Month: November 2024

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Outing to The Valley

This time Lori, Jeanette and I were out for a road trip to explore some spots in the Willamette Valley. Lori wanted to go to show us Bauman Farms and have lunch at Clancy’s. I came up with a couple of more places to fill out our trip. The planned was to go to Hughes Water Gardens, Bauman Farms, Church or the Holley Ascension, Samuel Brown House, Powerland Heritage Park and Clancy’s. Over lunch Lori decide she wanted to show us one more spot so we went to Ales Garden. It pays to be flexible on these outings.

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Hike to Mitchell Point Tunnel Dedication

A different kind of hike. Today was the official dedication of the new Mitchell Point Tunnel, part of the Historic Columbia River Highway restoration. To make it more interesting I decided I would hike part of the finished and still in progress sections of the highway to the tunnel. I started at Starvation Creek State park to avoid the crowds at Viento State Park the official parking spot. I was surprise to run into Ted from the Rambles who had the same idea. Ted brought his bike and hoofed it over to Mitchell Point. The dedication had some nice trapping with dignitaries like congressman Peter DeFazio who helped get federal funding for the project. After the waiting and speeches we all gathered to enter the tunnel after the ribbon was cut. The most interesting part was feeling the change of mood as this mass moved into the tunnel from daylight and into total darkness a sense of panic. We all just stumbled along until we go light from the first window. After going through and back on the tunnel it was time to hike back to my car. Total walking distances out and back 10.5 miles.

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Vancouver Waterfront with Tom

Lori put together another Tom Walk, this time over in Vancouver, WA. Lori, Marilyn, Barbara, Wendy, Tom and I met at the Pearson Air Museum at Fort Vancouver. From there we preceded on our normal route of going pass Fort Vancouver, over the Confluence Bridge, under the I5 bridge to walk along the Vancouver Waterfront Trail. At the end of the is a group of picnic tables and we stopped there for a bit to eat. After our stop we headed to to Esther Short Park and over the Evergreen St. Bridge back to Fort Vancouver. Our last bit was to walk along Officers Row and back to our cars. This was about a 4.5 mile walk.