On a Field Trip

I have been attending the NW Leadership Seminar this week. During most of the seminar it was raining and blustery. Starting late yesterday the weather started to clear up. The seminar ended around noon today, and by that time it was looking pretty darn nice. I brought the fixie along to the seminar today, hoping to get a ride in so by 2 PM I was out riding.

The seminar was just a couple hundred feet from the 40 Mile Loop route, so I started out west on that. It was a nice afternoon.

Along the way I decided to ride out to Kelly Point Park, the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, rather than continue on the 40 mile loop. I had a gentle tail wind and was moving along at a pretty good pace. That all came to an abrupt stop when a came around a bend to find............

The train was in no hurry to clear the crossing. It crept forward a bit, then backward a bit, then stopped, then forward again It was a bad as a cat trying to decide whether to go outside or not! It finally moved on slowly.

I continued westward and was soon in the braided channels and lakes common at the junction of these two big rivers.
Here I ride along the Columbia Slough.

The sun was out, the temperature was in the low 60's, but still the park was nearly empty.

I made my way to the tip of land where the two rivers flow together. There were a couple of ships anchored in the Columbia River. A tug pushed a barge up to the grain terminal at the mouth of the Willamette River to load wheat. There were some barges tied off on piling along the river bank. I was out playing, but it was a working day on the river.

I felt like I was on a school field trip. I stopped and read all the sign boards.

I did a little better than Lewis and Clark, at least I saw the Willamette River. Of course they saw it, just didn't recognize it as a separate river. It would be easy to do when in a canoe among these channels and sloughs.

I exited the park and rode toward the St Johns Bridge but part way out turned around because the time was slipping away.

I rode back along the Columbia River. When I reached where the Columbia River splits around Hayden Island I stopped to take a photo of Mt Hood about 70 miles to the east.

I arrived back at the tangled twisty route through the I-5 interchange. Luckily it was well signed, because often one has to turn away from where you really want to go!

I made it back to my pickup, and as I was putting everything away my sister called. She had just flown back from a Minnesota business trip and was wondering if I wanted to join her and her and Dave at the Lauralwood Pub.

Score! A great way to wrap up a bike ride on a sunny day.


............road bike..........rollers........mtb.........lifecycle....total
Today..........27................0..............0...............0............27 Jan.............710................0..............0...............0...........710
Feb........... 578...............0..............0...............0............578
March .........55................0..............0...............0.............55
Total..........1343...............0..............0...............0.........1343