Gorge Falls and Larch Mountain

There is a lot of snow in the mountains. Just like Saturday, today's ride had to be altered due to snow.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 78.2 miles   Elevation Gain: 5,554 feet   Average Moving Speed: 13.94 mph

Our original plan was to ride to Cascade Locks, possibly further, finding our way along the various trails, frontage roads, and of course the Historic Columbia River Highway. The only problem with this route is that you have to actually ride on the I-84 freeway (yes, it is legal) for about 2 or 3 miles. When we got to the point of actually going down the on ramp we both decided it just wasn't worth it. We're not THAT interested in getting to Cascade Locks by bike...

Okay, to be fair, we were both pretty tired today. Saturday's ride, though absolutely fun and beautiful, was also long and hard. My legs took a while to warm up. Amy was struggling a bit too.

So it was a pretty easy decision to change the planned 105 mile ride into a 78 mile ride. It would still include a climb up Larch Mountain, after all.

We went by beautiful waterfall after beautiful waterfall, including, of course, Multnomah Falls. I think Amy subscribes to the same scenic tour guide instruction manual as my Dad: if you blink you miss it! Although, at least Dad stopped. Today we didn't even slow down. Okay, to be fair, again, I was okay with not stopping. It would be nice to get some photos, but other than that I must admit it is nice to just keep on trucking, so to speak.

The climb up Larch Mountain was great. The road was closed to motorized vehicles by way of a gate across the road at about 4 miles from the top. Of course our bicycles are not motorized so we slipped them right under the gate and kept on climbing. Those four miles up (and back down) were great: no cars! I still kept looking in my rear view mirror out of habit though. [Okay, the word "motorized" was not on the Road Closed sign, but it sounds better when writing it up in a blog!]

You can see from the photos the road was blocked by snow. The parking lot is only a tad further, so we got almost the whole ride in.

After we took some photos we sat down to put our warm clothes back on for the descent. I looked up to see a hiker walking over the snow down toward us. Seemed like a nice enough fellow. He had come up from Multnomah Falls and was planning to go back down via Franklin Ridge. He had done this hike before, and commented how he ought to stash a bike up there so he could ride down. I thought about saying he could just ride a bike up in the first place, but decided not to.

RIDE DATA:

It was good to explore further east on the scenic highway. I've been meaning to ride out there for a while, so it is yet another spot I can check off my list. I think we will probably avoid using it as a route to get to the Bridge of the Gods though, since it requires some freeway riding. It is either that or use SR-14 on the Washington side. Pick yer poison. I choose... neither!

Sure was a nice day to ride. Now time for some relaxation.

RIDE MAP IN GOOGLE EARTH:

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