the orange door: unique living since 2007

Saturday, June 25, 2011

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.

We're on the Willamette Senic Bikeway

The first signs were right outside the park. We didn't see them on our way in because we took the back road bike trail from Butteville. The signs were placed at junctions throughout the route.

Getting ready to attempt a self-portrait of the first two signs, the Champoeg sign and ourselves:

Not quite, but good.

Here's how this bike trip will unfold: we ride. Every thirty minutes we stop and drink water or Poweraid. We ride. We stop for a bit and eat. We ride some more. Sometimes we stopped and ate standing up. Sometimes we sat down to eat, as outside this church near St. Paul. At this point, we're about 4 miles in.

Right before this picture was taken, one of the supports for the front bike basket had scraped across my calf as I was moving my bike. It was my--and the only--big injury of the trip.

Champoeg Kitchen Garden

I couldn't leave without having a look at the kitchen garden. Matt watched the bikes while I explored.

There are herbs and flowers near the entrance.

A shady hop arbor makes a good gateway.

The plants are all ones that were likely to have grown in the 1860s, including cardoon, seen below.

A fabulous bean trellis. Many of the plants I was familiar with, as in these beans or the cardoon above, but the varieties were unusual. Like Bloody Butcher Corn. The visitor center sells seeds saved from the garden and I'm kicking myself that I didn't purchase some packets.

Matt is feeling better, although not great, but looks ready the part of the biker.

But first, some pictures of the bat and bluebird houses.

Early morning at Champoeg

After a rough/good* night of sleep, I woke before Matt, and went for a walk. I found this trail.

It doesn't take long to get to the grave. The Friends of Historic Champoeg has an informative essay about Kitty Newell, which I recommend you read. I find focusing on what isn't taught in History as interesting as what is. When I visited Fort Vancouver a few years ago, the guides discussed the fur trappers' Native American wives. I was aghast. White trappers and soldiers had married native women? How was this even possible, given the state of White/Native American relations? And why had I never heard about this before? The Kitty Newell essay gives insight into this window of time.

Spring flowers in the sun.

Big old holey snag.

A glimpse of the Willamette. One of many we would have on this trip.

Back at the yurt, I noticed how dishevelled everything had managed to become in just a few short hours.

Matt slept on, while I read the last of the paper and started on Anne of Green Gables, my individual book for the trip.

*It seems that I am the high maintenance sleeper in the relationship. My plan was to not bring sleeping bags or pillows as we would only behttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif using them at Champoeg. I figured we could just sleep in multiple layers and/or turn up the heat in the Yurt. Matt brought his sleep sack because he likes clean sheets, but I thought I would be fine. It turns out that my minimum requirements for sleeping are 1) something pillow-like and 2) something to cover me. So going to bed in my jacket and yoga pants with my elbow as a pillow didn't work. I kept waking up. Also, I was very cold, despite the heater. Midway through the night Matt gave me his jeans and sweatshirt, shoved a bunch of t-shirts in a bag for a pillow and put the sleep sack over me. I immediately fell into a delightful sleep and Matt earned many boyfriend points.
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.

Friday, June 24, 2011

And we're off again!

After our delicious panini's from LoveCup (just in case you needed one more glance) we set off toward Champoeg.

In Oregon City we climbed a very large hill. Early on I was distracted because the cross streets seemed to be following the list of the US Presidents in order, but the road turned after Jackson and the presidents went away and then there was nothing left to do but keep climbing. We stopped at the top for this portrait. I should take a moment to say that Matt is actually ill at the time of this photo. He came down with a bug on Wednesday and was being a trouper, biking to Champoeg while still sick.

I should also tell you that we got to go down the other side of that large hill, which was quite fun. Then the road flattened out and we saw various farming operations.

Once we reached Butteville, we rode the bike path to Champoeg.

We checked into our Yurt, took a picture showing we did 37 miles and rode off of two maps today. Matt then collapsed into slumber on the couch for two hours.

While he did that, I ate dinner of big salad with hard boiled eggs while I caught up on the newspaper. Big Salad is my new favorite "camping" meal. I buy a package of salad mix for each person, boil up enough hard boiled eggs (three for me, one for Matt) et voila! Dinner with no dishes excepting the fork.

Being that it was so close to the solstice, it was still incredibly light at 9:00 pm.

And we're off!

Matt and I have been planning and training for a bike tour across the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway since last June. And today, we leave! Our goal today: ride to Champoeg State Heritage Area, where we will stay in a yurt.

We rode through North Portland, SE Portland and through Sellwood into Milwaukie where we encountered our first bit of trouble. Matt's chain snapped. We walked back two miles to the bike shop in Sellwood to get it repaired.

Matt discovered that, on flat surfaces, making his bike into a coaster bike was a bit quicker than walking.

New chain!

The best part was that while the chain was being repaired, I walked to LoveCup and bought us paninis. We bicycled to a nearby school and ate them. They were delicious.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Kenton Street Fair

Matt points to the sign pointing the way to the Kenton Street Fair. But first! Some library books to return.

There were Irish Dancers.

And one of my favorite things: looking for hidden treasure in the hay bale.

Matt poses with a goat (who is much less enthused than Matt)

A New Orleans Style band marches down the street.

My favorite of the t-shirts.

In front of Mackin Auto Body were the cars. Having just watched a lot of Fast & Furious movies, we enjoyed looking at the hydraulics on these cars, as well as the fancy detailing.

The owners were all chatting amongst themselves.

We sat in the Milgard Window store and listened to a singer.

It's a head-in-a-hole picture opportunity!

We look good as Paul Bunyan.

Many people were dressed as Paul Bunyan.

I pose next to some fancy cars. As I was posing next to the MG, a guy said to his girlfriend, "yep, it's a cute car, but they break down all the time." The T-bird was my dream car as a teenager, thanks to the movie American Graffiti.

Next to every car was the car owner, sitting in a chair, perhaps chatting with the car owner next to him.

We also enjoyed the Yarn Car.