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Published: September 4th 2018
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Oregon 2018 1st Riding Day.
Steady ride out of Portland on USA Labour day,so it was relatively quiet on the roads at 9am. After crossing the Willamette River the road climbed up at a maximum of 13% to Skyline Boulevard where we took a right with more climbing and passing of the Skyline Memorial Gardens with its sculpted trees, reminiscent of Japan. Eventually we had a great descent with some gentle hairpins alongside the other Richard, who was not to be beaten hurtling and plummeting the way down. At the foot we had a huge plain with arable crops and beef cows eating some brown stuff they call grass. After passing through what looked like a new town still having buildings being erected North Plains was an old town with corrugated industrial buildings down one side of the street which were painted with full size murals of steam trains, steam driven threshing machines, horse drawn carriages etc. This reminded me of the town of Sheffield in Tasmania which has over 50 such murals on the walls. Here we saw the first bicycle repair station on the side of the street. What a great idea. We called in the local bar
which was called ’The Last Watering Hole’ where we had a coffee or two whilst we waited for the remainder of the group to appear. The girl in the bar said they did not get many cyclists through but had lots of farmers. I said in big Stetson’s, she said no, ’They wear baseball caps back to front’. Big disappointment. Eventually Bill landed in having had his rear tyre tear inside causing a huge bulge. Luckily Tony had a spare fold up tyre which was commandeered. Shortly after leaving we were riding down the wide shouldering Highway 6, which was really busy but safe. We soon left this only to find we were on Highway 47, which was just as busy but with no shoulder. Hunger was taking over so I called into a fruit farm and found three old tractors parked up amongst the undergrowth. A Case and an International from around 1950. I bought some plums and found there was a deli at a shop 1/2 mile up the road, where I had a couple of sausage rolls and coffee. 1/2 mile later I joined a cycleway which runs from Banks along the 20 miles or so to
Vernonia. The gradient was gradual, but relentless, to a restaurant in town where we bought some food and beer for those who had missed the deli. The last 10 miles were ridden at a slick pace, mostly behind the ’other Richard’ who us an absolute power house and passing some poor looking encampments of old Carsvans and RV’s. Arriving at the Coastal Mountain Sports Hause we were impressed by the quality and the eco friendliness of the building. They have solar panels and a bank of water pipes which create all the hot water they need plus the underfloor heating in winter. In Lancashire they would only be working 10 days a year. The main rooms overlooked their brown pasture grazed by some Italian beef cattle which was quite nice in such a sunny evening. The evening meal was very good and Sandy really got into our good books by agreeing to do our washing for us - bingo.
Oregon is certainly a logging state and we saw lots of logging trucks and sawmills on our way today. Bed before 10pm ready for another day of lugging panniers up these Oregon hills. Somebody has to do it.
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