August 7 - Portland, OR to Lewiston, ID - 340 miles

We both wanted to ride alongside the Columbia River, so this was our day.

The Columbia River Gorge is really beautiful as it goes east of Portland, so we rode on the south side of the river first, intending to ride on the north side for a while also.  As the name Gorge implies, there are quite high hills on either side of the river.  The south side has several high and spectacular waterfalls, so we made sure to spot them as we went along.  For a ways east from Portland both sides of the Gorge are well forested, and this along with the big river, makes a very scenic ride.

Then there was a fairly rapid transition through less and less trees, and less green, until we were riding with dry hills on both sides.  Still interesting, but not as pretty.

Where we had planned to cross the river and ride on the north side, there was construction on the bridge, so we didn't cross.  That was lucky, since later on we could see several construction areas along the north side.

Leaving the river after about half of the distance of the day's ride, we rode through pretty dry desert and then farm land, getting into Umatilla, OR and into Walla Walla, WA.  Then, we rode through tremendously BIG wheat farms.  The interesting thing about them was that they were on high rolling hills, and we wondered how the machinery to plant and harvest could drive on such angles on the hills and not tip over.  That kind of very large wheat farms continued until we entered Clarkston, OR, and right across the mouth of the Snake River flowing into the Columbia, to Lewiston, ID.

We visited friends of Deane in Asotin, WA, close to Clarkston, and had a very nice evening.

Of interest to our motorcycle friends, one of the fun features of the Clarkston-Asotin area is the curves of Highway 129 going from Asotin, WA, to Enterprise, Oregon.  Deane had seen a picture featuring this hill on the front of one of the motorcycling magazines, and had put that on our itinerary of places to ride.  It was great - Norm and I just had to go up and down.  

Next we are waiting to ride up and down the "Lewiston Grade" tomorrow, a wildly-curvy hill that Deane had to go up and down to go to college many years ago in northern Idaho.

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