The final post from the summer road trip through Washington and Oregon. On the last stretch of the road trip we camped at the Gorge Amphitheater to see the Mumford and Sons concert, then headed to Portland for our annual Whitecaps away game, before taking a long day to work our way home along the coast. It was a great end to the trip.
We’ll back up a little bit to recap the last part of the previous post and our drive from Mount Rainier to the Gorge Amphitheater.
One last view of Mount Rainier
To recap the end of the last post, we had left Mount Rainier to head east to the Gorge Amphitheater for the Mumford and Sons concert. I had ridden over Mount Rainier and out of the park to meet Justine, for the remainder of the ~3 hour drive.
The drive was quite nice, and changes dramatically as you head from the lush rainforest surrounding the mountains and head into the much drier interior. The eastern side of Washington and Oregon become desert, and become some of my favorite landscapes. As we got closer to the Columbia River, you start to get some very different, yet still breathtaking scenery.
The mighty Columbia River, cutting through the harsh desert-like landscape.
After a couple of missteps, we got provisioned and over to the event site at the Gorge. The Gorge Amphitheatre is a 27,500-seat outdoor concert venue situated near the Columbia River in George, Washington. Opened in 1985, the venue offers sweeping and majestic views of the Columbia River as it skirts the foothills of the Cascade Range southbound, as well as extreme eastern Kittitas County and extreme western Grant County. It is also known for its views of the Columbia Gorge canyon. to The Wall Street Journal, the Gorge is considered one of the most scenic concert locations in the world, and after our first visit I would completely agree with that assessment. The place is spectacular! Sadly, the camping left something to be desired…
Unlike at Mount Rainier, the campsite was lacking in privacy.
It didn’t lack for big sunsets!
We were on site for two nights - Thursday night, Friday night (the concert), and then off to Portland on Saturday. We got set-up, between a family in a full on RV set-up and a couple of girls from Boise. We were in the upgraded camping, which meant we had access to showers, and after getting camp set-up (and a few days at Rainier without showers) I needed one badly! The temperatures were also way different from Rainier, pushing up closer to 40C over the days that we were there. With minimal shade, it made for some hot days.
We didn’t go anywhere on the Thursday or Thursday night - we hung out, chatted with the neighbors, BBq’d some dinner and generally relaxed. As we headed to bed, the weather turned, and we were woken in the night by gale-force winds that destroyed our pop-up shelter, and was blowing things around. We got up and secured what we could, as the rain started. Not long after that it turned to thunderstorms, which made for a bit of a rough night. We got through it with minimal damage (we set-up everything properly) , unlike some groups around us. The weather cleared in the morning, and the day got hot quickly. We mostly hung around the campsite throughout the day, waiting for the evening and show time. Thankfully it eventually came!
A pano of the amazing setting.
A slightly different view of the venue.
The show was great on all fronts - except the price of beer. That was outrageous to the point that I refused to have more than one. But the venue was outrageously beautiful - to the point that you’d find yourself looking away at the scenery instead of at the stage - the opening act was really good, and of course Mumford and Sons were amazing. They hit all of the big songs everyone was expecting, and the audience was very much into the sing-alongs. It was a great show and a fun night.
The light show was amazing. As was the sound - I don’t know that I’ve been to a show with better sound.
The big finale!
The walk back to the campsite from the concert venue was a bit surreal. The line of people walking along a path through the scrub brush - thankfully it was well-lit. We had just got settled back into camp when the rain started. And then the thunder and lightning - and it was close by. We had a few hours of hard rain, serious light-up-the-sky lightning and massive cracks of thunder. Justine was freaked out by it, but I managed to sleep on-and-off, woken every once in a while by a huge crack of thunder. There were lots of big RVs near us that were much more likely to get hit by lightning than us…
In the morning, once again the skies were clear and we were in for another hot day. I still needed to get a ride in for my training. I had missed one, but couldn’t miss too many. So I helped Justine pack up camp, and then headed out while she got cleaned up and did some lasp packing. We were driving to Portland (a hotel awaited!) for the Whitecaps game that night.
It wasn’t the world’s longest or most exciting ride - but it was flat and fast!
Justine picked me up at a place we had agreed on (and brought breakfast!), and after getting the bike packed up and me changed into proper cloths, we were back on the road to Portland. We made one quick stop at a rest stop for a view over the Columbia River, but mostly it was a pretty straight shot west along the river to Portland.
