The Think Tank

Tim, Joel and myself took part in the first ever Hood River Harvest Ride, a bike ride through the back roads Around the Hood River / Odell / Parkdale area. There were a total of four loops to choose from and riders could do as many or as few as they wanted to make the ride more challenging. We chose to do the main 28 mile Parkdale loop and 16 mile loop out to Panarama Point and back.

It was a good ride and turned out to be a bit more challenging than any of us had anticipated, but we had a good time nonetheless and I for one would love to do it again next year.

Since I was busy riding I didn’t take any photos, but Aleks took some at the event.  I’ll be posting those as soon as I get them.

You can get all the details after the bump…

Mom, Mo, myself and Joel decided to camp at Lost Lake rather than make the commute out to the Hood River Fairgrounds on Saturday morning, so we met up with our firends The Janes at Lost Lake. Joel had some things to attend to Friday night after work so he met up with us later that night, around 11:30.

Joel & his flat - Photo by Aleks

We met Tim and Aleks (and Olive) at the fairgrounds a little before 9am. As seems to be SOP for us, one of our bikes was out of commission: this time it was Joel’s and was in no way my fault. He’d had a flat tire he’d been meaning to fix and hadn’t gotten around to. We waited around for the SAG wagon to show up but they did not have the tube that Joel needed and told him he’d have to go into Hood River to get it fixed. Tim and I decided to set out on our own and had plans to meet up with Joel at the first rest stop. Aleks decided to pal around with Mom, Mo and The Janes.

Olive at Lost Lake - Photo by Aleks

The course turned our to be more difficult than we had anticipated, an unrelenting 12 mile climb to the first rest stop in Parkdale. The views were beautiful and after it was all over we definitely enjoyed ourselves, but in the moment we were hatin’ life for a few parts of it.

Along the way we passed several of the orchards and farms where we could stop and sample the fresh fruits and veggies, and anything that we wanted to purchase was picked up and delivered to the finish line so we did not have to carry it back with us.

Lookin' Good after 12 miles! - Photo by Aleks

We hit the first rest stop around 11:30 and indulged in the fresh fruit, home made brownies and cookies, and water and fresh apple cider that the locals had provided. We called Joel for an update and he said he was about 45 minutes away still, so we called to check in with the girls and learned that by a happy coincidence they were only a block away having lunch at a cafe, so we pedaled over and met with them while we waited for Joel to catch up.

Once Joel arrived and, by his own reckoning, cleaned out the rest stop of all it’s remaining food, we set off down the road again. Our legs were decidedly weary as we set off, and even though we knew the rest of the trip was trending down, attempting a second loop was looking unlikely.

Do I smell french fries? - Photo by Aleks

We made really good time now as everything was level or downhill, and we got onto some nice winding backroads with beautiful views of the mountains and valleys. There was one long upgrade that pretty well wore us out and slammed the door on any thoughts we have been entertaining on possibly doing another loop, then we flew down an awesome long and straight hill that I (we)  really raced down (42 mph according to my computer), then we rode through some Odell neighborhoods and we were back at the fairgrounds.

They provided us with a bag of goodies (including some freshly picked pears and apples, discount coupons for Footwise and REI, and socks from Keen Footwear) , sandwiches featuring fixin’s from the local farms – the smoked turkey was awesome -, more brownies and cookies and fresh pressed apple cider from just up the hill.

Tim, Aleks and Joel all had to get back to Portland Saturday night, so it was just us and The Janes camping Saturday.  We pooled our dinners into one truly awesome feast that magically went together like it was planned, when in reality both dinners had been planned as stand alones.  I pooped out early as I was pretty tired from the ride and from the week in general, but the ladies partied on into the night.

Changing colors on Lolo Pass Road

Sunday we got up sort of late and set about packing up, then we decided to come over via Lolo Pass to check out the Fall colors, which were just starting to come on.  It was a great weekend and a great ride, something I am definitely planning on making an annual occurrence.