the orange door: unique living since 2007

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Road to Salem, Salem and what we did when we got there.

What do you see on the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway? A lot of crops. Here, Matt rides past hops, which we saw a ton of in this area. Interestingly, the website for the bikeway mentions that produce farm stands spring up along the route. We saw a few before we got to Champoeg, but none at all along the route. This was unfortunate, as we were very hungry at this point.

Hungry or not, we made it to Salem. All my years of bike commuting served me well as we transitioned from quiet side roads to main traffic thoroughfares. The next morning I noticed the Salem directions continued on the Salem to Albany cue sheet. I think we would have taken a less congested path if I had realized they were there and followed them.

Here we stop for a picture of the back side of the capitol building.

We checked into our motel (Travelodge Salem) and got directions to the nearest laundromat. We planned to do laundry every night after the first night in Champoeg. With the laundry in the machine, Matt walked across the street to a taco/burrito stand.

He chatted with the woman cooking and brought back what was to me the best burrito in the world. I was hungry!

After consuming that treasure, I walked next door to the Plaid Pantry and bought us an ice cream sandwich and a Butterfinger.

My favorite part about ice cream sandwiches: the sticky cookie residue left on your fingers when you are done eating! While our laundry was churning, we sat in the shade of the store and read our read-aloud books. My choice: Pride and Prejudice. Matt's choice: Order of the Stick Dungeon Crawlin' Fools.

Laundry completed, Matt took a dip in the pool.

But first, a picture commemorating our 34 miles today.

Our fabulous motel.

Matt's slowly committing to the water.

And he's in! And he's up on the wall!

And he's out!

He reports that the water was cold, but felt good.

After reading a bit of our books, I feel asleep and Matt went looking for food. He found instead the World Beat festival where he was enchanted by the belly dancers.

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.

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.