We made a second stop for lunch in Hood River - one of our favourite places - and stopped in at one of the breweries there that we really like. We had a leisurely lunch, before finishing the ~hour-long drive into Portland. Justine had booked us into a downtown hotel, and after quite a few night of camping we were happy to have a shower and a nice soft bed to collapse into. That said, we only had one night in Portland so we needed to make the most of it!
The game didn’t start until 8:00, so we had some time to check out same favourite spots. We got ready for the game and headed into downtown proper.
We made a stop at Deschutes, and had a couple of drinks and some munchies. It’s a great bar, and they always have lots of interesting beers on tap.
Before too long, it was time to walk over to the stadium for the game! For me, this has been 4/5 years of doing the road trip down to Portland in the summer to watch the Whitecaps play their Cascadia rivals. It’s always a fun time, and it’s a good rivalry. The crowd is pretty vocal and good-spirited. We ended up losing 3-1 on this occasion, but that was to be expected - we’re not a very good team this year.
All excited before the game!
Heading into the game
The Timbers Army always puts on a good show.
The view from the cheap seats - they stick us way back in the back corner.
One last pano
After the game, we headed over to 10 Barrel Brewing to console ourselves after the loss. It’s another of our favs, and we always end up there at one point or another when we’re in Portland. The beer is good, and the 10 piece sampler is the perfect thing to share. Sadly they don’t stay open too late, so we couldn’t stay too long. That was OK really - we were pretty wiped and looking forward to a good sleep.
Sunday was out last day, and we needed to be home by the end of the day. I needed to get in a long ride, and we wanted to stop by our favorite winery before heading north. We also decide to take the longer coast highway home, rather than the more direct I5 interstate.
But first, my ride. It ended up being ~75 km from Portland to Brooks Winery, so I let Justine sleep in and I started my ride about 7:30 a.m. In theory, that would give her about 3 hours to sleep in, get up and have breakfast, them make the (about) hour drive out to the winery.
The plan was going well, until about 60 km in, I must have hit something on the road and ended up with a puncture. As I didn’t have a pump (long story), I called Justine and waited for her to head out. Fortunately, a good samaritan was kind enough to stop (with a bike pump) and helped me change my tube. That got me on my way again, and I made it all the way to within a mile of the winery when I ended up with a second flat tire! I found out later there were some metal shards in the tire that eventually ruptured my second (and only spare) tube. As it wasn’t too far, I walked the rest of the way, and still managed to beat Justine to the winery!
I ended up walking the last mile or so - too many flats!
The beautiful view from the winery deck.
We had a nice lunch and enjoyed the view, despite the overcast conditions - there were no mountain views that day. We had some wine and food, and bought some wine to take with us, as we always do. It was a nice start to the day.
My long ride from Portland (almost) to Brooks Winery in the Willamette Valley.
From Brooks we headed towards the coast, and eventually made it to the 101 and turned north. This is a spectacular drive, and if you’ve never done it I highly recommend it. We made our way north, winding along the coast and enjoying the amazing scenery. It was a bit overcast, but the weather cleared as the day progressed and we continued north.
One of the many great views of the coast.
We eventually made it to Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach is a small coastal city, and it’s known for its long, sandy shore. Standing tall in the ocean, Haystack Rock is a seasonal haven for tufted puffins. On a headland to the north, trails in Ecola State Park offer sweeping views of the ocean, coves and a lighthouse. South is Arcadia Beach, with tide pools and a picnic area. Nearby Hug Point has sea caves. Boutiques and galleries dot downtown. It’s a pretty little seaside town, and Justine and I both remarked that we should head back there and try and stay sometime.
Haystack Rock on the beach.
We stopped for a little bit and walked on the beach to enjoy the sunshine. We had parked at the north end of the town’s main strip, and walked from there south, before looping back along the shop-lined main drag. It really is a pretty little town and we could have explored for a lot longer. But we had a lot of driving to do still.
So it was time to jump back in the car and continue north. We worked our way along the coast as far as Astoria, and the huge bridge over the lower Columbia river. The Astoria–Megler Bridge is a steel cantilever through truss bridge in the northwest United States that spans the lower Columbia River, between Astoria, Oregon, and Point Ellice near Megler, Washington. Opened 53 years ago in 1966, it is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.
This pic is not mine - “borrowed” from the Internet…
Once across the bridge, the road worked its way inland, but ever north. It ended up being an 11-hour day getting home from Brooks, which was quite a bit more than we had planned. Still, it was a great drive, and I’m glad (as I always am) that we took the more scenic route. Still, we were tired and worn out by the time we got home and managed to empty out the car and collapse into our own bed.
