Wheatland Ferry & Willamette Mission

We took a short detour to ride across the Willamette on a ferry. The Wheatland Ferry costs nothing for bikes to cross. Before this ride, I hadn't realized there were ferries on the Willamette River. In fact, this was not the only ferry we could have taken. The Albany to Brownsville leg crosses very close to a ferry and there is also the Canby Ferry, which was one of the routes I was considering to Champoeg. This was, however, the only ferry we took.

The Wheatland Ferry has a website.

Matt is ready to cross.

As are the cars.

It was a very quick crossing, and we immediately turned and rode back to the other side.

After our ferry jaunt, we rode on to the Willamette Mission State Park. The thing about State Parks that is not noticeable at all when in a car, but incredibly annoying while on bikes, is that most of them are set back at least a mile, perhaps two, from the entrance. We rode and rode and rode. I was hoping for some sort of food stand, as we had no breakfast or lunch, and were subsisting on snacks at this point.

Alas, we found bathrooms and drinking fountains but no food sources. On the east coast there would have been someone serving up fried food of every strip. Score one for east coat parks. So instead of eating, we took care of the needs we could take care of, mounted up and rode on. On our way out we saw this bird, and a helpful sign informed us that this was either Mr. or Mrs. Osprey.

To see the photographic record of our trip Matt posted on Facebook go here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150240061488137.315910.633443136&l=2392c1b7c6
Don't worry, it's public, you don't have to be a member of Facebook to see it.