Hair dryer in my face, Day 2

Mighty Mt Hood dominated the sky to the southwest as we rode out of The Dalles, OR, where we had spent our 2nd night on the road.  The heat resumed with a vengeance early in the morning and never relented - my dash temp was 38C most of the day.  We spent the day working our way north from The Dalles to Chelan, WA, mostly via Hwy 97N.   We took a detour to start the day, crossing the Columbia at the first bridge by the Bonneville Dam, and enjoyed a great back road: Hwy 142 from Lyle to Goldendale.  In an hour, we saw less than 10 cars. 

 

Once up on the plateau above the river, we could see both Mt Hood to the southwest (left) and Mt Rainier (right) to the northwest.  We managed to get truly lost only 1 time in the trip, trying to find the scenic route from Yakima up to Ellensburg.  We gassed up in Selah, WA and didn't realize that the turn we needed was literally on the south side of the gas station.  We rode north another 15 minutes before relying on the kindness of locals to send us back to where we needed to be.  We rode on a nearly empty highway along the Yakima River, watching the hundreds of tubers and rafters making their way downriver under the blazing July sun.  Note to self: pack tube on 2016 trip!