Introduction

It seems I just got home from England/LEJOG and it's time to start planning for another outing.  This will be another WomanTours bike trip - The Northwest Loop. 

I have ridden parts of this route before and have absolutely loved the terrain.  I think 2014 was the last time they ran this particular trip, so I felt compelled to sign up.  Maybe next year I'll try to break myself of the WT habit...........

Here's what WT has to say about this one:  "We've chosen the most beautiful sections of the TransAmerica, Pacific Coast, and the Lewis & Clark bicycle routes and created a wonderful loop through the northwest.  This tour includes some of everything - the lush rain forest of the Columbia River Valley of Washington, the high desert of eastern Oregon, the Seven Devils Mountain Range of Idaho and the Pacific Coast of Oregon.  

We start and finish in/near Portland OR, and travel in a clockwise direction.  The tour runs July 31st until August 30th.  I'll be doing some hiking in Glacier NP (in Montana) before the bike trip, and then visiting friends in Bend OR after the trip before heading north for stops in Chilliwack (brother & family) and Cranbrook (Gran Fondo).  

Total mileage for the trip is advertised as 1397 miles, or 2248 km.  There are 24 riding days, so an average of 94 km per day.  And there's a bit of climbing on this one - about 67,000 feet, which is very similar to the total on the LEJOG trip (but spread over 5 more riding days).  That's an average of 2825 feet per day with our biggest day anticipated to be over 6500 feet (or about 10% of the total).

I might change bikes on this trip (vs what I rode on the UGRR last year).  I've just outfitted my carbon Ruby with one more climbing gear, but haven't taken it out for a test drive yet.   (I did finally get it out for a test drive and all is good.  New tires too!)

One of my biggest concerns about this trip from the get-go was the possibility of forest fires.  Spring was wet and summer was slow in coming so fires weren't much of an issue into early July.  In the last few weeks, though, temperatures have gone sky-high and rain has been pretty much non-existent.  In Alberta and BC, the number of fires has increased daily.  As I write this the day before leaving for Glacier, fire has devastated the town of Jasper.  Damage is extensive, although it's still too early for details.  The smoke in the air in Calgary for the last day or so has been choking.  Here's a screenshot from the Oregon wildfire site.  Yikes!

I'm a big Olympics fan, so imagine my disappointment when I found that my day of departure coincides with the opening ceremonies.  And of course, I'll also be away for the entirety of the games.  Oh well - I guess they'll carry on without me, but I am a tad sad about it.  Blog entries might be short for a while as I try to catch up on Olympics each day instead of tending to the blog.  Time will tell.............