Still, I'd had a great night's sleep: as Derek had promised, the beds here were fantastic! Pottering around getting my stuff together, I simultaneously got my head around this being the last day of my tours in the NW US in 2008 – man, it cruised by so fast!
Down to breakfast, got fueled up, and then I wandered outside into the beautiful early morning. The temperature was crisp but warming up, the skies were blue, blue, blue, and the place was active with skiers and snowboarders making their way up to the slopes of Mt Hood for a day of fun.
Looking at Hood, it didn't seem as if there was enough snow on it for anything, but of course the scale of the mountain meant that even a smallish patch of snow was actually a large field, more than enough for all.
Took a whole bunch of shots of Hood – here's the most interesting:
The large patch of snow picture-centre is the ski field.
Silhouetted against the clear blue sky traced with jet stream whisps, Hood loomed over the Lodge, its jagged faces cradling a bowl of snow. An amazing view.
Standing on a high retaining wall and looking away from Hood over the lower carpark, the rolling landscape stretched away into distance: this had been our playground for the last 8 days, and it was sad to have to leave it.
Still, leave it we must. As a bonus, leaving meant descending from Timberline the same way we'd come up, however this time the journey would be somewhat less in duration!
With no cars, runners or obstructions of any sort, it was a blitz down the sweetly curving road. A few touches on the brakes here and there where early-morning moisture still frosted the road, but apart from that it was all tucked in and very little pedaling! Awesome! I would've gladly climbed the thing again to repeat that.
The rest of the morning was a lovely ride mostly through rural rolling countryside: cropped fields and orchards abounded, animals head down cropping grass or lying contentedly, roads winding through patches of trees and then opening out into sunlit spaces: idyllic.
The road was nicely up and down, with a series of hills at one point raising a sweat. Called the Devil's Backbone (named I presume after the multiple bumps on a backbone), they weren't as satanic as they sounded, but nevertheless had me backing into the low chaingear on my compact for a good little workout.
At one point, tootling up a hill, a monstrous apparition emerged from the trees beside the road and, baying for my blood, proceeded to charge along the road beside me snarling and slathering. It was a dog – a large dog, and it was hungry for the taste of cyclist! After it gained a little ground ahead of me (which was an admirable feat – its appearance caused me to sit up and take off like I was in the final sprint to the line of a Grand Tour!) it did a 180 and attempted a little nip at my feet. It missed thankfully, and slowed to a trot as I accelerated away.
Looking behind me, I saw Nick not too far back, and decided to turn around. The beast had decided to go back and test out Nick's pace. Unlike myself, Nick was however made of sterner stuff, and faced the beast down – it promptly snuck back into the trees and howled and barked at us from a cowardly distance. Nick and I shared a laugh over my reaction to seeing the dog emerge frothing from the underbrush and we tootled on up the hill together. We very soon came across another pack of dogs of wolf-like appearance: these were ensconced behind a high fence and were running up its inside alongside us, also baying for our meat. What the hell was going on around here? – were they breeding some sort of super hound-from-hell?
I suggested to Nick that we go back and warn others about the dog-on-the-loose: it was a very sizeable hound, and could easily bring down a full-grown buffalo, yet alone a mere cyclist!
So, we did, and spent a very nice half hour or so keeping the dog huffing and barking in the underbrush as the rest of the group came by in dribs and drabs. Nick is a friendly and very intelligent man, and we chatted on a variety of topics to pass time: it was very pleasant standing beside this sunny road engaged in pleasant conversation and performing a community service!
Unbeknown to us, it seems the wolf-like creatures further up around the bend had somehow managed to liberate themselves from behind the high fence, and were terrorizing our same cyclists who we assumed we were protecting further back down the road! Oops!
With the arrival and passing of the final member of our group, Nick and I left the now mostly quiet brute to its shadowy underbrush, and continued our cruise towards our lunch time and end-of-journey spot: Meinig Memorial Park in the City of Sandy.
The final cruise was more of the first, ending with a charming little 2km rise (actually it was a little bugga!) up to Sandy, and from there the park: a 64km journey in all from Timberline Lodge.
Arriving at the park, my bum decided it didn't want to get off the saddle, so I turned 'round and spun off into Sandy itself, aimlessly wandering around as my mind contemplated and resigned itself to the end of another tour...
Post the final excellent lunch, we were ceremonially given our Tour completion certificates. Here's a few pics from the final stop:
Nick, and guides Diane and Derek.
Diane, Lynn, Randy (hidden) and Richard.
Judy, Ron and Barbara.
Piling into the van, we headed to various drop-off points in Portland, Oregon and beyond. I was headed back to Olympia Washington, the end-point of the van's destination, along with Lynn and Richard, and Ron and Barbara; also on board for the entire ride as they'd commenced their journey from there 8 days prior.
So, our little group trundled away from Sandy and, with farewells, deposited members at various points in Portland before moving onto Olympia where final goodbyes with remaining passengers were said.
It was done – another two cycling tours under my belt. I'd ridden all over the loveliest places in Washington and Oregon by bike, van and train; met some of the nicest people you could hope to be with (including having the joy of catching up with friends Amy and Steve, the Tandem Terrors from the Glacier Tour of 2007, again), and seen some of the most beautiful scenery and places imaginable. That's what a great cycling tour is all about!
So, what's next? Well, still got to do my post-tour days wrap-up, but for now, here in Perth, Western Australia it's sunny, warm and inviting: I'm going for a ride!
Good luck and fortune to all fellow participants of my 2008 Oregon Crater Lake and Volcanoes of Washington Tours, thanks for the memories, and stay safe!
No comments:
Post a Comment