Portland to Cascade Locks
31 miles / feet climb
Knowing that we only had 30 miles to do today, we made another slow start. This is becoming a habit but this first week was planned to familiarise ourselves with cycling on the right side of the road, the road markings, junctions and highways. It was also to help us get over the jet lag, ensure my medication was in sync and learn from our daily bike-packing and it feels like we have ticked all these boxes.
It was so nice not to cycle the highway today, instead we weaved our way up and down windy, hilly country roads for the most part and the old Columbia Railway Trail for the last 15 miles or so. The weather was beautiful, no jackets required today. Far too many hills for my liking, the first was tough by anyone’s standards but it was the two at the end that had me cursing when my legs were tired and I had nothing left to give. The effort required for these last two climbs is not demonstrated by the two little blips on the elevation map below. Trust me, they felt much bigger!
We played tourists today, stopping at a number of stunning waterfalls along the Columbia Gorge. I had hoped that we could plan our mileage to allow days like this. Views too stunning to miss, yet if we’d had 50 + miles to do, we wouldn’t have been able to stop and I am desperate to ensure that we have some down time as well as cycling over the next 90 or so days.
Challenging Times 
Day by day xx
Stunning, good to hear you are having time to admire the views xx
Sounds like you are having a great time.
It would be good to hear a bit of John’s insights, as well. Perhaps an occasional contribution into your post. You can call his section “keeping up with the Johnses”.
Hi Steve, good to hear from you. It’s not for the want of asking and he does keep saying he’ll post something. I’ll give him another nudge! I suspect he will have a lot to say once he gets started 😲!! X
haha
Take each day as it comes, and enjoy it all (bar the climbs!) ☺️ xx
So glad you got to enjoy some beautiful scenery on quieter roads (even if it was hilly 😬)x
Good to hear your jetlag and meds are resynched, Alison. You’re both doing so well. Lovely pics
Lots of love xx
Good work, easing yourself and that Brooks saddle in! 👏
You are doing fine. Good idea to start slow