Jue 25, 2008

June 25, 2008 Vantage to Odessa, WA 81 miles (86)

Day three was another perfect ride. After sleeping (kind of) an extremely windy night at the Vantage campground we awoke to a cool, clear day that promised nothing but the best! Blustery Burgers put on a great breakfast – they are also the ones who sponsored last night’s dinner – we all gathered together for an escorted convoy ride across the Columbia River. Because the I 90 bridge has no shoulders support vehicles “book ended” the riders as we took over one lane of the road to cross the river. After that it was every rider for themselves.

In reality, by now, most riders have found people of their own ability or riding style to ride with each day. Some are fast, some are slow, but everyone is making it into camp at a reasonable time.

The ride today began with a two mile climb up and out of the Columbia River gorge. After that there were several long, steady climbs interspersed with an occasional downhill. The temperature rose into the mid to upper eighties and the sun was relentless. We will see hotter temperatures in the days to come so today provided a good introduction to the heat.

Vantage to Odessa is a vast, largely uninhabited stretch of land. We were on state route 28 for approximately 60 miles, 40 of which had absolutely no services! Every time we saw one of the support vehicles we were quite happy – especially when the crew had ice cream cones ready for us in the middle of nowhere.

We set up camp on the Odessa High School athletic field and were served a wonderful meal by community members.