We cycled 92 miles on Thursday. We had actually planned to do the 92 miles from Biggs Junction, OR to Hermiston, OR in two days, but our legs are strong from 2 weeks of cycling and there was a bit of a tailwind so we decided to do it all in a single day. That will give us a day off from biking on Friday, to hang around Hermiston, before getting on our bikes again on Saturday.
Even though our starting and ending towns were both in Oregon, almost all of the trip was in Washington. We started the day by biking across the Columbia River to Washington and ended the day by recrossing the river back to Oregon, and in between cycled 82 miles in Washington. The first 70 of those 82 miles were almost completely devoid of buildings (other than where we took breaks at 35 and 70 miles), and traffic was so sparse that we were passed by cars or trucks only every 5 minutes or so.The scenery, both natural and man-made, was magnificent. For most of the ride, the Columbia River was on our right and gentle slopes, used for ranchland, were on our left. We passed by innumerable grazing cattle, hundreds (or possibly thousands) of graceful windmills, mile-long trains snaking along tracks between us and the river, and several horses and deer.
...and almost no buildings of any kind
Slopes on the left, Columbia River on the right
All those black specks are cattle grazing
A view of Mount Hood as we cycled
A few of the many windmills we passed
Our first stop at 35 miles, at one of the only buildings in a 60-70 mile stretch.
Carol is checking her email, of course.
Our second (and last) stop, at 70 miles
