Oregon Days 5-6: Eugene to the Emerald Coast

Wednesday morning we had a really relaxed day in Eugene visiting David's college friend Sarah, who is quite famous to our children as the adventurous soul that rode scooters with David along I-95 in Philadelphia to Denny's after midnight. After a long conversation Tuesday night, I realized she's about as adventurous in general as I am, at least now - maybe kids soften you a bit. She liked the sound of Idaho, but found the reality of grizzly bears to be intimidating - indeed, who doesn't?

In late morning, she took us to Spencer Butte - apparently it is the best hiking close in to Eugene. She had us so freaked out about the poison oak, even David was on edge. I don't think I've ever had poison oak, but I remember friends in California being completely out of their minds about it, too. It must be horrible.

I found a funny blog posting about this hike with lots of pictures: check out the subtitle of the blog - that's hilarious.

To me, there's nothing like a tall coniferous forest with elegant ferns carpeting the ground - I keep the image of some of the side trails we did there in my mind during yoga meditation.

Enough of that! On to the Emerald Coast. We drove over in the late afternoon, with no reservations or plans. We tried to get out to look at the coast around Florence, but the wind blew us back into the car. You can't really see the view with sand in your eyes... Well, we had to make plans anyway. We took a bet on a place called Overleaf Lodge. It was definitely pricey by our trip's standards, but really, paying just under $200 to have a balcony right on the ocean, where you can leave your patio door open and listen to the waves crash all night, isn't so bad. The room wasn't super fancy, but everything was pretty much just as it needed to be.

The weather was perfect (although chilly!) the next morning to take off on a long coastal cycling adventure. We cycled from Yachats (where we were staying) to Depoe Bay, where we had a tasty lunch of fish and chips - they better have been good, because it was the worst service we experienced the whole trip. We took a few detours to taste wine, see the lighthouse at Yaquina Bay state park (where I saw the seal I had demanded to see), and take in some views. The whole trip clocked in at just barely under 80 miles, my longest ride to date.

This is probably too many pictures, but it really is a beautiful place...

Day 4: Willamette Valley to Eugene

Continuing on our daily journey through Oregon, Tuesday took us through Willamette Valley to Eugene. Now that the vacation is well over, it cheers me up a bit to look back at the fun we had last week.

However Tuesday was not the most fun of days. Mostly I was let down by the crowding in Willamette Valley. I was expecting Route 99W to be kind of like the roads we biked in Santa Ynez Valley, CA, with rolling hills and gorgeous vineyards all around. The experience we had in the Dundee area was more reminiscent of an Route 1 through the suburbs of Philadelphia than the wine regions in my imagination.

We parked at Lake Champoeg State Park, which is actually a very cool spot to visit. Oregon has an impressive state park system. We obtained a variety of maps and instructions from the guides at the park and didn't really listen to any of them. I was determined to bike through the wine region(!) - after all, it was one of my main reasons for coming to Oregon - riding a bike through a bucolic setting, stopping to sip pinot noir every 10 miles or so...

I eventually figured out how to get over to the Dundee area, which I had read about in my tour book as being a sort of quintessential pinot growing region - special soils and such. I had a "wine tour" map, and managed to get us off the mayhem of 99W and up into Dundee Hills. And up, and up, and up -- until we reached a heavily gravelled road and I had to sadly realize that I had to go all the way down again in order to get to the main artery of wineries. Luckily for us, we decided to stop at the one at the bottom of the hill that we had snubbed, thinking, "Hmph! Who wants wine from a winery right by the highway!" Well, turned out to be the best wine of the trip. The Four Graces has an estate and a reserve pinot, both of which will knock your socks off (for a very pretty penny, mind you).

Next we went up Warden Hill Road - where there supposedly about 6 wineries - only one of which was open. And to top that, it was the one all the way at the top of the hill - a really big hill - with gravel for the last 1/4 mile. We slogged our way to the Erath vineyards. I really wanted to try their other wines, because I have to say their less expensive, mass-marketed pinot noir is just boring. I wanted to see what else they have to offer....

