Sisters, Oregon

Heading to the high desert

 

The landscape changes dramatically as we traveled towards the Cascades from the green agricultural Willamette Valley to the high dry plains with pines and sagebrush. The air is much drier making our Canasta cards no longer stick together.

Staying at Sisters Creekside County Campground on the edge of Sisters was a great location close enough for us to walk around the town, drive to some nice hiking on the McKenzie River Trail and Smith Rock or just visit Bend. Driving into Bend wasn't as pleasant as the rest but we managed to accomplish our required tasks.

Detroit Lake

Mt Jefferson and its glaciers

Washington state requires fingerprinting before a person can volunteer in WA. We made an appointment at the police station in Bend. Having been fingerprinted several times in the past when I got a nursing license in a new state and it always went smoothly. This time, it took over an hour for both of us. They tore up several cards because they didn't like how they looked and a new fellow was training. I hope the cards we walked out with were ok.

One reason we decided to volunteer in Oregon or Washington is they only require 30 days and are very nice states to visit. Many other states require volunteers to stay the entire season. We are a little too itchy to stay that long. Even when I was a traveling nurse three months was pushing our outer limit of time to stay someplace other than when we were in Alaska and Seattle and we extended a couple of months.

Mike getting fingerprinted

 

 

McKenzie River Trail

We used our hiking project app to find a hike on the McKenzie River Highway. Boy, was it a treat. Three waterfalls and a blue pool. We continually saw the influence of the volcanos from many years ago on this area.

Sahale Falls

The Waterfalls Loop Trail hike along the McKenzie River to Sahalie and Koosah Falls is about 3 miles long for hikers and mountain bikers with foaming white water cascades in between.

Koosah Falls

The 25 mile McKenzie River Trail is a favorite of hikers and extreme mountain bikers. As we walked along, we could see that it must have taken a great deal of effort to build and maintain the trail.

Before reaching Blue Pool, the McKenzie River goes underground a few miles up stream when the flow is lower.  The river only flows over the falls a few times a year, the rest if the time the water emerges from the rocks underwater in the basin of waterfall pool.

 

  The topaz colored water is so clear that is seems to be only about 5 ft deep but in many spots its over 30 ft deep.  The waterfall ledge is a favorite for jumping on a hot summer day.  You can hike over the waterfall ledge and find a trail that leads you down to the side of the pool when the waterfall is dry.



Tamolitch Falls and Blue Pool

The rhododendrons bloom later in the valley. 

The campground on the edge of town was a great location for walking to the farmer's market and breweries.

Music at the farmer's market

 

It can be difficult to find a cycling route when we arrive in a new location. We often checkout the local cycling clubs which are often welcoming to visiting cyclist to join a ride. Usually, they list their rides and cue sheets on their websites. Another resource is the local bike shops. They are often good about giving us information or copies of their ride sheets for a small fee or free. If I feel uncomfortable with the roads and cycle lanes, we take a drive to scope out the roads and traffic conditions ahead of time. It is not worth not enjoying ourselves and feeling like we

might die. We have only called a ride a few times and that was due to poor planning or heavy rain.

 

We had a few nice rides during our ten day stay with many more easy to moderate routes left unridden. 

Smith Rock State Park

 

 Smith Rock State Park's spires rise above the Crooked River and is known for rock climbing with routes for levels from beginner to expert. As we hiked, we had the opportunity to watch not only beginners but the expert climbers. A volunteer was also present at the visitor's center with his spotting scope and let us look at a number of  golden eagle's nests and was very informative. This made our short list of places we would like to volunteer in the future.

The volcanic evidence is all around central Oregon.

You have to love a place where the people in the restaurants have hat hair and look like they have been outside hiking, cycling or rock climbing. Everyone looks tired and happy. The food was fresh  and locally grown. The fresh air from hiking made the food and beer taste even better.

On mile steep hike up Misery Ridge to the top.

 

When my children were small and would wake up in the middle of the night, I would get them settled back to sleep then head to the back deck with a warm blanket to look at the stars for 10-15 minutes before returning to bed my self.  Even now, I still like to go out and listen to the quiet night when we are away from the lights of the cities. Last night at 3 am, we were both awake. (It could have been because I dropped something on the floor that made a crash noise when I got up.) The stars were out after many cloudy nights. We sat in our loungers with a down blanket and listened to

the breeze through the trees. A shooting star or comet with a long tail shot across the sky. Does it get any better than that?

McMinnville, Oregon

More of Oregon's Bikeways

Holiday weekends can make finding a place to stay challenging. We found a cute private campground, Old Stone Place, that worked great for us in wine country for the Memorial Day weekend. The location in farm country gave us plenty of choices of routes for our short three day stay.

