Oregon Trip - Part 1 - Bicycle Tour

The June 26th to July 8th trip to Oregon is seperated into four parts. Part 1 is devoted to the 6-day bicycle tour of the Willamette Valley and Cascade Foothills organized and led by Dennis Engblom. In 6 days, we covered 235 miles and climbed nearly 10,000'.

Part 2 is a visit to Silver Falls State Park, a spectaculer gem of a park with 10 magnificient waterfalls pouring over basalt cliffs into a deep canyon.

Part 3 covers a post-bike trip drive over the Cascade Range to Sisters where we spent a couple days hiking along the roaring Metolius River, a spring-fed river, and a short and heady hike up to the top of 6,436' Black Butte, a giant cinder cone offering panoramic views of the Cascade Range.

Part 4 is a trip to Diamond Lake and Crater Lake where we camped for 2 nights watching a spectacular sunset on Mt. Thielsen and a final grinding bike ride from Diamond Lake to the rim of Crater Lake.

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Our bike tour started at the beautiful farm of Bill and Karen Farmer located about 8 miles west of Salem. Bill and Karen are long-time friends of Dennis. They live and restored the Victorian farmhouse of Bill's grandparents. The Farmer family settled in the Willamette Valley 150 years ago so their roots are deeply rooted here.

The view of the beautiful back "40" landscaped with trees, shrubs and flower gardens.

Bill and Karen were gracious hosts and fed us hearty farmer-sized dinner and breakfast.
L-R Dennis, Dick, Bill and Karen

A giant black walnut tree dominates the back "40"

Dick and I camped on the back "40". An old barn and several out-buildings were home to owls.

The first morning and ready to roll. Wagons Hooo!!

Catching a ride on a ferry crossing the lanquid Willamette River

Dennis plotted out a great route on very quiet back country roads. Our three bikes were the only "vehicles" on the ferry.

End of our first day at the Waterloo County Park along the Santium River. A rip-roaring waterfall dropping about 8'.

How to cool off a teardrop on a 100 degree day

A homemade "cowboy" camper from Pendleton

Arriving at the Green Peter Dam on the Santium River and heading into the mountains.

Taking "5" at the Dam

Quartsville Road follows a wild and scenic river

Looking down on rip-roaring Quartsville Creek

Our campground at Yellow Bottom on Quartsville Creek

Dennis leaves a messy table

The fully-loaded Bike Friday worked out quite well. It's quite the little burro.

The Willamette Valley is known for covered bridges

Start of our big climb from the valley to Silver Falls State Park

Beautiful rolling hills of wheat. The fertile volcanic soils of the Willamette Valley yields a diverse variety of crops.

Rows of blueberries bushes nearly ripe for pickin'

On our last day, we swung through Salem and visited the State Capitol

Looking up at the impressive ceiling rotunda

The Capitol Building is very impressive. This newer version replaced the old one which burned down in the 1930's.