Skip to main content

Cherry Festival 10k photo tour.

The Dalles Cherry Festival is coming up (Saturday April 22nd this year).  Despite the cheesiness and the crowds, this is actually one of my favorite "local holidays."  The 10k run is one of my new favorite traditions.  The run has been around longer than I have and goes right through where I grew up.  It's about time I started to "enjoy" it.

"""April 22nd – 3k and 5k are out and back, with a nice uphill at the start. The 10k does a LOOP, with rolling uphill the first half, then enjoy the nice 9+ miles of downhill to the finish.  Paved, scenic, orchard country roads. Awards to the top 3 in each age division, all runs. Great random prize drawings! Proceeds will benefit TDHS Cross Country Teams. Registration forms available at The Dalles Chamber office."""
If you're following along at home and can convert customary to metric in your head a run with 9+ miles of downhill is a comically long 10k.  Despite the obvious typo this is actually a really nice run, especially this time of the year when the grass is green and the cherry blossoms are in full bloom.  In a few weeks the hills will be brown and the blossoms will be a distant memory.  This is one of those rare years where the Cherry Festival is actually going on the same time as the blossoms are in bloom so enjoy it.

 Despite the long history and the beauty involved with this route there is almost no information to be found about it online.  I couldn't even find any Strava segments, which is a real shame because Strava segments make everything more fun.  I've created one for the 10k route and several smaller sections.  With the Strava segment we can now race each other year round.  ;) 

Here's your sign




The official race starts at 8:00 with registration starting at the Dry Hollow School field an hour earlier.  All the runs start at the fork of Three Mile and Dry Hollow.  The 3k takes a right and goes up Dry Hollow and back.  The 5k and the 10k both climb up Three Mile Rd.


First climb

Both the 5k and the 10k route start off climbing up Three Mile Road.  The elevations stops climbing right around where the turnaround is for the 5k route.  To stay on the 10k route you simply keeping making right turns at every major intersection past this point. 

What used to be an orchard.
Somewhere near the 5k turnaround

Second climb

After a nice little downhill ending just past that one farm from Curious George you start off climbing again.  You can get a quick peek at Three Mile Creek here.  Probably not recommended for your optimal time.
Take peek at Three Mile Creek.
Pleasant Ridge
Turn right at the stop sign to Dry Hollow Rd to stay on the route.

Looking at Three Mile Canyon from Dry Hollow Rd

Rolling hills

After the second main climb there are a few more ups and downs.  I for one am done thinking about hills at this point, but there they are.



Take a peek at Mt. Adams's peak

Keep right here to stay on the route

Dry Hollow Creek currently not dry.



It's all downhill from here

Then comes the fabled 9+ miles of downhill.  There might be some way to continue going downhill for 9 miles from here but not to the end of the 10k.


More road and more orchards.

First 10k of 2017 done.

Get out there and move me lower on the leaderboards.
See more photos from this route.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I'm running for the parks board

  Two months ago now I declared my candidacy for election to Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation District Board of Directors Position Number Five.  A mouth full of a title.  I really enjoy our local parks and have no major qualms with the parks district or the current board.  They have done a fine job maintaining and improving existing parks and programs.  So there's question you are probably asking and I am required to ask myself.  Why am I running? Democracy requires contest   What is the point of an election with only one candidate?  Without contested races there is almost no need for real public discourse unless some controversy springs up.  This is all too common for local elections in Wasco County.  Uncontested races are akin to a business handing a job to the first and only applicant.  This wouldn't work in the private sector and it shouldn't work for public offices.   Surely the citi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review: Tribes

 Tribes  by Seth Godin is a quick read on leadership.  I read this book because it was listed on "Books every leader needs to read" or some such similarly named list.    There are some good bits to glean out of this short book.  I'll try to condense them here:   Managers are not by nature leaders.  Managers allocate resources to accomplish a defined outcome.  Leaders change things by setting a vision and building a tribe around that vision.   Tribes are everywhere big and small.  Mega-tribes, sub-tribes, etc.   Leadership is inherent risky.  But far less risky than our minds tend to think.  This is evidenced by the many failures of several highly successful leaders.  (Think Elon Musk and the Tesla Truck presentation ).   Find people who are doing exceptionally better than average and amplify their influence on everyone else.   Leadership is about challenging the status quo.  It is s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Redistricting Oregon.

 Earlier last month Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson announced his plans for a constructional amendment to place the task of redistricting into the hands of an independent commission.  Currently Oregon is one of the many states in which redistricting is handled by the legislature themselves.  Democrats in the state were quick to reject the plan as a Republican power grab, an attempt to gerrymander the state.    In 2011 something that hadn't happened for several decades occurred in Oregon.  The legislature was able to pass a redistricting plan without challenge from the Supreme Court or the Governor.  This is especially surprising because the House of Representatives at the time was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.  The redistricting bill passed with a wide margin.  You could say that the redistricting plan of 2011 was bipartisan, but were districts still gerrymandered? Gerrymandering in Oregon? ...
Post a Comment
Read more