July 13, 2003 Leaving the Shiloh Inn we went buy this rocky outcropping where four hawks were wind surfing. Downtown The Dalles was quiet this Sunday morning. This is mural one of two. Mural two of two happened only moments later. Although you can't see it the river is to the right. The Dalles is still really part of the desert area of Oregon. As we starteed to climb we entered the pine oak woodlands, leaving the more desert-like grasslands behind. The green of this field added to the intensity of this view. As we went farther west, we encountered cliffs, the third major eco system of the Gorge area. We had almost made it to the top of the first major climb of the day when we stopped to take this photo. Much like the Santa Rosa area, the hills are brown in the summer. Just before the plateau after the ascent to the top of Rowena Crest, we came across this wonderful old house. The plateau area had any number of apple and other fruit orchards. This cat greeted us at what turned out to be a coffee house and car showroom that wasn't yet open for business. This building housed any number of classic Porsches being guarded by the Calico cat in the previous picture. John McGrory rode with us for quite a while. He was returning from his ride to Rowena Crest, having left Hood River early in the morning. Downtown Hood River has many services and wonderful buildings for interesting shops. There were at least 10 coffee shops in this one little town. These cocker spaniels were obviously well-trained because they continued to sit where they were no matter who talked with them. These houses had a better view of the river than those on the North side of the street. I took this photo while we were fixing the flat along side the freeway. And this one; we were there for a while This is the Bridge to the Gods and is quite a wonderful site. Some portions of the Historic Columbia River Highway have been made into trail only, not allowing motorized vehicles of any kind. There were many areas with elaborate rock walls such as this one. We took two trips to get the tandem and the bob up these steps. It was worth the effort though because the trail was well maintained and a real pleasure after the ride on the freeway. One set of hatching ponds at the Bonneville dam fish hatchery was lined by annual and perennial garden color. Here are two of the many hatching ponds. While changing the tire on the Bob, Bob Flott stopped to see if we needed help. Bob told us he had ridden 5,000 miles on his Bob. He also has a tandem so we felt a kinship with him. We were so late in the day we didn't stop at Vista House at the top of Crown Point. I've stopped before; however the wind was so strong that day, small children were almost blown away in the strong gusts. I didn't take many pictures between Crown Point and just before these floating houses outside of the Portland Ariport area. However, there were many fruit orchards west of Crown Point and Troutdale had many old restored buildings and what looked like a strong core.