We ended up losing 10-miles in the missed loop, but we sure paid for it in that sustained hill grade. The upside is that we enjoyed that fantastic view that all the other riders (with a better sense of direction) missed out on. But rather than turning around and going back down, we pressed onward and upward because we were excited about the prospect of a food stop at the loop junction.
Food stops really are like mini-parties. They are sometimes rider reunion points where road teams re-group, or social hubs where you can meet and chat with riders from all over, trading stories or taking photos for each other. On a more practical level, they are basically like rest areas for bikers where you can dismount and stretch, use the portable toilets, inspect your bike and gear, re-fill your water bottle, and most importantly, re-fuel!
The amount and type of food offered at every event and location varies, but you see many typical items such as hard-boiled eggs, bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter & jelly, all kinds of cookies, packets of string cheese, fresh fruit such as oranges, apples, and bananas, power bars, granola bars, even simple boiled potatoes. Wait, what? Boiled potatoes? I learned that potatoes are actually a great source of low-fat, low-fiber carbohydrates to fuel you on your ride. They digest quickly and won't get held up in your gut they way fats and proteins will. Too much fiber on a ride is a recipe for disaster.... um, or so I've heard.
Friendly volunteers staff each stop, sometimes with their own families and pets in tow since they hang out for the duration of the event as riders roll in at different times throughout the day. These food stops are like oases on long rides.
Nhan and I stuffed our faces since that first hill ignited our appetites something fierce. Just an hour of spinning on a stationary bike at the gym can burn up to 600 calories, so you can imagine how much energy you need to fuel a 60-mile ride that can last up to 4 hours. Nutrition is just as important as hydration.
Since I lost my first breakfast, I freely devoured two hard-boiled eggs, an orange slice, half a bagel with cream cheese, some dried cherries, and a sugar cookie with insanely bright pink frosting and colorful confetti sprinkles. I don't know what possessed me to eat that nasty sweet cookie, because it's not something I would typically eat if I wasn't biking. I just hoped that I wouldn't need to puke again, because I was sure that cookie wouldn't look nearly as pretty coming back up.
We wanted to make up for the 10-mile loop that we lost because of our wrong turn, so we headed back through it going the opposite direction. Here's where it gets crazy beautiful out in the country. We passed rolling hills of green wheat and alfalfa, saw wispy clouds in a remarkably blue sky, spied a hawk sitting complacently on a fence post, cruised through acres of cherry orchards and past rustic farms. All was verdant with the first bright green of early spring. Much of this stretch was quiet, paved roads with little to no car traffic. Well, except for one old lady who drove so slowly behind me for a long time because she was too nervous to pass me. I gave her a friendly wave for her consideration.
This ride promised a lot of elevation gain, so there were plenty of hills to climb with varying degrees of effort required. As I was preparing to push up yet another hill, I quickly looked back to check on Nhan-- he was nowhere in sight. I could probably see back about a 1/4 mile until the road curved behind an earth berm-- still no Nhan.
I slowed to a stop and clipped out of my pedals and leaned on my bike, peering to the horizon for any sign of him. I irrationally began to wonder if he was overrun by a wayward tractor, or chased by a marauding cow, or lying in a ditch along the road.
Just as I was about to head back down the hill for a search & rescue, here he comes pedaling around the bend, a bright-blue vision finally winding up the hill.
"My chain came off, " he explained.
Such are the minor mechanical hazards that can befall a rider on the road. A chain that slips off the cassette and derailleur is easy enough to fix compared to a chain that breaks, especially if you don't have the right tools with you. Luckily, Nhan was able to re-set his chain and re-join the ride before I had to double back to look for him. 
Another important lesson for the road is to always be aware of your fellow rider's location and position in case of emergency, particularly if you are on a remote road or in a secluded area where emergency help is not likely to be nearby, or where you might not get a good cell phone signal. I was so focused on pushing up yet another grueling hill that I didn't notice that he had stopped well behind me to fix his chain, completely out of sight around the bend in the road.
