How epic could it be? Rob, our guide, explained that there were 4 short climbs in the ride, each at about a 10% grade!! Fortunately, my math skills are so bad that I don't know what a 10% grade is. Five guys were going, so you know I had to go!! One other woman, a tough Pittsburgh girl, went as well.

The first three miles of the ride was on the freeway. Yes, Maryland, in the West, everyone gets to use the freeway!! Then we turned onto a bike path that was rough and mostly uphill. At mile 4.4 there was painted on the concrete, in white capital letters, "STAIRS." Yes, there are stairs in the bike path. I could see the Army Corps of Engineers hand in this. So, we carried our bikes down the stairs and started out again. I can only assume that there are no lawyers in Oregon.
The remainder of the ride was rolling and beautiful, with great views of the Gorge. Oh, and by the way, we were on our own. No sag. The sag van had to take the other folks back to the hotel.
We passed two fish hatcheries on the way, as well as a roadside cherry stand, but I was too nervous to stop. At about mile 10, we turned onto some road and immediately started to climb. The first hill was like the DAM hill, so not bad and we cheered at the top. A short flat and then the second hill. Now, whatever 10% means, I don't know, but it was nearly vertical from where I sat, which was on a bike, need I remind. The third hill could was three times as long as the first, with only a brief - 10 feet - break. At the time, I thought this was the 3rd and 4th, but I may have been hallucinating. No one would have called that one hill. Sure enough, as I cleared the top, I could see hill number 4, which I think should have been hill number 5. But, it was short and could hardly be called a hill at that point. I rode all the way (yes I am being honest) but I did stop twice. When my heart rate hit 172. I thought the stops were necessary.
Then it was down hill. Down hill!! Again. I squeezed so hard to keep my speed to 25 mph.
It felt great to finish. 14 miles in an hour and 15 minutes! It was a tough 14 miles. It seemed like forever.
It will feel better to go to sleep.
Our hotel is gorgeous, with gardens and swings everywhere.
Tomorrow we are hiking around a lake and then riding about 35 miles. Apparently, there is another steep ride to a lavender farm about 8/10 of a mile long. That seems like a mile to me.
Great dinner, with some discussion of the necessity of doping if you are doing the Tour de France, or a Sojourn trip in Oregon, which seems about the same at this point!