This was the inaugural event and I think had fewer participants than they expected. One of the volunteers mentioned that there were 200 entrants with about half for the family ride and half for the climber route. Some of those were groups (such as families) so there were likely more than 200 riding. We rode the climber route on our tandem. First the good: Cascade Locks is a beautiful place for beginning and ending a ride, and the Gorge is a spectacular place to be on a bike or any other way. An example was when we stopped along the road for a snack and watched a pair of ospreys soaring overhead. The event volunteers were uniformly friendly and helpful. The after party beside the locks was fine, although it could have maybe used a few roving volunteers to let you know what’s what. We enjoyed the old highway where the waterfalls are, having never been on it even though we’ve lived in the area for decades. We also enjoyed seeing and chatting with the families on that part of the course. The not so good: The nature of the Gorge in all its splendor posed some challenges. The trail portion has a lot of steep hill sections (8-10%). Some of the steepest were near Cascade Locks and thus part of the family ride route. We saw many families walking their bikes instead of riding them. Also in that section is a set of stairs where you have to portage your bike. This is quirky and interesting, and isn’t a problem if you have a carbon road bike you can sling over your shoulder. It’s more difficult if you have a tandem or have children on bikes. The silver lining here was that although it was really congested on our return trip, people were being helpful to one another. A couple of young parents who were already hauling their family’s bikes down asked us if we needed help with our tandem. And then there was the traffic. A lot of the trail is right along the freeway and the train tracks. I don’t think this can be helped because of the geography, but there were long stretches where it was too loud to talk. And the traffic along the old highway in the area of the waterfalls was constant on the return trip. We didn’t have problems with any drivers but there was pretty much always one or more cars on our tail and trying to get around us.