No Traffic for Fifty Miles!!

Well, perhaps I exaggerate only slightly. Maybe 5 cars in total - both directions. And the road surface was great too.   Heaven!!

With the heat wave still around and lots of climbing today we had breakfast at 6:30 and I was on the road by about 7:05 - last out, as usual.  When we pulled out of the booming metropolis of Detroit (loved the little motel we stayed at) we immediately turned onto FR 46. I'm assuming FR stands for Forestry Road.  My hopes were not too high, but it was great!  It started out with a full tree canopy overhead, a babbling river (the Breitenbush) beside us, a great road surface below us and full rights to be there.   Typical scenes along the route today.  No traffic so we just took the lane and gradually climbed for most of the first 20 miles.  Lovely National Forest all along.  Kat provided great SAG support all day, even as riders got so spread out on the hills.  At the top of the second climb - nice mountain views behind and lots of bear grass.

After 30 miles on FR 46 we turned onto FR 42. It was pretty much just one lane, but still a really good surface. More climbing on this road, this time a little steeper than before.   I saw as much as 14% on my GPS but beyond that I'm going too slow and the "%grade" can't calculate.   On the downhill after about 43 miles we caught some views of Mt. Hood and saw some lovely rhododendrons, as well as bear grass, by the side of the road.

Passed the Historic Clackamas Ranger Station at mile 48 and crossed the PCT just beyond that.

Finally turned on to a real highway (26) at 56 miles and had to share the road with those darned 4-wheeled vehicles.  Big shoulder, though, so no problem.  A bit of a climb again to Blue Box Pass.

More good views of Mount Hood from time to time.

Downhill to another pass.......

And great views of Mount Hood all the way in (and lots of up - ughhh!) to Government Camp.

Looks like it is mostly a ski village these days.  Apparently they ski on Mount Hood all summer.  It closes for maintenance for a few weeks in September and October but is otherwise open.  I was in to the hotel by about 2-ish.  To my surprise we all have single rooms tonight - not sure why, but always welcome.  I hadn't seen the van & trailer all day, so thought maybe they had taken another route.  As the hours went by and still no van & trailer......  Turns out the trailer had a flat in an area with no cell coverage and the ladies (Emily & Katie) had quite an adventure getting the tire changed.  There is a little brewpub next door so we ended up going out for dinner tonight.  Slow service but really good food.  Ate too much again.  The wait for food, though, makes us really thankful for our arrangement of having our chef cook for us each evening; we just show up when everything is ready.  Our last rider came in just as we were leaving for dinner - an awesome accomplishment for her!  In fact, several of the ladies really pushed themselves today to ride as much as they did.  A really great day, but I'm OK if the level of difficulty isn't that much everyday.

Stats for the day:
110 km / 68 miles from Detroit OR to Government Camp OR
6332 feet up
4208 feet down
Weather:  glorious. Bright sunshine all day. We managed to ride in the.shade for most of the first 55 miles. Temp started about 12C and stayed not too hot in the shade but went up into the low 30sC in the early afternoon once we were out in the sun.