Mount’s Rainier and St. Helens to be exact! Hoping for some clear skies and good views. Room is booked, bikes are ready (pretty much), we’ll head out early saturday morning for about 400 miles, bed down in Morton at Roy’s Motel and RV Park (don’t ask, it’s cheap and it’s available, what can I say?), Sunday we’ll ride up to Johnson Observatory, then back down the hill towards home.
Terrebonne through Mt. Rainier, down to St. Helens and back home again
A few weeks ago we were talking to Lorrin and Sue about fun places to visit in their stomping grounds (Wasco County), and Lorrin mentioned Beacon Rock.
This 850-foot-tall monolith is the core of an ancient volcano, the softer outer material washed away by the Missoula Floods of the last ice age.
What is left is a rock that many claim to be the second largest in the world – depending on your definition! What is certain is that the Army Corps of Engineers planned to make rubble out of the entire thing back in the early 1900′s. Henry Biddle purchased the property to preserve this piece of geologic and American history (Lewis and Clark named the rock during their journey of discovery), he then proceeded to create a trail to the top.
Mr. Biddle was a fascinating man, and should probably have a more prominent place in Oregon/Washington history. I was hoping to find a book on him, but if anyone did put his life’s story on paper, it’s no longer in print. WSU does house his photography collection – sure would be neat to get a peek at these!
http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv80043
I was a little concerned about hiking a mile straight up, then back down again, but for some reason, it seemed like a breeze (actually, it was a breeze – the wind on the East side was really whipping!). My fear of heights didn’t even kick in here, the walkways and railings make for a very safe and secure place to view the panorama of our gorgeous gorge. We saw kids as young as 4 walking this on their own, so it’s a very family-friendly adventure.
The views are amazing! It’s hard to take your eyes off the horizon and focus on the trail. My favorite thing was getting a good view of the original Bridge of the Gods. This is the cataclysmic landslide which the current bridge is named for. Between 500 and 1,000 years ago, a huge section of Table Mountain and Greenleaf Peak tumbling into the Columbia River, actually damming the water and creating a huge lake that drowned trees nearly 35 miles upriver.
The debris field, and the mountains that let all that rock loose are clearly visible from our vantage point 800+ feet above.
Remnants of the landslide
Lewis and Clark saw clues to this event, and the Native Americans told them of this “Bridge of the Gods”.
Anyway, I’d always wondered why they named that tiny little steel bridge such an imposing name – now I know!
Photos from the first half of our day
After wandering downhill, we got back on the bikes and headed to the Oregon side of the gorge and Highway 30 – The Historic Columbia River Highway.
About the same time Mr. Biddle was building his “rock” trail, the Columbia River highway was being developed as the first specifically designated Scenic Highway in America by Sam Hill (check out Maryhill Museum and Maryhill Loops for more info on this fascinating fellow). Sam and his gang did a pretty good job, with the gorgeous rock retaining walls and delicately soaring concrete bridges showing off the wet, mossy, and rocky beauty to its best advantage.
Mike didn’t remember ever visiting this place. I do vaguely recall spending a little time here with Don and Tammy Hoxie back about 20 years ago – anyway, it’s been awhile!
The road was busy, and parking was at a premium – not a big deal on a bike, we just snuggle in wherever there’s a little space.
There’s so many beautiful waterfalls here – Multnomah Falls is of course the most popular, but each one is just so cool – I wish we had more time!
Multnomah Falls
The last falls before the road climbs towards Crown Point is Latourelle Falls. We still had a few minutes to spare, so I pulled in here and we started walking towards the falls – who do we bump into? My good friend from High School Debbie Miller! We knew we’d all be somewhere in the Gorge today, but with no real plans to meet, it was quite a coincidence.
Our poor families had to stand around while Debbie and I talked a mile a minute and had a great time catching up. Soon it was past 4pm and time to really hit the road.
We stopped at Crown Point for a few quick photos, then headed back towards home. Unfortunately we took the slow route – sometimes the shortest distance isn’t the quickest way, especially when there’s multitudes of traffic lights involved. Fortunately we finally spied our Hwy 26 signs in Gresham and we were back in gear. We didn’t pull into the driveway until dusk – way too late for safeties sake, but fortunately the well traveled (but boring!) Highway 97 kept the deer from being an issue.
So much fun packed into one day – not nearly enough time to enjoy it all, for sure!
Photos from the second half of our day
Want to take a hike on a big rock? Here’s the info:
http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Beacon_Rock_Hike
http://www.stateparks.com/beacon_rock.html
And the best maps and info for Highway 30 can be found here:
What, motocross on Saturday, are you nuts? Nope, it’s AMA messing with a good thing again. Oh, and those races being over before they have to turn on the track lights? Don’t count on it.
Fortunately, weird decisions by the AMA didn’t affect the great racing on the track, and we were treated to a fun day that was great to watch – uh, except for all the ‘husky’ fellows who felt the need to go shirtless. Okay, I respect the fact that some people with less-than-perfect bodies are very comfortable with their body image, but it doesn’t mean I want the image of their body inhabiting my nightmares.
