June 21 St. Helens to Welches, Oregon

A quick 75 mile ride through rolling lush, rolling green hills thick with wildflowers.  A mild breeze all the way.  It seemed like the wild lupine and Queen Anne’s lace were cheering us on from the side of the road.

We have four Dans on this trip. I’ve been riding with Columbus Dan, so named because he’s from Columbus, Ohio.  We ride at about the same pace and it’s nice to have someone to zip along with.  It happens that Dan’s six-year-old triplet grand daughters live close to the route.  So we stopped in to visit.  Even puppies aren’t as cute as six-year-old girls. This was cuteness cubed. They stole my heart within minutes.

The first 20 miles or so were overcast — even foggy — and cool.  Then we popped out of the bad weather and saw Mt. Hood.  We followed the mountain for the next 50 miles, playing peekaboo as it ducked behind thickly forested hills and the occasional cloud. After stopping for burgers and shakes at Calamity Jane’s, we reached Welches in mid-afternoon. Welches can lay claim to the first golf course ever built in Oregon (back in 1928). Other than that, it’s pretty quiet around here.  The main attraction is that it’s in the gorgeous Mt. Hood recreation corridor.

A bit of bad luck yesterday as well.  The nicest guy in our whole group flipped off his bike and broke his collar bone.  He trained very hard for this trip so I’m betting he’ll be back next year.  So, that’s one less rider this year but one more next year.

Daily distance: 75.5 miles (121.5 km)
Average speed: 14.7 mph (23.6 kph)
Day’s climb: 3,150 feet (960.1 meters)
Total distance: 175.5 miles (282.4 km)

 

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3 Responses to June 21 St. Helens to Welches, Oregon

  1. Vicki Griffith says:

    Gorgeous pictures. The trip sounds like a lot of fun so far. See you in Michigan. Vicki

  2. margaret mcguckin says:

    Feel like i am there with you. Thanks for keeping us updated. Ride safely 🙂

  3. Harry Debes says:

    RIDE Forrest, I mean Travis, RIDE … and don’t fall off.

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