 We had ridden the southern section of the 132 mile Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway and decided to add the northern section that was pretty flat though Hops, blueberry and hazelnut farms. The traffic was minimal on this Sunday morning and saw more cyclists than cars on the roads.

 It seemed that a person should hop at the hops farm.

So I did.
Let's go to the Hops...

Every bike ride is a mini holiday.

Returning to Champoeg (sounds like shampoo eeg) State Park. Next time we pass this way, we will have to add the middle section of the 132 mile bikeway out of Salem and cross the river by ferry in Buena Visa.

Dayton, OR 

A person never knows what might be around the next corner while wandering the back roads.

We came across this RV park with vintage trailers in Dayton that rent for $135-175 per night. A group of friends had ten trailers for the weekend to celebrate one fellow's 40th birthday.

Each trailer comes with two townie bikes and outdoor furniture. The insides were beautifully redone and lights on the trees are said to be quite nice when lit at night.

 

The cue sheet for our 22 mile loop ride indicated a stop at a local winery was in order. Who are we to argue?

 

Who doesn't love a tire swing on the edge of the vineyard? 

 

 

The winery was ready for the Memorial Day holiday crowd as we found a seat.

Plenty of games.

 

The loop ended in downtown McMinnville where we stopped for lunch at the local brewery. Are we sounding like lushes? First a winery, then a brewery.

 

 



The sun came out as we head towards Sisters, Oregon.

On to Eugene

Moving into the Willamette Valley

Oregon is known for its wildlife, and elk are some of the most majestic and interesting animals in the state. The Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area's 1040 acres, located several miles east of Reedsport Oregon.

 

The herd of 60 to 100 Roosevelt elk roams freely in the protected pasture, woodland, and wetland areas, sharing their habitat with other wildlife including bald eagles, Canada geese, beaver, and black-tailed deer. A fence separates them from the roadway.

As we drove past the area, we were in luck.

 

We came to cycle parts of the 132 miles Willamette Bikeway through one of the most productive and beautiful agricultural valleys in the world and known for pinot noir wine, hops for brewing beer, hazelnuts and marionberries. We made Armitage County Park, that happens to have WIFI and internet, our base.

 

Coburg

 

We checked the weather which said that the rain from the previous day should be clearing out of the area in that later part of the morning. Once the sky started clearing, we headed out to see that the bikeway had to offer.

 

 

We rode through the cute town of Coburg just two miles from our campground and continued north. We could see the rain to the west of us and hoped it was moving west. A few more miles ahead, we saw another sheet of rain in the north. They both seemed to be heading towards us. Turning around seemed prudent even though we were loving the ride through the farm country. It was a little too late and we got drenched. Our shoes felt like lakes and not an inch of us was dry when we got back. The mud track up our backs wasn't so pretty either. No picture, we just wanted to be dry.

 

The campground having great new washers and dryers was greatly appreciated. Our bike shoes dried out in a couple of days and we were ready to go again.

 

Brownsville 

 

 

As we rode through farm land, we would ride into small towns with old buildings and plenty of history.

 

Thomas Mill State Park

Thompson's Mills is a unique survivor of times past, chronicling 160 years of Oregon rural life and  the owners who adapted the mill to the changing world around it.  It is the last water-powered mill in the state and its turbines can be seen in action on guided tours. A water right that predates statehood produces the water flow that still runs the milling machines for demonstrations.

Oregon has this great state park along the bikeway. We stopped in for an excellent tour with demonstrations.

 

Riding our bikes every other day seems to be a good balance for us. On our cycling days off, we find interesting places to visit and sights to see after doing the shopping and laundry. Sometimes, we skip the laundry and shopping.

 

 Oakridge and Westfir

We had to see what was in the mountains east of town.

 Lowell covered bridge on Lookout Point Reservoir on our way to Oakridge.

Oakridge in the mountains east of Eugene is known as the "Mountain Biking Capital of the Northwest" and was decorated with bikes along its streets.

Hot springs in the national forest are a favorite place for us to visit. Along Salt Creek, 8 miles east of Oakridge is McCradie Day Use that has a trail to the river and hot springs.  There are also springs across the creek if the one closest to the road is too full of people. The creek was running too high to walk across. But a bridge 1 mile east crosses the creek to another set of hot springs where the naked people happened to be today. We waved and they waved back.

Office Covered Bridge in Westfir is the longest in the state with a walkway. The water in  North Fork River was crystal clear.

After our picnic lunch in the covered bridge day use area we took a hike along the North Fork Trail.

So many trails, so little time.