Day 51 – Lancaster’s Beautiful Historic Columbia River Highway Creation

“On starting the survey’s our first business was to find the beauty spots, or those points where the most beautiful things along the line mught be seen in the best advantage, and if possible to locate the road in such a way as to reach them.” Samuel C. Lancaster said this of the Columbia River Highway before or during its construction. He was resoundingly successful in his endeavor. To quote the ACA map, “The Historic Columbia River Highway extends along the south side of the river for about 75 miles, from The Dalles to Troutdale, OR. The first modern highway constructed in the Pacific Northwest, it was also the first scenic highway ever built in the United States.” It was built in 1913!
I was awakened to the wind taunting me. It whistled through the trees and seemed to say, “Come on Ben! I’m out here waiting for you. Come see how fast you can go.” This created little enthusiasm to hop on the bike and start riding. I did though. We rode to breakfast in Biggs, OR after crossing the river on a narrow bridge. The art museum, built by Sam Hill for his wife and daughter, was clearly seen across the river at the top of the hill.

It was a spectacular sight and wondered what it would be like to have a view like that. The wind that was taunting me earlier was now hitting me right in the face with gusts up to what seemed like 100 mph. I know it wasn’t even close to this but when I saw our speed go from 14 to 10 in one gust of wind I knew it was very strong.

We plowed our way to The Dalles, OR for 10.5 miles on I-84. This was not my favorite part of the trip but necessary to be able to see the nice scenery later on in the day. This is the second of the five dams on the Columbia River. We then began to climb.
Just outside the city of Rowena, OR we climbed to the top of the second most spectacular view of the day.


Winding roads with less than 5% grade made it a pleasant ride to the top of Rowena Crest.


What goes up must come down and we after going off track and climbing a very steep gravel road hill and getting back on the right path we sailed down the hill into Hood River, OR. On the way down we passed through these two tunnels.

They are appropriately called the Twin Tunnels. This morning before leaving we noticed that Dad’s front wheel was flat and we didn’t want to change it so we just swapped it out with the spare. The spare was put on the back shelf for a reason. It was Dad’s original tire and had about 4,000 miles on it and had bulges so we decided in Hood River we would look for a bike shop. We found one with a nice restaurant next door and we ate while it was replaced. For the first time in my life I had a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. It was awesome and I don’t know why I waited so long to try one. I won’t wait so long for my second.
I dreaded leaving since we had to get back on I-84 for another 13 miles. We had not gone 1 mile when I heard the distinct sound of a tire being punctured and then loosing all of its air.


Dad had blown a tire. This was the first one since Boone, CO almost 1,000 miles ago. Praise the LORD! Because of this we were a little rusty at changing and we were a little slow. We did finally get it changed and rode furiously to our exit to get off the highway. By this time the LORD had allowed the winds to die down a bit.
We then got on a beautiful stretch of the old highway that was now off limits to automobiles.

The change of scenery was great and at one point I asked Dad if we were in a rain forest. It was beautiful with the different ferns and the moss growing on the trees. The original stone wall barriers still line the way and then this. How do they expect us to get our bikes up stairs?

Oh, that was nice of them they put little grooves next to the steps to put our tires in. That made it a little easier.
After the last stretch of Interstate for the day, we came to the most scenic stretch of the route. It took us by a series of 4 falls. The day was getting late so we only stopped at Horse Tail Falls

and Multnomah Falls.

As we left we looked at the map and decided that we had about 13 miles left. Dad told me, after looking at the profile, that there was a 500 foot climb and when we got to the top we would have 2 miles to the campground. I have never looked forward to climbing a hill more this whole trip than this one. The best view of the day was saved for the end of the day.

At the top Lancaster built a Vista House for people to sit, look and enjoy all of the beautiful scenery.

He spared no expense with marble floors, an outside second story balcony, a basement and stained glass windows surrounding the main floor. Amazing! As if he didn’t have enough things to build. I’m not sure how he built this road in one lifetime let alone this house on top of it!
This was our longest day on the bike and were glad to see our little house on wheels! We showered and enjoyed supper at the Olive Garden. It was awesome and hit the spot. The clouds were rolling in foreshadowing what northwest tradition would greet us in the morning.