2015-09-10 - Biking Day

2015-09-10 – Biking        

Temira’s forecast was very clear.  Light and Variable everywhere – No Sailing.   Ross suggested a biking day.  We took his car up past Parkdale towards Mount hood, and then up to the start of “Neabal Springs”.  He would mountain bike down to Parkdale – about a 3.5 hour ride. 

Ross at the "Eight Mile" trail Head!

I drove back to Parkdale, parked in the shade and took my Road Bike for a ride up Cooper Spur Road.  The full loop is 56 miles, but I did only a small portion.  Apparently there is a solid 16km climb from Parkdale up to the ski resort.  I made it five, then turned around.  

Nice view of Mount Hood!

What took me 35 minutes to go up, took me only five minutes to go back down, so I turned right and headed down another hill towards the highway 35.  Of course that meant another hill to climb on the way back.

Ted - DONE!

My total ride was less than an hour, but more than enough for my me.  As I still had a couple of hours to wait for Ross, I had a strawberry Sunday at the local ice cream shop and read the manual for Louise’s and my new Camera.

At four, I went across the street to the Solera Brewing Company where we had agreed to meet.  It is an interesting place.  The “Deck” on the back is just a roped off piece of field, with picnic tables and some tents for shade.   

The Solera back deck!

There is a nice view of the surrounding orchards and Mount Hood.  When Ross arrived we had a couple of beers along with supper (Ross called it lunch).  The food was great, and the people were friendly.  It seemed that most of the people knew each other, which is no surprise – and most of them had brought their dogs.  The Deck area was like an off-leash dog park with beer.

The view of Mount Hood from the Solera back deck!

One the way back to town, we stopped at the Hood River Farmers market to buy some local produce.  (Fresh Corn, Apples, Cheese, and Bread).  Then Ross noticed that the Cider Shop, which had opened a couple of blocks from his condo, was open, so we walked down to give it a try.  It is called Crush Cider.  The owners were very friendly, and it wasn’t very busy, so they fed us samples of their different ciders.

We finally got back to the Condo around 8:00, showered, and then cooked up the corn and ate it with bread, cheese and wine and cider.  A little later, Brad, Blaine and Al showed up.  They, had arrived in the afternoon after a leisurely drive down, and stopping for a round of golf at the course just out of Bonners Ferry.  Kent, Rene, Gerry and Eddy had also arrived.  Jim, Harold and Handre are still on the road.

It looks like East wind tomorrow, and then some decent westerlies (the normal direction) on Saturday and Sunday.  Looking forward to a great week.