2 days, 8 hours of cycling, 85 miles. My friend Tomas and I spent the weekend cycling 40 miles up the Clackamas River and into the Mount Hood National Forest. We rode up to Fish Creek and managed to set up camp just as the sun faded. I had a host of new camping gear, most of which was purchased for Cycle Oregon - and I just had to test it out. One of the things that wasn't for CO was my new camp stove, a Coleman F1 ultralight. Great stove - I love it. Of course, I had to see what I could do with it, so packed in my panniers and surrounded with ice were 2 eggs and about 4 slices of bacon cut in thirds so they would fit in my camp cookware. I'll tell you, there's nothing like having real bacon in the morning, and not some boil-in-a-bag camping food.
The ride was great, though the climb up 224 south of Estacada was a bear. Normally, cyclists can take the old highway, Faraday Road, which is closed to car traffic and runs along the PGE reservoir. Unfortunately, in March of this year, a rockslide closed the road. PGE is now fixing it, but they've just started and I can't imagine it taking them less than 8 weeks to clear everything and stabilize the slope and the road. Maybe more, I'm not an engineer so I can only guess.
More later, but for now let me say that I am now over 1,600 miles for the year and I had a blast. Also, I biked to areas up the Clackamas I'd never been to except by car, and except for last year's Mount Hood trip, this was the farthest I'd biked from my domicile.
And now to bed.
