Jeeez that's awesome !

I wish we were going to have that kind of scenery on the week long ride in September. I'm having second thoughts about the 7+ hour bus ride from Portland to John Day, the area we are riding in plus the really small towns where we will be staying.

Since Utah (my favorite place) has been mentioned, I thought I would post some old photos to whet your appetite... LAGBRAU - rode 7 days... in all that time think I saw 10 cars total. Utah is miles and miles and miles of beautiful wild countryside and no crowds... tailor made for cycling!
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Very neat -- great roads, amazing scenery, and almost no cars.

I looked at a map. You will likely ride exactly where this photo was shot, and to the building in it.
I think you are going to love love love your ride. I rode a big Oregon loop with Adventure Cycling a few years ago that I think covered a lot of your route. It was wonderful.
Have fun!

very nice photo's, thanks for sharing! I am going to have to start a list of places to visit!

Nice! That is a great pix. I've never seen the Gorge ... gotta do that soon.

I did CO II, III, IX and X .... and I had a great time, every time!

Killer.

I've actually been through a lot of that territory on the HooDoo 500. Pity so much of it was in the dark!

Courtesy of NBC and my iPad. Wish I could have taken it personally:

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps0d616c2c.jpg

It's possible!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...lossal_Man.jpg

Seriously, that is a great view of a great place at a great time. There are times humanity really outdoes itself.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps2af2bc5d.jpg

The closing ceremony was really pretty cool this year.

In honor of this thread I took my camera along on today's great ride. I usually figure all the scenery will be the same, but I got some new angles on things today.

Another yellow-flower picture:

http://i.imgur.com/kBJ39Gs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8V8ZXR9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Eu3OwUQ.jpg

Coffee Break:

http://i.imgur.com/Kjb4fC8.jpg

And here's the video of the day.

On my standard weekly ride, at the top of a big hill, I always stop to pet this dog:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8...0/IMG_5469.JPG

View from the "Greenline" forest road in Saitama, Japan. Mountain valley after mountain valley...

One of my favourite places on earth and so very nice that it is a short trip from our place in Portland... the old highway is a marvelous place to travel.

Here are some stairs on the Columbia River trail. Note the channels for the bike wheels:

http://pages.suddenlink.net/tripsite/IMG_4753.JPG

We did that on an Adventure Cycling Oregon ride. I saw the grade percentage on a map and was wondering ???? HUH???
Then saw it was stairs. I just carried my bike, but I imaging a loaded touring bike rider would be really happy about the bike groove.

Just wanna say, I'm enjoying this. Dog petting, views of Mt. Fuji, the Gorge ... all places I'm putting on my bucket list. :thumb:

Al-when you whistled my dog sitting beside me at the computer jumped right up!!!

When I pet shaggy outdoor dogs like that, it be raining ticks before I am done. I don't pet shaggy outdoor dogs like that anymore...

Do you mean you actually got a tick from petting someone else's dog?

An outdoor one, yes. The fat bloated ones fell out of the fur straight to the ground, but two or three ranging from tiny to small, would be on my pants where the dog would lean against me for his petting. Of course the dog had a flea/tick collar, which tells you how much those are worth using...

For your kind act at the top of the hill, you will be richly blessed in the next life. Well done.

Thanks for that advice, David. I've thought about it some more, and decided that you are right: it is a small but significant risk. I think that dog will have to be happy with petting from his owner. :(

I hate having to be careful of stuff like that anymore. Curses upon Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus, and the hateful parasites who spread them!