Well, the views made the trip worth it, the wines did not.




The fact that David was vociferously arguing with colleagues for a lot of the day did not help brighten my perspective. I ate lunch alone at "From Farm to Fork" (Oregon is completely on the local food movement train), and then angrily biked back on the horribly busy roads to the state park. I passed Argyle vineyards, which I knew I liked, simply because I just had to BE DONE. The huge tractor trailer that seemed to skim my skin while I crossed the small bridge over the Willamette River pretty much put me over the edge.

We managed to relax and zone out a little on our way down to Eugene by listening to the "Audio Book of the Trip", Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. We are only a little over halfway right now - it is a 900p. book and the audio version is unabridged.

In Eugene, we met up with a college friend of David's and got to eat bowls and bowls of cherries with her 2-year old son. It's very entertaining to watch someone else's toddler eat cherries - they eat them with complete abandon, cherry juice dripping all over, the seeds end up who-knows-where... It's also entertaining to watch the continual attempts at escape from the restaurant. You can sit back and remember those days fondly, although realizing that now that your children are more mature, they tend to toward ultra-mature tastes for their age such as always choosing lobster, crab, or clams, you know, whatever is most expensive on the menu.

Oregon Day 3: Mirror Lake Hike and When in Portland...

On Tuesday, we decided to head south to Mt. Hood to squeeze in a hike before heading further west to Portland. After reading and re-reading the guide book (and fending off David's suggestions of biking up the steep 6-mile road to Timberline Lodge), we settled on the Mirror Lake hike, with the extension to Tom Dick & Harry Mountain. The first 1.5-2 miles of this hike wind uphill, but moderately so, through tall slender trees with beautiful, magical ferns below. The rhododendrons are currently in full bloom.


Mirror Lake is more of a pond than a lake, we decided.

The views from the top of Tom Dick & Harry mountain were amazing that day. We could see several of the volcanic peaks in the cascades: Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Jefferson - all in a perfect line. The wildflowers were also a hit with us - the white puffy ones are called bear grass.





After the hike, we proceeded to Portland, arriving in the early evening at the downtown Marriott. The valet was extremely helpful and directed us to the network of bike trails. Little did I know what I was getting into... It seemed like the entire city of Portland was running or cycling on the trail at that time. It was mayhem. David said, "Maybe we LIKE living where no one uses the trails!" David really, really wanted to feel the pulse of the Portland cycling scene, though, so we continued on.... and on and on and on. We followed the Springwater Corridor Trail almost to the end -- my knees were not too happy after hiking and car-riding for the other half of the day prior to cycling.

That didn't stop us from riding like maniacs most of the way home. We passed a few folks going through the street portion between two main sections of the trail, and they sort of just started to tag along. David picked up the pace (against the wind), and we were holding between 22 and 25mph - I kept thinking, surely we dropped the girl on the single speed not wearing bike shoes! Surely, we did not - in fact, we had picked up a long line of cyclists looking to benefit from the draft of the David. I knew I had to keep up the pace despite my raging nausea, or I would've caused a big crash. Finally near the end where we were to cross the river on the Steel Bridge, we pulled off to rest and take in the scenery (and take pictures - see below).

Portland is serious about cycling.

Oregon Day 2: The Hood River Valley (is a lot more mountain than valley)

