Sierra Cascades – 8/22/2013 – Government Camp to Detroit Lake

 

Well Government Camp wasn’t  a camp at all; it is a ski area for Mt Hood. (Photo on right is our last view on Mt Hood.) And like all ski towns it was full of nice shops.  Our lodging wasn’t cabins; it was a new Best Western motel.  But it was a motel without air conditioning (These still exist?) and the temperature when I arrived was 90 degrees.  Brenda didn’t get much sleep because of the heat.

Today's 70 mile ride through Mt Hood National Forest seemed much easier than yesterday’s 45 mile ride. Most of the days so far, and I believe again tomorrow, consists of a single hill, maybe 30, 40, 50 miles followed by a sometimes scary descent.  But going up hill for 30 or more miles really takes the energy out of you. Or at least out of me.

But today’s ride was a mixture. There were three smaller climbs – last one was 10 miles – but much of the day consisted of rolling terrain.  This is good.

I was feeling better today and rode my normal pace, which is pretty slow.  But I kept up with Brenda most of the day.

Remember last night’s heat? By mile 20 today the temperature was in the 50’s and people were cold. Brenda put on her long fingered gloves. At mile 30 it started to rain. So the dilemma is (1) to put on a light rain resistant jacket or (2) the whole kit with rain boots, rain pants and a more rain-proof jacket. We took the first option which was good because the rain didn’t last. But it rained hard and our rim brakes didn’t work well. Not a good situation when going down a mountain. ‘Good thing the roads dried later in the day when we had a 10% down-hill.  But the situation made me think of a bike with disc brakes.

 

Photo at the left was at the last summit. We immediately had the 10% down for a mile and then an incredible 5 mile downhill of probably 5%, extremely smooth road, good visibility, radius on the switch-backs perfect and no cars! This smooth road with no cars continued for a total of 17 miles until we reached Detroit Lake.

Miles today = 69, Elevation gain = 3,911. Total miles = 367, Tot Elevation gain = 22,203