So, I've decided to start posting the cumulative miles. Thought you might find that interesting.
Day 6 was our third day of cruising with the wind to our backs. It is a blessing, and today it was really blowing. My guess would be 25 mph winds with gust to 30 or 35. That'll make you move on a bike. The first half the day was more rather featureless Washington desert, but at lunch we crossed back into Oregon, and then after lunch we rode down and alongside the Columbia for the last part of the day.
Just after lunch we stopped in Hat Rock State Park, briefly. We saw Hat Rock. It looks like a hat. We moved on.
Down at the bottom of the Gorge in Oregon, however, was beautiful. The sun had come out, and was breathing color back into the landscape. Across the river we could see the magnificent bluffs of Washington rising hundreds of feet up from the river, and next to us were towering basalt hills.
We considered riding onto Walla Walla, but decided instead to stop at a roadside park called the Madame Dorion Campground - or as it has come to be known Madame Dorion's Campground of Doom. This may go down as the worst decision of the trip, it certainly is to this point. The Madame Dorion Campground is essentially a roadside park at the interection of US-730 and SR-12 that has been abandoned by the McNary Wildlife Refuge. It has several permanent occupants living out of tents and one trailer, and doesn't seem to get many travelers such as ourselves. One of the gentlemen who resides in Madame Dorion described him and his fellows as homesteaders. The dumpster smelled of death and the bathrooms were full, but not with people.
We should have moved on, but we didn't. Instead, we pitched the tent and pretended to sleep through the howling wind and the cars that would drive into the campground, up to the dumpster, park briefly, and depart - all night long. We don't know what they were doing, but the imagination runs wild.
Dear Madame Dorion,
I hope we have parted ways for good.
Love,
Silas and Amanda
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