Day 17 Champoeg Park to Newberg and back: Planning and exploring

July 20, 2017

our campsite in the morning - hard to believe all that stuff fits on the bikes!

This morning the sky was overcast. First time is been cool in the morning for a while! We ate our pitiful breakfast of too brown bananas and Frosted Flakes – ugh, then prepared to ride into Newberg, a short 7 miles away where we wanted to get some decent groceries and find a library to research a little more about the area we will be riding through. Specifically, we were on the hunt for wineries!

Our first stop was at the top of the hill at Champoeg, where the Ranger Station was located. We went in and were given the best map to guide us on our trip through the valley. Not only was there several maps for each section, there were written directions as well, turn by turn – no more getting lost for us! I asked about wineries in the area and the woman I was speaking to said that there was one right across the street. What? You may recall that yesterday we came in through a bikeway to get into the park. This saved us going up an ugly hill, but also kept us from riding by Lady Hill Winery. Well, that would be remedied today, for sure! We thanked the volunteers and rangers at the station and rode off to find Newberg.

The ride there was fairly uneventful, with lots of interesting scenery for us to view. Once we were on the main road in for the last 2 miles, traffic picked up and of course, there were no shoulders! However, the drivers were very careful to give us space, so it was not an issue.

Arriving in Newberg, our first stop was, of course, Starbucks. We loaded up on decaf coffee and muffins to supplement our merger breakfast and use their wifi to locate places we needed to go today. As it turned out, the Chamber of Commerce and public library were not too far down the road, so we finished our coffees and took off. I have to say that everywhere we rode in Newberg there were bike lanes. Even on the busiest of roads, we had plenty of room and felt very safe.

The library was a beautiful old building where we found a comfortable place to spend several hours.

some lovely carved wood panels inside the library

they built onto the old building so you can see the old exterior from inside - very cool

I worked on the journal while Jim did a little route planning. I also managed to have a quick phone conversation with my daughter, Annie, who lives and works in Texas. It was so great to hear her voice and know how things were going down there. We are really looking forward to our visit with her and her husband, Matt, when our time in Mexico is done.

Having finished our chores, we looked for a restaurant to have lunch at. We found a Mexican place with outdoor seating so we could keep an eye on the bikes and ordered our food. Once it came, we realized that our version of a burrito and theirs were totally different – there was so much food! We split the first one and saved the second for dinner. No cooking for me tonight!

Leaving town we took our time, riding past fields of hops, many groves of trees we could not identify, and then we came upon a field planted in mint. Oh my goodness, it smelled so wonderful! I have gown mint in my own garden, but have never seen it in such great quantities.

some dairy cows just checking out the cars and bikers going by

just outside the park is the ranger station where there is a cell tower disguised as a tree - can you tell which one it is?

We decided that since dinner was looked after we would stop in at Lady Hill Wineries for some wine tasting. Jim is not a big fan, but enjoys some white wines, so we tasted a few of those and I got to enjoy a few reds as well. We each chose one we liked and ordered a glass to take to the amazing patio in the back and enjoy.

a view from the vineyard - breathtaking and so silent!

their series is devoted to the upcoming eclipse - big stuff down here!

Jim and I enjoy a relaxing glass of wine, knowing we only had a short distance to our campsite

The woman who we spoke to had such interesting stories to tell about the history of the family who run this winery as well as wine in general in Oregon. I was amazed to find out that there are about 700 wineries in this state! Wow! Don’t think I will be able to taste all of them on this trip. Looks like we will have to come again!

on our way out, we found this old truck - Jim looks pretty good with it, I think!

As we returned to our campsite, we met another biker who had just come in for the night. Scot is an avid cycle tourer, having done many trips up and down the coast as well as in British Columbia. He was very complimentary about the scenery in our home province. Scot is a university professor in Iowa where he teaches French and German. We had an enjoyable visit, talking about the world in general, the world of teaching and also got some great route information. We really enjoyed our visit with Scot and it reaffirmed for us what we find the most satisfying about touring in this fashion – the opportunity to meet and get to know such a diverse group of people.

Our evening ended with another round of gin – we both one 2 rounds this time. What a lovely stay we had at Champoeg. We will most definitely be returning!

this is a place we will have to return to for sure!

extra for Marlene and Stan - look! we found a mysterious measuring device!

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 661 km (410 miles)

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