Nevertheless, today we successfully crossed the Columbia River at the Bridge of the Gods and entered Washington State. On the ride we had to do about 11 miles riding the shoulder of I-84 west along the river but it was so scenic that we really didn't mind that much. In total we only did 24 miles and 1500 feet of climbing and so it was a very pleasant day overall.
One exception to the "pleasant" was the quarter mile of steel grate surface of the bridge -- complete with stiff crosswind! Having had the extreme non-pleasure of crashing with several others on glassy smooth steel grate bridge once in PA on a group ride and carrying the evidence to this day, I was fairly well mortified. But that was in rain and walking the bike seemed like it'd be even more dangerous an operation and, so traffic to the rear or no, I took the center of the lane and we worked our way across. We were so happy to reach the real pavement on the other side that for a bit we forgot to celebrate that we'd reached Washington!
But, back to the pleasant -- the Columbia River is certainly impressive. The consistent winds down the gorge have made the area a mecca for sail and kite boarding too and man does that ever look like a blast. Maybe some August we'll have to come spend the month learning and getting proficient at both.
From here we take a fairly circuitous route working our way north to the border as we crisscross the PCT several times but we're hoping to reach Canada in a couple weeks time. Tomorrow we'll be on forest roads for the next couple days and so likely there'll be no update for a couple more days.
Rolling on! /David