Today, we started a gigantic climb to ride around the perimeter of Mt. Hood. Mt. Hood dominates the Oregon landscape at 11,000 feet and is covered in snow year 'round. As a bonus, you can look just across the Columbia River into adjacent Washington and see infamous Mt. St. Helens.
Today we CLIMBED! From the moment that we left the hotel until the terminus of our ride, it was nearly 100% uphill. There were a few roller coaster class downhills for about two miles total, but the balance was continuous climbing.
We passed throug a beautiful agricultural district with many varieties of fruit and nut trees and a number of farms including a goat farm. The goats greeted us as we passed by. Due to the delerium of all the climbing we started talking to the goats, too. Clearly, we each understood each other!
At the height of our climb, there was still abundant snow on the ground. The region has many ski parks and other outdoor recreation venues.
Our ride was supposed to be for 77 miles today. Due to the intensity of the climb and our running out of daylight we terminated the ride at 57 miles. Only Fern, Doug, Joan (somewhere in her seventies) and myself completed that distance. The rest of the rider's had to be SAGed (picked up by support vehicle) back to the start.
Today's ride: 57 miles -- 5600 feet of climb (the stairway to heaven).
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