This is Part 5 of an 8-part blog series
chronicaling a 7-day road trip, during which we were able to achieve
riding our bikes in 8 different states toward our goal of riding in all
50 states.
Links to all posts:
Day 1: South Dakota
Day 2: Montana
Day 3: Idaho
Day 4: Washington and Oregon
Day 5: Utah
Day 7: No rides or posts, just finished driving the rest of the way home.The Grand Adventure continues
Day 4, Evening:
We left Bellingham, Washington mid-day on Friday and headed south with the ultimate destination of Pendleton, Oregon, as that was our stop for the night and our planned place to ride in the state of Oregon. First we had to traverse back through Seattle, then back onto I-90, this time headed east. Not to mention that it was Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend. This was probably not the best planning on our part, as this is what we ended up stuck in!
Then it started to rain!
It took us an extra two hours to get through the Snoqualmie Pass and back to Ellensburg, WA where we would then split off of I-90 onto I-82 to take us toward Oregon. The rain finally let up as we left Ellensburg.
Here's our requisite picture of the state "Welcome" sign as we fly by at 75 mph.
We arrived in Pendleton as it was rapidly approaching 5 o'clock and the clouds were looking ominous for it to start raining again. We parked at Trailhead Park, quickly unloaded and headed off on our Oregon bike ride!
This paved trail follows along the Umatilla River.
At the beginning of the ride not far from where we parked, we passed by a baseball field and a large rodeo arena, which Google tells me is the Pendleton Round-Up. It appears to be kind of a big deal if you're into that kind of thing, which I am decidedly not. I prefer my "horse" to have two wheels, folds up to fit in the back of my car, and doesn't require feeding and cleaning up excrement.
As we passed through downtown Pendleton, there was nice signage for the trail.
I always like to see that. It means the town understands the importance of the amenities to the quality of life of its citizens and the prospective tourism it also can bring to the city revenues.
There was also some neat art, which if you have read any of my other posts on this blog, you know I also appreciate seeing. Enlightenment is refreshing.
Some of the art seemed to depict the plant and animal life that lives along the river.
While other art served as a history lesson of the area.
The trail goes through Brownfield Park on the north end of downtown.
It had a neat mini-amphitheater ....
... with a medallion of what appeared to be the city seal in the center ...
... and signage to other areas of interest near downtown which we were not able to explore as we were on both a time and daylight crunch, as the pictures clearly indicate.
There was a bike rack with a nod to Larry the Cable Guy, maybe?
Past Brownfield Park, the trail once again followed along the river.
We turned around at the Union Pacific Shelter House that juts out into the Umatilla River. Not sure if Union Pacific provided funds to build the shelter or if the name is just a nod to the history of the area, but our ride in Laramie, Wyoming had a portion of that trail built with donations from Union Pacific on land that had been part of their railroad tie factory, so I found that interesting.
The floor of the shelter even had a mock railroad track laid into the concrete.
In looking at Google maps while writing this post, I see that if we had gone on past the shelter house just a short bit further, we would have ridden to the end of the trail, but it was dark and misting and threatening to turn into more than a mist, so we played it safe and said "this looks like a good place to turn around." As it was, we got our self-imposed 5-mile minimum ride in to call it an official ride and can now cross Oregon off the list, although if ever given the chance, I wouldn't mind checking out Portland sometime. I hear it is a bicycling mecca.
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