Sailing, Sailing...

...Over the High Prairie!

Day 5: Lyle to Roosevelt, WA: 62 miles

We started out from James and Patrice's house armed with all our gear and some fresh hard-cooked eggs from the farm's chickens! I can highly recommend Patrice's cooking...we had wonderful meals while we were there. They really touched our lives in a great way during our stay there.

Weather reports were for a "good" wind day. That means the wind would be raging up the Columbia River Gorge, and you could tell on the high prairie that the wind had picked up! We climbed a bit and then found a terrific tail wind. The panniers on the bikes are amazing sails--we had to use our sailing experience to maximize the tailwind benefits. At one point, we were traveling about 16-20 mph WITHOUT PEDALING at all on flat ground or slightly uphill! That was pretty cool!

All was well until we had to descend back into the gorge. We had plans to stop at the Maryhill museum and state park. It promised to be a fabulous 4-mile downhill. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The winds were SO strong and the road was curvy. That nice tailwind is not easy to deal with when it's coming from the side and hitting those panniers. It wants to move the whole bike out from under you! So, we were hanging on for dear life--yelling "Maintain, baby" the whole way down. At one point, we were pedaling as hard as we could in an easy gear to make DOWNHILL progress! At the bottom, we were exhausted and white-knuckled, but safe and sound. This was Columbia River Gorge wind at it's finest!

So we decided NOT to head west (into the wind) and go to the museum. We turned east instead and let the wind take us the last 20 miles into Roosevelt park. Our first night of camping was a windy one! This park is a favorite of windsurfers and kite surfers. We met a fantastic group of people from Hood River, OR who come to this place every Memorial Day weekend. They were so generous and fun to be with--offering us salad (yeah!) and lots of their food, as well as good stories. There were kids and dogs everywhere, so it reminded us of being home and camping with the kids. Memorial Day is the beginning of the windsurfing season, and they got a huge wind day to start with. If I ever decide to move to the Northwest, I would check out Hood River because the people were so nice! Thanks, everyone, for your hospitality!

We had the "shakedown" of our camping gear and everything worked out well. The titanium cookware and eating utensils are as convenient as they are light! The new tent is awesome, and the setting was just gorgeous. A perfect end to an alternatively exhilarating and horrifying day due to that wind! It has unbelievable power..and you have to work with it rather than fight it.