cycle wild

December 4th - Champoeg

December 4-5, 2010 was a textbook example of the best in winter camping.  While it was cold, it never dropped below freezing.  What little rain there was happened in the middle of the night, there were no flats, the only mechanical issue happened before the ride even started, and everyone completed the ride.  We even left on-time, both days!

The ride started on Saturday morning, at Voodoo Too at NE Davis & 15th Ave.  It was a veritable cornucopia of cyclists as we shared morning coffee & donuts with a group of recumbent riders out for a weekend jaunt.  One of our riders arrived on foot after her bike swallowed a plastic bike 2 blocks away – the bag was sucked into the rear derailleur and spokes, bending the derailleur hanger over sharply and leaving the bike unrideable.  She later joined us at the park after going home and switching bikes.

The rest of us, joined temporarily by another cyclist riding to Oregon City, set off down 7th Avenue and then made our way over to the Springwater Corridor.  The weather was low 40s without much wind, and overcast, but no rain.  There were a few people on the Springwater at 10am, but the real surprise lay in wait for us at the Ross Island Bridge – this was the first weekend of the Holiday Express train, which runs every December for 2 weekends on the Oregon Pacific Railroad alongside the Springwater Trail and the Willamette River.  The Holiday Express this weekend was pulled by the SP4449,

The SP4449

a 4-8-4 Northern locomotive built in the 1930s.  It is one of 3 steam locomotives owned by the city and maintained & operated by volunteers.  It was early in the day, so the area around Oaks Park where the 4449 takes on passengers wasn’t full yet with people waiting their turn to ride the Holiday Express, and we were able to make our way to the end of the trail without having to worry about children and photographers more preoccupied with the train than with approaching bikes.

We made our way down into Milwaukie, and stopped at a gas station for restrooms and snacks after finding the park restrooms locked.  Our first climb of the day, up River Road, got us sweating a little bit, followed by a leisurely roll down to Gladstone.  In Gladstone, riders are forced onto the sidewalk of 99E when crossing the bridge over the Clackamas River, which has a few tricky pinch points, but we navigated that without incident and despite all the debris, gravel and glass in the bike lane, no one got any flats.

We took the “secret” tunnel under the railroad tracks by the paper mill, which crosses over 99E and dumps riders onto a narrow sidewalk alongside 40mph traffic.  Oddly enough, this is actually the easiest and “safest” route up the hill in Oregon City.  We stopped for a few minutes at the Willamette Falls overlook, and marveled at the juxtaposition of natural beauty and manmade industry.

We then started the trek up South End Road, which isn’t bad in and of itself, but has a fair amount of traffic and no shoulder to speak of for most of its length.  Motorists were very well-behaved this weekend.  With one exception, everyone passed us with plenty of room, no one honked, and cars passed at a reasonable speed.  We crested the hill, and rolled down South End for a ways before cutting over to Central Point Road.

Central Point Road has a nice 300′ elevation change – DOWN.  It doesn’t take too much effort to break 40mph on the downhill, especially on a loaded touring bike.  The feeling of the descent with the wind in one’s face is exhilarating, though the smell of the cow farm on the following uphill leaves a bit to be desired.  Another 5 miles are we entered the City of Canby from the northeast, and pulled into the Fred Meyer parking lot to resupply and buy food for the weekend.  Our food stops typically take 30-45 minutes, and let folks avoid carrying the extra pounds the entire way.  Fred Meyer is about 12 miles from the park, and typically with packaging, a day’s food can weigh 5 pounds.  A bottle of wine or six-pack of beer is another 2-3 lbs, so it starts to add up quick.  Usually one of us will stay with the

Bikes lined up

bikes until the first person exits the store, so we’ve never had a problem with theft or the bikes being messed with. (and in most small towns, theft is not an issue)

The rest of the ride into the park was made in partly cloudy skies with actual sunlight.  We crossed the Molalla and Pudding rivers, passed the Aurora airport, and rode through farmland before dipping into and climbing back out of Butteville.  The historic store was closed for the season, so we went straight to the back entrance of the park and rode the trail behind “La Butte” to the campground entrance.

