ON THE ROAD JUNE/JULY 2021 (OREGON DAY 1)

BIKING THE “MADRAS MOUNTAIN VIEWS SCENIC BIKEWAY”

Our current adventure has us on our way to several different places and go three different states. Our first leg brings us to Cove Palisades State Park near Madras, Oregon. That puts us in Central, High Desert Oregon. This is where we meet up with the “Camping Sisters” — not to be confused with “Sisters On The Fly” which is the usual group we join for camping adventures. 

We met only a few of the other Camping Sisters before it was night fall and time to call it a day after our long drive from home. Sitting out for some last minutes of the day and enjoying the sunset.

Twelve hours later the sky and mountain looked a little different. 

Our route, on paper, is 29 miles all the way. We however, began the ride in the middle and rode up the hill (up the hill) to join the route at about the half way point. We had our first real views of the mountains, and there will be several pictures throughout this post ;’-).

The sisters, Mt Hood, and others — Adams? Bachelor? I am not familiar enough with them to name them.

All along, Susan and I have thought this is Mount Hood. It is not — we learned on our nature walk the next day what mountain it actually is. Look at next day’s post to find out ;’-).

Oregon does a fantastic job of routing bike ways and that is what they are called: Scenic Bikeways. The routes are all on the road rather than a trail, and some may be unpaved or partially so, and they are well signed with directional arrows. This is the third or fourth Bikeway we have ridden — of the 10-12 that exist.

Susan usually finds a heart for me — this time with a kiss ;’-).

Notice the car free roads as we move along the route. There were very few cars at all, and on some of the roads there were none.

More mountains…well, the same mountains but ‘again’.

The Lake Billy Chinook is right next to us for a while, but you must get off the route for just a bit to see it.

Passing by a few things that I could not stop myself from taking a photo of. 

I always wonder, and picture in my mind the family that once lived in these kinds of abandoned places, young and full of hope until things changed and they had to leave their home.

This canal has a gate that opens or closes to the connecting part of the canal depending on what the irrigation need is I suppose. This irrigation ditch is nothing different, but this caught my eye for a photo.

Horses and cows and goats sheep were our animals of the day. And this guy seemed to want to pose for me and I could not resist.

And then there was this geezer.

And this little guy.

The town of Madras is the official start of this Bikeway route and made it the halfway point for us. Susan balked at first because it was a longish downhill that we would retrace UPhill to connect back with our return route. But, she ended up going with me, as I was determined to not come all this way and miss part of the route.

We stopped in the town park to have a little rest (there had been a few hills to climb) and a snack. On the way back out of town we stopped for some interesting history.

Once someone had been convicted of a crime, the jail was directly behind the courthouse — no transportation issue. 

It is hard to think that someone was housed in the prison as late at 1961!



I don’t know what or who this “totem pole’ commemorates, but I found it interesting. Maybe Dancing With The Wolves?

We were both ready to end our ride, but we carried on and stopped in the town of Culver for a burger and milkshake just 5 miles from “home”. Did I mention — it is HOT here. The miles on paper would have been 29 — starting from camp and having a few little off the course rambling, we rode 33 miles with some hills and heat. By the time we got home we needed a rest before taking our showers!!! 

I love the Oregon Bikeways and would wish to do all those that are not “difficult or extreme” meaning very hard!