River deep, mountain high

One of the true laws of cycling is: "There is no way to train for climbing but to climb." So I've started to incorporate more up into my rides. But I probably overdid it a little bit yesterday by riding to Portland Woman's Forum Scenic Viewpoint overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. It's a little over 1000 feet of elevation gain from the Sandy River (see previous post) to the park. For some sense of perspective, 1000 feet would be equivalent to riding from the ground floor of the Sears Tower to about the 75th floor.

Now that I have a fancy new picture phone, Argotnaut has suggested I send her a photo when I reach my turnaround point on a ride. Here's the one I sent from the park yesterday. The Vista House (see previous post again) is the itsy bitsy little bump on the flat outcropping just to the right of center:


According to the spiffy new bike logging software I downloaded yesterday, this ride consumed 1100 calories. Today it feels like it was even more than that. I had entertained taking this route tomorrow and pushing the extra couple of miles to the Vista House in keeping with the cycling law stated above. But my aching legs are telling me that tomorrow, perhaps I should send Argotnaut a halfway photo from someplace a little closer to home!