Day 4 was the best day yet. All because of the beautiful weather, the requisite tailwind, and the Historic Columbia River Highway.

The day started out with several miles of climbing--resulting in this. That's Vista House on the next ridge. It was a little hazy.
The weather has been unseasonably warm for the area with temperatures in the 90s, but it doesn't seem that hot to me.
Probably because I'm used to it. Or maybe because everything is better here--even heat.

This is the guy responsible for the Historic Columbia River Highway. Of course, at the time it wasn't historic. And this isn't actually
the guy, it's just his face in a rock. His name was Sam Hill.

I get a lot of likes on FB when I include Linda in a picture.

Looking east from Vista House. I'm going as far as the eye can see today.

This is Vista House. Dedicated in 1918. It's got a museum and gift shop in there. And restrooms made of marble. Yes it does.

I like this picture because I'm really sucking in my gut. And there's a bear in it. In the picture--not in my gut.

The descent from Vista House was awesome. It's hard to describe in pictures because it's hard to take pictures while
riding a bike down a twisty road at high speed. But it was awesome.

Multnomah Falls was crowded compared to everywhere else. I got a cup of coffee and sat there for a while. Linda found me there and when
I left she went off for a hike up to the top of the falls.

This is the only waterfall picture I took that was worth saving. I believe it is Horsetail Falls. There are so many
waterfalls along the gorge that I kind of lost interest in them after a while. Even Multnomah Falls--which is pretty
spectacular--was washed out by inconvenient sun positioning.

They dug this tunnel, and then when they decided it wasn't safe anymore, they just went around the rock.
Why didn't they just go around in the first place? What in the name of Sam Hill were they thinking?

Parts of the Historic Columbia River Highway are now the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. And whenever they
can, the trail follows the original alignment of the highway and uses the original structures.

And it is spectacular.

There are lots of these informative markers along the trail. These are under the interstate.

This photo does a good job of conveying the awesomeness of this trail.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day?

You can't get these views from a car. Not since the 60s anyway, when they built the interstate and abandoned the Columbia River Highway and
it became historic.

But finally I ran out of trail and I had to choose between this road and the interstate. I chose this road.

Which led to another soul crushing climb and a screaming descent.

And I ended up on the interstate anyway. At one point I felt something hit me on the knee, so I stopped see what it was and I found my GPS
laying in the road. That was disturbing. So I did some roadside repairs to better secure it. The GPS was fine, but now it has some scars.

Riding the interstate isn't so bad, except for the noise, and the lack of shade, and
the debris on the shoulder. At least I had a tailwind. I'm hungry.