It is remarkable that neither Heather nor I have ever been to Oregon before. We've lived adjacent to it and visited both the states above and below it. Now that we have been here for a couple days, and found out how much we love it, we'll be sure to make up for time lost. The weather has been perfect. The fruit we love is all in season. We ate strawberries, peaches, and lots and lots of cherries. Unlike the CA wine regions, Oregon has equal supply of beer breweries and wineries. Both are excellent. We sampled in four different wineries, spread out on different legs of the so called "Fruit Loop" -- a forty mile loop through wine and fruit growing valley that boasts the Columbia River Gorge as well as magnificent views of Mount Adams and Mount Hood.
To get to the Fruit Loop, we took an old scenic highway that has been converted into a beautiful bike route. It is extremely wide and goes through several old stone tunnels. It includes a great number of hairpin turns and is equipped with many guard rails to prevent cyclists from hurtling the long drop down into the gorge. When our 49 year old Bed and Breakfast operator explained that she bike it every day to and from work, I assumed the trail was a flat trail betwen the two nearby towns, Hood River and Mosier. What we didn't know is that our B & B owner is a great cyclist and that this was an extreme climb. After we got to the start of the loop, I thought for sure that the climbing was over. Now we would go through the flat farm land where all the fruti was grown. WRONG. The elevation continued. I loved it of course. But I have to say that this kind of mountain cycling forces you to sample only the wines you really want to try. The pear cider was a very refreshing find as were all the different fruit stands and orchards. We skipped lunch. Or rather survived off of the plentiful fruit and the occaisional homemade chocolate bark or chocolate chip cookies. Knowing that we were cyclists, people kept throwing free food at us. They seemed to think we deserved it. Of course, we had lots of extra credit wine offered to us as well. It's hard to say no especially when you know they take their wine so seriously. My favorites today included a port wine, a pear wine, a dessert Gewurtzraminer, a Cab Sav (which is unusual for this region) and a Pinot Noir (which is the more common grape for the Valley). Now, all of my great friends in mind, I wanted to share these great tastes and so at each of the wineries, we had to get our favorite(s). By the end I had five wines in my backpack. We ended the day with an incredibly fast ride back into Hood River with a 25 mile / hour wind at our backs. We then proceeded to the Double Mountain Brewery where I tried some great beer and Heather got some much needed chips and salsa. Then up, up, up again. Now with five wines in the bag the climb back up to the top of the gorge was not so easy, but the wind helped and soon we were back into Mosier, having done a little more than 50 miles for the day. The day ended with one of the best meals I have had in a long time (and you all know we eat well). Having sated ourselves on various wines and beers throughout the day, I decided to focus on food. With this firmly resolved, I ordered a cheese plate, sea scallops, a rib eye steak with morrels and potatos and for dessert a cherry tarte. Heather got Salmon. (If that doesn't seem fair, know that we shared everything). In thinking about the night, we entertained a brief notion of spending the night at the Timberline Lodge (which was where Kubrick shot the Shining) and even found that they had one room left. However, partly because it cost almost three times as much and partly because Heather is afraid I'm going to make her climb Mt Hood (which the Timberline Lodge is on), we decided to stay back at the same B & B.

Oregon Day 1: Watch for Children and Geese

Yesterday David and I left our cozy house in Idaho Falls behind to GO WEST! And West we have gone... Yesterday we only made it as far as Boise, where I did not take any pictures because I have filled the blog with Boise pictures in the past. I did manage to pick up a great quote, which was from one of the servers at the "Grape" wine shoppe/restaurant on 8th Street downtown. I am sure I will mangle it, but in response to my question, "How do you remember the details of all these different wines?", he responded, "I have a mini-love affair with everyone wine I drink. It's like a beautiful woman, you remember all the important details."

This morning we continued on to Oregon, where as you will see in the first few pictures, the northeastern part looks a heck-of-a-lot like Idaho (or Montana or parts of Utah). We came to Oregon to eat, drink wine and beer, see the coast, and bike.

We headed off interstate I-84 at Baker City in search of a cool road bike loop and maybe some lunch. The girl at the bike store told us about a fun loop a lot of people do around the foothills and through the still-pretty old Western town of Haines.

To do the loop: Get to 10th street in Baker City. We parked at Paziano's pizza, which is a good place to start. A mile north on 10th, you come to a blinking light - make a left on Pocahontas. Follow Pocahontas Road (David said, wasn't Pocahontas in Virginia???) Pocahontas follows the base of the foothills for about 15 miles or so.


Eventually you rejoin the Elkhorn Scenic Byway (Rt. 30), you make a right toward the town of Haines. As you approach Haines, you are warned to watch for children and geese. We saw neither.

