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.



Port Orford Part 2

Things got interesting

Most of the time, things go pretty well with this strange life we live. Our second night in Port Orford, we were awakened by a lady yelling in the RV park. At first she was yelling "help" but quickly went to "someone give me your keys". We saw flashlights waving around and heard people trying to help her. She was a hallucinating transient with a knife and finally had to be tazed by the police and taken to the mental health unit. It made us sad but don't feel any less safe in our trailer than we were in our home in Woodland Park. The Texas 7 (escaped convicts) were found a few blocks from our house several years ago.

 

Fortunately, the rest of our stay was uneventful.

Bike riding the Wild River Coast Bikeway video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry9g0iwIsdA&feature=youtu.be 

 

We saved the hilly section of the ride to the lighthouse for our last day and no wind!

 

 Most of the bike ride is through farm land.

 There were cranberry bogs.

 The Elk River

 We made it!!

 

The town of Port Orford

Griff's on the harbor for halibut.

 

And other interesting businesses.

The scent of fresh baking bread and cinnamon drew us into the Golden Harvest.

 Getting here before the summer crowds start arriving was a treat. A jacket was needed with the cool temperatures, highs in the 60 and lows upper 40s.

A view from the lighthouse as Mike ponders.....

Battle Rock

Battle Rock Park is named for the historic battle that took place at Battle Rock where the Qua-to-mah Native Americans fought Capt. William Tichenor's men in 1851. 



We walked down to the caves in Battle Rock to find some real treasures but kept an eye on the tide as it was on its way back in.

You didn't really think we would stop posting all of these cool tide pooling pictures while still at the ocean.

 



The anemones were opening ups as the water started rising.

Mussels on the walls

This cave had so many interesting creatures.

Barnacles

Anemones opening up as the water would rise.



 

There were many different types of starfish each day as we walked the beach.

Jabba the Hut looking anemones having a brunch of crab.



This town of 1100 people turned out to be a real treat and no rain!

 

On our arrival to Port Orford, the RV park manager gave us instructions on where to go if the tsunami alarm sounded. We didn't think about it much until we heard about the earthquakes in Hawaii. Now we know to go left two blocks and up the hill. 

 

What a week we enjoyed, walking the beach in the morning and then bike riding in this cool little coastal town.

After riding the Elk River section of the bikeway, we stopped at Red Fish for lunch. Planning a bike ride that ends with lunch is very important. A great view doesn't hurt.

 

Now we head to Eugene to check out more bikeways. We hear they have covered bridges.