Hood River to Bend

When I woke this morning I had a sore throat, felt chilled and had nasal congestion.  The unmistakable signs of a cold trying to set up camp and I'm not having that shit on a ride with another 1500 miles to go.  Ever tried sneezing while you're riding 70MPH and wearing a full coverage helmet?

So I made a quick trip to the Rite Aid and stocked up on all stuff the pharmacist recommended.  Had I been at home I'd have just rung the bell on my nightstand and Nurse Sherry would have come runnin' with all this and, if I asked nicely, homemade chicken noodle soup.  Like the kind I had at the Corner Cafe.  Remember?

When I first cranked my GS this morning I experienced a couple of issues.  First, when it first started it belched a lot of white smoke.  Seemed to all come out at once, then cleared up.  Next time I tried to start it the engine turned over but wouldn't start.  Gave it a minute and tried again and it fired up.  Ran perfectly all day, zero starting issues or smoke.  Must have been holding my mouth wrong.

Our route, from Hood River to Bend, took us solidly into the Cascade Mountain Range and gave us looks at Mt. Hood, Mt Jefferson, Mt Washington and peaks of Three Sisters (South, Middle and North).  We spent hours winding through  the Mount Hood National Forest, the Williamette National Forest and the Deschutes National Forest.

Many of the roads we took we cut through magnificent stands of Redwood and Hemlock and the roads were often in a canopy of trees with virtually no sunlight getting in. I saw few dead trees or bare mountain sides, very limited fire damage...it felt like virgin, old growth timber and an exceptionally healthy ecosystem.

Much of the day we were running into the sun and with the dense trees along almost all of the roads, the shadows made visibility, especially seeing whats going on at the edges of the woods a challenge.  I worried about a deer (or worse) lurking in those shadows. 

First order of business today was to ride from Hood River, OR around the southern end of Mt. Hood, penetrating the Mt. Hood National Forest in the process.  We eased out of Hood River and pointed those big pigs onto Hwy 35 South.  We skirted along the eastern edge of Mt Hood National Forest and had frequent views of it...a perfectly formed mountain.  Mt. Hood has perfect form, like a 10,000' Hershey's Kiss...with glaciers, timber and rock faces all over.

Hwy 35 ended at Hwy 26 and we turned west and headed up the switch backed ascent to the historic Timberline Lodge which sits on the side of Mt. Hood at 5,000'.

From the parking lot of the lodge Mt. Hood's glaciers were evident, but were not as massive as those we saw on Mt. Rainier.

The mountain hosts a Ski School and there is year round skiing available thanks to the glaciers.

We turned our backs on Mt. Hood and pointed south, headed for Detroit, OR.

The National Forest Roads we used (NF 42 and NF46) appear to have been built to primarily to support the logging industry.  The roads are beautifully surfaced and carve scenic arcs through the forest.  But there is next to nothing in these forests other than massive stands of timber.  No houses, no gas stations, no post offices...nada.

A lot of the NF roads are one lane, freshly paved, with turnouts available in both directions every quarter mile.  I suppose that's to get the hell out of the way of a logging truck that's trying to make a buck.

In Detroit (Oregon) we stopped for lunch and met the Queen of Sarcasm.  Fifty years old, gut hanging over her belt, left side of her upper teeth gone, tats on both forearms.  She was standing in the front doorway of this little store/deli.  I asked if they were serving food and if the burgers were any good.

With a mass of food visible in her mouth, she said, "It depends on how I make it.  I can make you an awful one if you want". Burgers turned out to be pretty good and she turned out to be a piece of work; the sarcasm just dripped off her.

When she asked how my burger was I said, "Awful."

Lunch was served on the back deck overlooking a dry lake bed with a thin ribbon of a stream running through it.  The dry bed was littered with floating boat docks that will be used when the lake fills up, as it does every year, this coming spring.  The lake's waters are used for local irrigation and in the words of a local seated next to us, "To light all those lamps in California."

Around 1:30PM we pulled away from the Deli in Detroit and pushed towards Sisters, OR which sits in the shadow of the Three Sisters (North, Middle and South) Mountains.  Just to our east a spine of the Cascades runs north/south and presented views of  Mt. Washington, then Mt. Jefferson and then the Three Sisters mountains.

Traffic in Sisters was heavy (the town appears to be precious) and we were happy to pass on through and cruise laser-straight Hwy 20 towards Bend.  KC remarked that every building in town seemed to be new or newly refurbished.
 
We arrived in Bend around 3:30 and found traffic surprisingly heavy.  I had a tough time finding the Hampton Inn this afternoon...either I had a brain fart or my Garmin GPS and iPhone are conspiring against me.  I hate a conspiring device more than anything and I will get these little bastards under control if, as KC's says, it hair lips the Pope.

Checked in, unpacked, had a malted milk ball and met KC at the fire pit.  We met a nice young couple from Oceanside, CA holding a five month old baby and the conversation ranged from raising kids, to spoiling grand kids, to California's problems and why they didn't want to live there anymore, to living in Texas and Oregon and North Carolina and other places too.

We ended the day with 197 miles and after five days, we have logged a total of 1188 miles and are at the halfway point in terms of riding days.  We are holding up well and have fallen into a routine that keeps us organized and moving forward.  And that's the key to travel.

Keep moving forward.