We did eat some fresh baked chocolate chip cookes and down a strawberry smoothie from Anna's shack. Haines is pretty irrestible from a blog-picture picture, with perhaps the best being the town's slogan:

Other shots of Haines:

We were cruising back toward Baker City when I happened to notice that David only had 2 bulges in his bike shirt instead of 3, and neither were wallet-shaped. Hmm. His wallet was left at the picnic table in front of Anna's shack. He turned back while I attempted (unsuccessfully) to take pictures of an osprey in its nest. I am notoriously bad at avian predator shots. He did recover his wallet, only after Anna tried to chase him down by car, but realized we had gone the other direction. He tried to thank her with some money, but she refused, saying "No one in this town would EVER accept such a thing!"

After Baker City, we decided to really cover some ground, and we ended up all the way west to near the Hood River Valley area. The Mosier House B&B is right off I-84 at exit 69.

We enjoyed a fantastic dinner on the patio at The Good River Restaurant, until the mosquitos started eating us alive. We are looking forward to a long day of cycling through fruit and wine country tomorrow.

Cycle Chic

David and I have been making pretty good use of our relative freedom these days. He met some folks for dinner at The Cellar on Monday night, and although we were going to be late, I begged to ride the cruisers. Being able to cut through Ammon through the back neighborhoods was almost going to save us as much time as driving anyway. Here's a shot of our super-duper cute bikes.

David picked up his 1974 Schwinn Continental at a garage sale in our neighborhood for $35. For those that know David, it's extremely difficult to believe he would ever get into the retro bike scene, but if there was ever an old bike for David, this is it - he'll tell you about the craftmanship that went into the bike and how well it shifts - this is no cruiser. Mine, of course, is the Electra Amsterdam purchased just last year although everyone thinks it's retro. They are both orange, although mine has sparkle paint!

After dinner, we stopped off at Jonathan's apartment to see if he wanted to take a cruiser ride (although pathetically, he has only ONE bike, and it's a mountain bike!). I said, "He'll never go - it's getting dark! He would find that dangerous!" Turns out he had just come back from buying a bike light at Target, so off we went - exploring the new water features at the Snake River Landing development. The river itself is quite amazing right at this moment, as it's the nearest to flood stage it's been since I've lived here.

Before we headed out, I had David take some pictures of me on my bike. Right after he took the one where I'm riding, I almost crashed by getting caught in the crack between the sidewalk and the pavement. Not so slick - I think I'm too dorky to appear in Copenhagen Cycle Chic!




Oh, and can anyone notice I got 7 inches cut off my hair? You should've seen the poor stylists face when I had to put a bike helmet onto her perfect creation to head back to work. I'm afraid it's one of those haircuts that will never look as good as it did that first day.

Masochism is a pre-req for living in Teton Valley

I discovered this on Sunday morning when I said to David, instead of a hike (see two posts earlier - the grizzlies are out), why don't we bike to Targhee?

Driggs is about 5-5.5 miles from our house, Targhee is another 12 or so from there. After about 6.5 gradual uphill miles from town, it continues up another 6 miles to the top, with somewhere around 2000' in elevation gain. As most people I know say, "It's really not bad at all". And you are thinking, in comparison to WHAT, for God's sake!

About a mile into the tough part, I started to wonder about myself and why I would choose to do such a thing. And then I noticed how many other people were choosing to do it. There were more people going up and down that hill than there were walking around downtown Driggs when we passed through.

It perhaps would seem, then, that having masochistic tendencies is a pre-requisite for living in the Teton Valley.

We did in fact out-bike the rain that started to pour from the heavens and chased us out of the Valley around 1-2 in the afternoon. We had a great book club discussion ("The Fifth Mountain", by Paolo Coehlo), bookended by David and I obsessively watching the 1st disc of Arrested Development, Season 1. At around 10pm we shook our fists at the TV, shouting, "Why no more? Why?"

And so ended a relaxing weekend, filled with intensity as well as slacking off in front of the TV.