We loaded the bikes and drove past the Dee Mill's turn-off up to the intersection of the Lost Lake road and the Whatum Lake Road. This cut off a bit of the climb, but also the part of the road with the most traffic. We parked the van in a pullout and headed out from there.
Whatum Lake Road is a single track, paved road, which I presume was/is used for logging activities in the area.
We got about 8km into the climb, when we found ourselves at an intersection, with no sign. We went back to Clint's book and worked out that there should be an intersection at that point with Branch Lake Road, so we went left.
A bunch of kilometres later, there was another branch in the road. Again no sign. I kept left which seemed the right direction. I figured I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right ;) As we kept going, we were expecting a big hard climb, but it just wasn't happening. At one point we met up with two small on-coming cars...& two young women with concerned looks on their faces. (We were thinking they took a wrong turn.) I was pretty sure we were on the wrong, road, but then we started to climb, and then really climb, and then 9% climb! Other than a couple of areas with some rocks on the road, and one partial washout, it was really in pretty good condition. (Louise said she was glad she wasn't driving a car.) It was a very nice temperature riding through the forest (or 'Cougar Alley' as Louise called it). Eventually, we popped out at Lost Lake, right where we were heading. Exceptional Navigation Skills!!!
We passed the park gate and went into the resort where we sat by the lake and had an ice cream sandwich. We thought of renting paddle boards or kayaks, but they were $22 US each for an hour, and you also needed a $12 life jacket each.... I have paddle boards with me, so we decided we could paddle board down at the Event Site.
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| Lost Lake - we found it! |
At the van, the temperature was still a modest 25c, but by the time we got down to Hood River, it was 33c. Wow, that is hot! We drove to the event site and had lunch on the patio at the Sandbar Cafe, overlooking the river. Louise said it was her favourite meal of the trip so far! We met Sue, Scotty's girlfriend, who I had met in Costa Rica last year. She owns the cafe. We also met a fellow who lives in Hood River now but spent 40 years in Kodiak, Alaska. He had a beautiful 6-month-old Bernese Mountain Dog, Maggie.
We thought about going for a paddle ride but decided we would wait until it cooled down a bit in the evening.
We went back to the Townhouse (air conditioning is really nice!) and cleaned up. I went over to Sailworks to show Jim and Dale some of my photos. Jim came up to me with two bottles of Rum which his neighbour had given him for my old board. Apparently, the guy is going to cut the nose off if it, which should make it an excellent foil board.
After resting in the Townhouse for a while, we ventured out at about 6:30 and went down to the event site for a Stand-Up Paddle ride. It took a while to blow up the paddle boards (even with the electric pump - which only inflates them to 13psi, so the hardest part has to be done with a hand pump anyway).
We headed out past the sandbar and were going to go to the Marina, but the closer we got to the end of the sandbar, the stronger the current got. We were not making any progress, and eventually gave up and paddled back. It was still a very pleasant 2.5km ride!
We sat in the shade and let our boards dry in the sun before packing them up. We had a nice dinner at home - early to bed - more biking tomorrow!
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