Riding ridge line trails through the Cascades Oregon USA Episode 10

In this episode I ride some very exposed tracks and even more fun tracks. A mountain reveals itself and I cross a very large and beautiful river to end the Oregon leg of this journey. Morning. Just about finished packing up as the sun's just coming over the ridge of pine trees over the other side of the lake. Early to bed so early to rise. It is actually a lot warmer this morning. Still cold but a lot warmer than the last, well two nights ago. Getting to Washington today hopefully and may see a rather large mountain. Volcano mountain. Should still have snow on it. We'll see. Get on with it. I headed off along the track I came in on. Then it turned back into the forest towards a road that ran parallel with the lake. This road doesn't seem as though it has had a lot of love in a very long time. I could see something well off into the distance that was quite large. I pulled into the gas station to fill up for the day of trails ahead but this one was still closed. So I went a little further into the town. There was the first decent sight of the biggest mountain in Oregon, Mount Hood. Luckily the second gas station was open. The first gas station wasn't open so I went to the next one as I wanted to get something warm. Some sort of sausage egg McMuffin with cheese. It's warm. This was a small side track on the BBR route. A fast flowing forest road and this is the closest I've gotten to hitting a squirrel but luckily again I didn't take it out. They seem to always get themselves out of trouble. This is Mount Hood with an elevation of 11,249 feet or 3,429 meters. It is classed as an active volcano with recent activity in the 1800s. Currently it's considered dormant but closely monitored by scientists. I rode as close as I could get to the trailhead. Having a quick look at Mount Hood and the White River it's down to a stream or maybe a trickle. There's not a lot going on. There is still some snow on the mountain and you can see about halfway up there's a ski lift. It's pretty impressive as you ride in though just seeing around each corner appearing like a like a mountain. I'm not sure what's next. I'll be on some trails soon hopefully and then keep getting glimpses of this thing. The old guy's just hiked past me for a bit of a chat and he said next week covered in snow at the top and I said well it's probably good I won't be here and he said yeah I used to own a bike in Michigan. I said was it cold there and he says yep cold. He's actually hiking up to the first little canyon beside the snowfall there or just under it. Good effort. He said he hikes up once a week. Had a cute fit when you're getting a little older. Magical place. I got back on to the main road. It climbed up a bit then I took a turn off which got me on to the dirt. This trail looked like it was going to be a good one. A really good one. The first part was a little potholed and chewed up but eventually smoothed out. Although the low morning sun can make it a little hard to see the track clearly it is beautiful how it streams and filters through the trees washing the ground with a golden glow. The forest cleared to my left so I pulled over to see if there was a view and yes yes there was. It just keeps getting better. A spectacular view like everywhere. So dense these forests here. I gather hundreds of years ago everywhere in this region was covered with forests like this. The track kicked up again and was a lot steeper in this section. I was right on the spine of the ridge now with views to both sides. I then came to a section which had steep drop-offs to my left. Not quite as gnarly as the ones I'd ridden in the Himalayas but still the same result if you get it wrong. And again it was amazing to see these mountains and valleys covered in so much green forest. The track then opened up a bit more and became faster and more flowing. I started coming across sections that I can only describe as rock-like waterfalls as if a truck had dumped massive amounts of rocks at the top of the ridge and they float down the side like water. I gather there is a geological word for this phenomena. The track changed again now a lot more embedded rocks and loose ones too with holes and trenches just to keep it interesting and me on my toes. I saw a side track so of course I took it but it led nowhere so I dropped back down onto the main track. I pulled off the track as there was a clearing. If you time it right and come up here in the afternoon there's a few camp spots dotted throughout on the ridge which would be amazing places to camp for the evening. It even has a fireplace but as there is a fire ban here it seems they put these little flags in all the uh anything that looks like a fireplace just to remind people no fires at the moment. The trail so far is good. The first part's a lot of potholes but once you get out of that a lot of rocks. A lot of fun. Some flowy sections but yeah mainly rocks so far so we'll see what the uh rest brings. So cool. And of course the coolest thing in these parts was definitely Mount