After we took some of our own photos, a lady biker comes around the bend from the opposite direction and kindly offered to take our picture together. She mistakenly told us that the snow-capped mountain behind us is Mt. Adams, when it is in fact, Mt. Hood. She's from Bend, OR so there really was no excuse for her to mix up her mountains. It would be like someone from WA mixing up Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens!
On this desolate country road, we stumbled upon this dilapidated old farmstead house in the middle of a field, flanked by equally dead-looking trees standing like macabre sentinels, and enclosed behind an uninviting barbed-wire fence.
Its haunted appearance made for a good photo op because Nhan is evidently afraid of ghost farmers in broad daylight.
As decrepit as the farmhouse looked from where we stood, evidence of its structural integrity is remarkable for its age. Sure, the greater part of the roof, windows and doors were gone, but the house and chimney were still standing up straight! The gables showcased decorative shingles, which tells me this house must have been something to behold in its prime, even as a humble farmhouse. It's a shame you can't see the more intricate details in this photo. They just don't build houses like that anymore. And that's probably why they let it stand like that, farming around it instead of razing it and removing the debris.
Generous amounts of sunshine heated up the day, but strong headwinds plagued us for most of the remainder of the ride. It seems strange to think that wind came make that much of a difference, but if it pushes against you while riding, you have to exert that much more effort to counter it. The wind was so strong at times that it created a cool optical illusion of undulating waves on the grassy hills. 
How Nhan could wear his long sleeve jacket, which was already over his bike jersey, and pair it with long bike pants in 72 degree weather was beyond me. Even in my bike shorts and short-sleeve jersey, the relentless sun cooked me. I tend to really warm up when I ride. But the winds kept me from feeling any sweat at all, even though I'm sure we were producing it in copious amounts, only to have it evaporate right off our skin as we rode.
We hit one long downhill that was a real thrill to cruise! After going up most of the day, the sheer excitement of tucking in and zooming downhill was a high! Nothing compares to that sensation of flying on your bike.
The scenery screamed by, and I felt like I was slicing through the wind itself. At one point, I looked down at my bike computer and clocked myself going 38 mph, which momentarily freaked me out.
That kind of speed results in catastrophic crashes if you lose of control of your bike or hit an obstacle. A lot of bikers suffer fatal collisions when cars pull out of nowhere. But it's not a good idea to brake hard during downhill speeding either, because it can send a biker over the handlebars and onto the asphalt if the bike flips.
On our long descent, we noticed a team of about 8-10 riders going up the hill together. It's always amazing to see a big group like that, moving and working as an amorphous mass toward the same goal. Group riding can be hazardous for the uninitiated because one slip-up by a single biker can send the whole group crashing like dominoes. They follow so closely behind each other's wheels to take advantage of "drafting."Drafting is an important technique in road racing that uses aerodynamics to increase speed by reducing drag through wind resistance. To get technical, each biker creates a turbulent wake behind them as they ride, which then creates vortexes and low pressure areas that the rider behind them can take advantage of to improve performance and save about 40% in energy expenditure. A group of bicyclists riding in a pack is called a "peloton" and a pace line is called an "echelon." So when you see a long line of bikes in a row, that's what they're doing.
Even with all the miles we've covered in the last year, Nhan and I are still fairly amateur road bikers. We are often too distracted by the scenery to risk riding too closely to each other's wheels to draft. The beauty of road biking is that it's a sporting experience you can enjoy with others, but there are also moments of contemplative solitude as you ride on your own bike through the miles. We pedal hard on occasion as needed to get up a hill or cover the distance, but we are more the touring than the racing types. Although, I know Nhan has expressed interest in challenging himself with some tougher rides this year.
We wrapped up the ride earlier than planned because we still had a long drive home ahead of us. As we reached St. Mary's Academy where our car was parked, the ride organizers welcomed riders back with fresh-made cherry cobbler, hot out of the oven. Nhan and I savored our cherry cobbler and hot coffee as we shared individual anecdotes on a ride we did together, because that's just how biking experiences happen. It was definitely a cherry of a ride!
In all, this ride was another one for the books. The stunning scenery alone was worth the long drive to The Dalles-- and not just during the bike ride, but also on the car ride home, much of it along the stunningly scenic Columbia River Gorge. What an amazing way to officially start our 2014 riding season!
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