The park was effectively deserted.  There were about a dozen RVs in the B Loop (which has about 40 sites).  The tent area was empty, and the cabins looked unoccupied.  A Loop was closed for the season, and while a couple of the yurts were reserved according to the website, we never saw any cars parked in front of them.  The yurts sit at the front of the campground, next to the check-in booth and the A loop entrance.  Hiker/biker is at the bottom of the A Loop, so in winter, the only people in A Loop are hiker/biker and the yurts.  For all practical purposes, that meant the 8 of us on this trip were alone.  Our biggest challenge was finding drinking water since the A Loop spigots had been turned off.

The weather that evening was gorgeous (see the picture at top) and sunset was beautiful.  Our first order of business was pitching the tents, followed quickly by finding the camp host and buying firewood.  Shortly thereafter, we had a roaring fire going, and everyone was telling stories and jokes while relaxing after a day’s ride.  Total distance was 36.5 miles, and total trip time was about 5 hours, including all of our stops.

The stars came out early in the night, and we combined stargazing with firegazing while eating our dinners.  We talked for what seemed forever, and were surprised to find it “only” 6:30pm.  The group largely drifted off to bed between 9 and 10pm, prompted by the primitive reflexes all humans share that encourage sleep once the sun has gone down.  About 11pm, it rained for 20-30 minutes after the last of us put out the fire and turned in for the night.

The morning found almost everyone awake before 8am, and after a breakfast of eggs, bacon and french toast, we packed up and easily made our

On Mountain Road

planned 10am departure from the park.  The route back retraced our wheelprints into Canby, then we headed north and crossed the Canby ferry.  The weather was even better than Saturday, with the sun shining pretty much all day.  We started to feel sorry for all the Bikecraft exhibitors, who were stuck indoors all day.

The Canby Ferry has a short but steep climb up out of it which puts one on Mountain Road, which is aptly-named but neither steep nor particularly high.  Near the summit is one of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue’s fire stations, which has a convenient water spigot on the side that allowed us to refill our water bottles.  A short ride down the backside of mountain road and a steep descent down Turner Road took us to Borland route – a straight shot into West Linn.  Motorists on Borland were generally polite, despite the lack of a shoulder on this high-speed, 2-lane road.  After passing through historic West Linn, we crossed over the Willamette on the Oregon City Bridge and passed back into Oregon City. (note, ODOT will close this bridge soon for 2 years for repairs, there is no good alternate route at this time)

Sunset over the Willamette

We stopped for coffee and sandwiches at the Caulfield House, which is a great little place tucked into what is billed as the oldest commercial building in the state (1848).  The woman behind the counter looked a bit harried (we came in the middle of a rush), but we received outstanding service and I certainly plan on going back there next time I’m in town.

The remainder of the ride was pleasant and uneventful, and after passing through Gladstone, Milwaukie (with their awesome new bike signage!) and Sellwood, we found ourselves back on the Springwater Trail.  After passing the Holiday Express train again, we returned to Portland in time for the end of Bikecraft.

This is the last Cycle Wild trip for the year.  Our next trip will be on December 31st for our 3rd year of “New Year’s Revolution Bike Camping” in the cabins at Stub Stewart State Park.  Join us for an awesome time!

Mileage: 75 miles total (36 out, 39 back)
Total riding time: about 10 hours (5 each way)
Number of riders: 8*
Overnights: 1

Total trips this year: 8
Average riders per trip: 12
Total person-miles this year: 10,177
Total person-overnights this year: 192
# of unique campers in 2010: 43

* This trip had 2 campers who rode out apart from the group on the outbound leg, and an uncounted rider who rode part of the outbound leg and did not camp with us or ride the return trip.