As you may recall, I became homeless starting in early June (see I'm Officially Homeless). My calendar had been booked back-to-back with busyness: a three-day guide training tour on the San Juan Islands for Bicycle Adventures, a tour around the Olympic Peninsula with Craig, and the Adventure Cycling tour along the Columbia River Gorge. I now had two and a half weeks to fill before my first guiding gig started with Bicycle Adventures.
There are many parts of Oregon that I have yet to explore by bicycle. As such, I had brought my bike to Oregon with me, fully anticipating that I would tour around the state during the two and a half weeks. However, by the time the Columbia River Gorge trip had ended, the Pacific Northwest had been overcome by an unusually wicked outbreak of record heat. Portland's forecast, for example, was seeing multiple days of 100+ temperatures. Yuck! Touring didn't exactly seem so appealing anymore.