We awoke early this morning (we get up around 5am to pack up now that the days are getting longer) and had a few moments while brushing our teeth to enjoy the morning light on the gorge.

We met our friend Mark who treated us to a delicious breakfast before heading out on what one passing cyclist described as his “favorite ride in the whole world”- and it was pretty spectacular. We rode along vineyards and orchards overlooking the Columbia River…

…and snaked through fields of wildflowers. 

We climbed to some spectacular views along the way…

and then, boom! We hit desert. 

The trees stopped, the temperature raised about 10 degrees and we baked in the sun for about 15 miles. We pulled into our campground for the evening, on the Washington side of the river, exhausted from a long, hot day. But spirits are high! We got a fantastic interview this afternoon with a Puyallup woman who talked about her work trying to get some of the dams in Washington removed to improve the health of the rivers. We’re planning a big day tomorrow and it’s supposed to be quite warm (in the 90’s) with some some big hills, but we’ll get an early start and hopefully make it around 70 miles.