Our day started early, leaving the house at dawn we pulled into the track before 8am, the mixed aromas of race gas, Asian barbeque, and porta-potties that you’ll only smell at Washougal.
Something new to us were the pits being open in the a.m. It’s always fun to check out the new gear, and we had a great opportunity to watch the Mitch Peyton’s Pro Circuit mechanics do some clutch work to Christophe Pourcel’s bike. Whatever they did didn’t work for the first moto, but it sure came together for him in the second, netting him a third overall. Dungey came away with the overall, tying both riders for the series points lead.
Weather was sunny and darned hot – fortunately there was a bit of light cloud cover in the morning to keep us from completely roasting, but by afternoon we were ready to plant ourselves in a shady location and not ‘leaf’ until the final moto.
Mike found a great vantage point at the very top of the hill, and we watched Chad Reed spank Jason Lawrence and Josh Grant, but not until after a nice fight in the second moto.
Ryan Villipoto helped in the announcing tower doing color for the second 250 moto. He has a great radio voice and was smooth and professional. If that moto thing doesn’t work out for him, he sounds like a great candidate to take over when Dave Bailey retires.
Our trip to jet city was great!
Got up at an ungodly time on Saturday - 3:30 or something – on the road by 4:30 and parked in Seattle by 10:30.
Our first stop was the Three Girls Bakery for some scone and coffee action. Next we wandered around the market checking out the shops. Mike always makes a bee-line for the Antique stores, where he scored a few little trinkets. I breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t find some vintage motorcycle do-dad that cost an arm and a leg or was larger than a breadbox.
Lunchtime rolled around and we started paying more attention to the smells of really good foods you can’t easily find in Central Oregon. We ducked our heads into the tiny Sabra Mediterranean cafe, they had Falafal and other vegetarian delights, and we both had some awesome fresh and tasty food for around $15.
After lunch, we wandered further afield of Pike Place, and found even more cool restaurants with tons of vegetarian goodies for Mike. Next year we’ll be chowing down at the Pan African Market, the Ethiopian dishes looked and smelled incredible.
The music out on the streets ran the gamut from jazz to rock and everything in between. I think the only thing I didn’t hear was classical, but I’m sure if I’d walked a little further, I’d have found it!
The weather was perfect, although I sort of like it rainy in Seattle – it just seems appropriate. Plus it keeps the crowds down to a more manageable size!
We headed over to the races really late – got parked and in our seats just in time for the opening ceremonies. The Lites classes were fun to watch – these were all new riders that Mike and I hadn’t seen much of before, and it’s always cool to watch how each rider tackles the same obstacles in a little different manner.
Ryan Dungey got out in front and just smoothly walked away from everyone. Jason Lawrence kept it a little exciting at the beginning, working his way up to 2nd, then cruising to the finish. He clinched the lites West coast title.
The 250′s…er….I mean the ‘Supercross’ class (okay, I’m still old school, I admit it!) were really exciting – although Chad Reed probably would say they were ‘painfully exciting’. Reed crashed in the first lefthander out of the starting gate, and ended up being the meat in the middle of a 3 or 4 rider sandwich. He got up in last place, and I thought he’d maybe just ride around and try not to lose too many points after that, but he really proved he’s an ironman (or superman!) by dragging himself (broken shoulder and all) to 2nd place behind Windham.
Windham had his own weirdness to deal with – someone hit a tuff block, and the cover was laying in the track. It got caught up on Windham’s bike somewhere on the right side. Looked like just the footpeg, but must have been the rear brake, because the bike stalled on the face of one of the jumps. Windham calmly looked down, figured out what was going on and removed the cover, then gave it a hard throw off the track so it wouldn’t be a problem for anyone else.
He lost about 4 spots, but regained the lead quickly afterwards.
With Windham finishing first, and Reed in second, there’s still a 10 point deficit, but if Windham wins Vegas, and Reed finishes 5th or worse, it’s Windhams title.
With the points chase still going on, we’re bummed about missing Vegas for the first time in about 6 years, but we just can’t afford Vegas with Alaska looming in the near distance. Especially with gas prices nearing $4 a gallon.
Attendance seemed a bit low at the race, we were wondering if it was because less people are travelling.
Anyone changing plans because of gas or diesel prices?
Pike’s market, Three Sisters Bakery, rain and Reed – should make for a fun weekend!
We’ll be heading out at o-dark-thirty Saturday AM (closer to Friday PM, but I’m not going to look), spending the day wandering the streets of Seattle, then over to the Qwest Field in the evening to watch Chad Reed and Kevin Windham battle it o
ut for the Supercross points lead.
We used to be the first in line to get into the pits ‘back when’ McGrath was racing. We were autograph hounds! It did pay off, we’ve got lots off cool autographed ephemera in Mike’s showroom that we wouldn’t have otherwise.
Anyway, pics and story will be here Monday :)