Hood. An imposing and majestic giant but it wasn't the only giant in sight. Wherever you looked there was another and ridges that went on to the horizon. There were a lot of trees down along this section. It seems around every corner there's a better view of the mountain. There is an inconvenient tree growing for a great shot but the tree's right. This is definitely what I was hoping for when thinking about riding through Oregon. Magic mountain passes and ridgelines and forests everywhere with volcanoes peeking out. It's so magical. I haven't come across anybody on the section of track yet so it's pretty quiet too. Another rock waterfall. I finally made it back onto a sealed road. The section I just completed along the ridge has probably some of the best views I've seen so far. Also it's the kind of surface I like riding on the most so that has to be one of my favorite sections of the Oregon BDR. Before long I was back onto another gravel road. Gravel roads are normally great to ride but I find I need to be careful when like here the gravel has been pushed out of the wheel tracks and the loose stuff has built up either side. If you stray from the wheel tracks into the built-up super soft loose rock it can catch you out. There was a random short section of sealed road then back onto the gravel. Another cruisy fun flowing track to explore. I looked out to the east and in the far distance it looked like there was a river valley. I started to descend once again. I gather I was dropping into the valley by the river. Somehow I missed a turn so back I went. It's been a while since I've done that, well a couple of days at least. I was now off the mountain ridge and down onto the valley floor. Now that's an impressive barn. Crops, horses, tractors, another big barn. Definitely in farmland now. I pulled over to see what the orchard was. Pears. There was a viewpoint so I had to check it out. It was an incredible lush productive and beautiful valley. I was back into the real world once again. And this was the end of the Oregon BDR, but definitely not the end of my journey. This is the Hood River Bridge which crosses the Columbia River and also the state line between Oregon and Washington. The bridge was opened in 1924. It is 4,418 feet or 1,374 meters in length. It is a lift span bridge to allow boats to get further up or down the river. The metal grid surface feels a bit weird as you ride across it. It doesn't feel like there's a lot of traction and the steering feels quite vague on it. For some reason I don't think I'd want to cross it in the wet. I had now crossed the border into the state of Washington. I pulled over to try and get a photo of the mountain ridges as they dropped into the river, which gave a really interesting pattern like the mountain ridges earlier in the day, but these were dropping vertically into the water. The Columbia River is North America's largest river by water volume flowing into the Pacific. Its length is approximately 1,270 miles or 2,040 kilometers. I passed through a bunch of tunnels, obviously easier to go through the rock than around it, seeing there was a river on the left. There was a freight train beside the river which was very very very very very long. I rode into the small town of Stephenson and found the nearest grocery store. I filled up with supplies for the next leg. While I was stopped I looked around for somewhere to stay. There were very little options in my price range, most in the hundreds of dollars. I found the cheapest place I could, which was only a short ride back down the road I had just ridden along. It was on the Washington VDR route, well just off the side road. Also the town of Stephenson is only a couple of kilometers from the start of the Washington Backcountry Discovery route, so I guess that means I have officially started the Washington VDR. I pulled in to the accommodation for the night. Well it's a lot flasher than my normal place I'd stay, but it was the only place available, well the cheapest place available. Others were in the four or five hundred dollar mark and this was only twenty dollars, more than my budget would allow. Bonus, it has a therapy pool, so there's hot springs or something. Not sure, but I think I'll take advantage of that. The big decision is check out 12 tomorrow. Normally I get up and go early, but after however long it's been on the road now, maybe I should sleep in and take advantage of the facilities. The air conditioning is doing a great job, about to hit that shower, eat something and then work out. Obviously I'm heading north still, so that's Washington, I'm in Washington. Follow their BTOW for a little bit, but then I'm gonna go towards the coast and try and get into Canada to go see a mate of mine. I don't know how far I'll go up north, but that's the plan. So I'm gonna take advantage and start it all again tomorrow. In the next episode, I spend all day in the forest. Then I go underground. I stop to have a chat with a guy walking the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail. Finally finding a campsite beside a lake.