April 25- May 5, 2013 Hillsboro Oregon

My friend said I should put a notice here at the beginning.  Yes, I am very late with this post.  Since we left Oregon we have spent all our time with family and friends at locations I have been to many times.  Social times in the evenings makes it hard to get on my computer, and as I have been to these places so often, I guess it is hard to see through "new eyes" and take as many pictures as I should.  I will try to get us caught up before we leave Idaho City for our next destination.  But for now, I am in catch up mode...

We left Crooked River Ranch Thursday morning via Highway 126 through Sisters OR where we picked up US 20.  It is a very pretty route and we stayed on it until we reached SR 22, the North Santiam Highway.  We followed this through the forest, past Detroit Lake and down to Salem.  Once on I-5 we headed north leaving the freeway near Woodburn to follow SR 219 to Newberg where we got onto Bald Peak Rd. 

This took us to Lyon’s house.  The trip through the Willamette Valley was beautiful.  This really is the land of Nursery stock.  There are fields and fields and fields filled with nursery stock.  It was truly beautiful to see rows and rows of colorful tree and plants in bloom.

Lyon’s place is 3 acres of mowed fields and lawn.  We parked back by his shop and let the cats out. 

 

They had a ball, checking out his place and looking for critters.  Bailey, as usual, found a critter hole or two that needed his attention.  He likes to ‘guard’ them, taking time to walk the perimeter of ‘his space’ several times a day.  He seemed to know that Lyon’s space ended at the mow line.  It was fun to watch him.

 On Friday Wayne went trail riding in the Coast Range with Lyon and Rick.  He has been looking forward to this for at least a year.  We had planned to come down last New Year’s, but with snow at that time in the area, we had to pass. They had a great ride.  I spent the day with my friend Linda.  We went to the ocean.  We had lunch at Netarts Bay, and then went to the resort town of Oceanside. 

 

 The beach where we parked is a great sand beach.  We walked north along the shore to the pass-through to the next beach.

 

  This tunnel looks official from the south side, not so much from the north side of the bluff.

 The beach is very different too.  It is very rocky and if the tide had been lower it looks like it would have many tide pools. 

These are called the Three Arch Rocks.

On Saturday Wayne went riding with the guys again and Linda and I took the train to downtown Portland to the Saturday Market to people watch.

 Sunday was errand day.  Wayne and I headed out to find a Satellite TV shop to talk to a service tech about our inability to get our dish set up correctly.  Wayne was sure that something was broken.  Of course the tech was out on the road and would give us a call. We planned to work our way through RV lots in the Portland area and stop at REI.  We are still in the market for a new RV.  We know that when we find the one that will work, we’ll be ready to buy it, but finding the exact options in one rig could take a day or a month or a year.  You just never know.

At REI we found new sleeping bags for our cross country trip next year, and at Big 5 we found the tent we wanted on sale!  Works for me!!  The tech met us at Lyon's house and proved that everything works, you just need a $500 meter to set it up.  We'll wait until we get a new coach and hope it has an automatic dish! 

Monday and Tuesday were planned as Dual Sport rides.  Lyon took Wayne and I back to the coastal range to ride a combination of roads, jeep roads, 4 x 4, quad trails and of course a little bit of single track.  When we moved away from the Pacific Northwest I said I’d never ride single track on the west side again. Well, this wasn’t so bad.  Of course this is quad trail we were on in the morning.

 Monday’s weather was typical for that time of year on the west side, rain and snow.

 We parked at what is called Lyda Camp just off Highway 6. We started off with it misting as we headed out on some roads. We jumped on and off the main road, taking some parallel quad trails.  This one crossed the river and came out on a different road.  

Wayne prepping our bikes 

 They are currently logging in the Oregon State Forest. 

 The views were hidden in the clouds.

We stopped at the Jordon Creek Staging area for lunch.  Then up the Jordon Creek trail which brought us to this trail.

 

See, I’m back riding in the land of ferns and moss!!Then it was up the trail and connecting to the road to the truck.  Again we jumped on and off the road, taking trails that paralleled the road whenever we could.  I talked the boys into stopping for Hot Cocoa on the way back because I was pretty cold.

 

 

Tuesday’s weather was a different story.  The sun was out, the sky was blue; it was a wonderful day for a ride.  We could actually see what was across the valleys. We started at Lyda Camp again but we rode on both sides of Highway 6 this time.  We did a combination of trail and road types again, crossing Highway 6 to ride for a bit at Diamond Mill ORV park. Here we found a bridge that was built for a hiker only trail.

 

I wonder what THAT cost.

Lyon took us down the highway a bit and into a trail to see a bridge that he was helping to build on a motorcycle trail. 

Bet this one is more reasonably priced. 

Here is what it is replacing.

Then we headed back to the truck through more amazing country side.  We did the Jordon Creek trail in the opposite direction and went near a trail that Lyon knows called the Angry Elf trail.  It seems that the trail appeared by magic, so the elves must have built it.  It is getting a reputation, because a couple of riders we met at Diamond Mill even asked us if we knew where it was!  It was another great day on the bikes.

Wayne spent another couple of days riding in the mountains with Rick and Lyon, while I did chores one day and visited my friend Linda on the other.  We also spent another long day checking out RV lots in the area.  We know what we are looking for; we just need to find it with all the options we want.  We know our new coach is out there somewhere….