Mount Hood Scenic Byway

September 26, 2007
Fairview, OR

First, here are some pictures from the last week or so, for your viewing pleasure:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/SomeOregonPictures

Today started out pretty cloudy and a bit slowly, but ended up being just fine. Since we wanted to get an early start, I had the alarm set for 7 AM. I could sense the clouds even though the blinds were down (yeah, I'm psychic). That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Anyway, I reset the alarm for 8 AM – much better. We got showered and ready to hit the road. Geri walked the pups while I unloaded the stuff (chairs, mountain bike, etc.) from the back of the Range Rover so we’d have room to take them along. We usually take them when we’re going to be gone for the whole day.

We mapped out the Mount Hood Scenic Byway for today’s trip with a little bit of help from Google and Microsoft Streets & Trips software. We left mid-morning, and it was still pretty cloudy. As we drove east on US-26 along the southern side of Mount Hood, we could see the clear skies in the distance. Before we knew it, the sun was out and by noon, we had a hard time seeing a cloud anywhere.

We climbed up to about 4,500’ and started seeing ski areas, but couldn’t get a good view of the mountain up close. On a hunch, we turned off the main route and headed up the Timberline Highway. We saw a few running streams along the side of the road as we were climbing, indicative of snow melt still in progress. This side trip worked out very well, as we ended up at Timberline Lodge, at about 6,000’ elevation. We had a great view of the mountain from the top of the ski lifts we’d seen down below. The lodge itself was built in the ‘30s during the Depression as a public works project and was actually dedicated by FDR in 1937. This was interesting, since we’d visited the FDR site in New Brunswick several months ago.

After some photos and bio-breaks for everyone, we headed back down the hill. We soon turned north on OR-35 along the eastern flank of the mountain. Along the way, we confirmed the feeling that we’d been on parts of this route before. As we passed one of the numerous “sno-parks” (areas designated for snowmobiling, snowshoeing, and/or cross-country skiing during the winter months), we knew we’d stopped there before. That was on our second “RV Rental Vacation”, circa June 1998. We flew to Portland and rented a Class C motorhome from Cruise America. The highlights of that trip were Mount Saint Helens, Crater Lake, Mount Shasta, and Silver Falls State Park here in Oregon. Somewhere along the way, we traveled south past Mount Hood. It was neat to see semi-familiar places, but even better to remember that trip. I know it was 1998 because Geri bought a small stuffed Yorkie at the Portland Airport when we arrived, as her way of telling me we were getting a dog. We ended up getting Merlin in September of that year, and that stuffed animal became his first “favorite” toy.

Enough of memory lane; back to today. As we left Mount Hood behind, we descended toward the Columbia River Gorge. As it was getting close to lunch (actually after lunch, and we’d passed on breakfast), I started to look for a place for lunch. Since I’m known for skipping meals, I was proud of myself. As we got close to the Columbia River, I spotted signs for the “Riverside Grill”, which sounded good. It turned out to be the restaurant in the local Best Western hotel, so it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful either. Geri had a Tuscan sandwich (too much roasted red pepper) and I had a seafood salad (that is, a salad with seafood) which was decent. Imagine my surprise to find Atlantic salmon in Oregon. Sysco delivers formula food everywhere, I suppose.

At least the restaurant location was fabulous, though. We were outside on the deck, overlooking the river and the day was superb, so we took our time with lunch. Geri ordered a burger, no bun and no fries, “to go” for the pups. Well, I don’t think anyone working there had every heard of such a thing before. We had several of the wait staff go to check on it for us before it finally arrived. I cut it up for them and they wolfed it down in the parking lot before we got back on the road.

We crossed the river into Washington and took WA-14 west along the river to Vancouver (WA) before we hopped back over to Oregon and the park.

Since we’d had a good lunch mid-afternoon, we didn’t plan a full dinner. Instead, we dusted off some quick stuff from the freezer (we choose not to call it “fast food”). Geri had a package of soup and I had a couple of Chimichangas (with Tacorral sauce, of course). It was just enough, coupled with a nice Argentinean Malbec from Norton.

Tomorrow, it’s supposed to start raining in the afternoon, so we’ll use the morning to pack up the outside stuff (grill, chairs) and the afternoon to get the inside stuff in order for travel. We’re heading out early on Friday, since we have to be in Junction City by 10:00.