Calling an audible

Hello Everyone, 

I've already made one change in the route of my trip recently, so it's perhaps not surprising that during this detour, I made an on the fly decision to take another detour. 

After the events described in my last post, I stayed outside of Boise, Idaho, which is where the pictures in that post were taken. My plan was to drive diagonally though Oregon and Washington towards Vancouver. I was going to stay outside of Yakima last night, which is a day's drive away from Boise. I figured it was a cool town because they have a roof rack company named after them.

But as I was going across Oregon, I saw a turnoff on the highway for Hood River. In one of my few completely spur of the moment decisions, I took the exit. 

Hood River was my favourite spot in Oregon when I was last here. The detour adds a bit of driving to my route, and I won't get to discover a new town, but it did allow me to get a last super fun ride in before I leave the US. 

And so it was that I camped out in a state recreation area last night. You were supposed to have a Discover America pass for this place, but I figured they wouldn't be checking too closely in the the fall. It was a beautiful spot by the river. 

In the morning, Arthur and I got up, had breakfast and went riding. After two consecutive days of being cooped up in the truck, he was pretty jazzed about getting a chance to go running again, especially on the loamy, shaded trails of the Pacific Northwest. 

It was great. A refreshing change from desert riding. Can't say that I'll continue to make a lot of on the fly decisions, but they've worked out pretty well for me so far. 

Wes

Photos 

I didn't take many pictures yesterday or today, so here's one of a snake we came across on the trail, and one from the trail itself. Note all those great trees providing shade.