Day 5 of #ridingeverydayinNovember

The weather forecast this morning said occasional showers in the morning, turning into a steady drizzle by afternoon.  I put on my raincoat, loaded my fixie up, and drove to Butteville. (closer than driving to Sellwood, as I have been doing the last few days).

I wasn't sure of a plan, I thought I might ride southward toward Salem, but of course in my current bike fitness, I would turn around before getting there.  I started off by taking the path that starts near Butteville and goes to Champoeg State Park.  It took me off the road within a a couple of hundred feet and given my continuing trepidation with riding with traffic, that would be just fine.  It is about 2.5 miles from Butteville to the park.

Once I got to the park I started exploring.  Champoeg was the site of the meeting in 1843 that established a provisional government, the first on the west coast. There was a town here in the early years.  In 1861The Willamette River rose 55 feet above its normal level and flooded the town under 7 feet of water and destroyed all the buildings.  Champoeg was not rebuilt.

The Willamette River

Markers showing where Champoeg's streets were.

The 1861 flood level marked on a tree, and for comparison, the level of the more recent 1996 flood.

As I pedaled around I came across this reminder that we should not mess with fairies.

I had the park almost to myself today. I saw one other cyclist, and as it ended up, I knew her! Oregon Randonneur founder and RBA Susan France, who also is a RAAM veteran, finishing that epic race in 1991. Today she was puttering around on a recumbent trike.

The weather was better than predicted.  I had a few drips from time to time, but only two showers, and for both of them I was able to find shelter.

The second shower was heavy, but I was near a very large pavilion, and took shelter there while waiting for the rain to stop.

clicking on any photo in this blog will display it full sized, perhaps large enough to read the text

There were a couple of rows of Sequoia trees here, I was wondering if they were planted by John Ramsey Porter.  Mr Porter was a farmer/nursery operator that lived near my childhood home.  He took off for the California gold fields in 1849.  He didn't bring home any gold, but did bring back some Sequoia cones.  He propagated the seeds and distributed the seedlings to various Washington County (Oregon) institutions. The Catholic Church in Verboort has 12 of them flanking the church, and John Porter's homestead has a line of Sequoia's on each side of the long lane. The county courthouse in Hillsboro has several of them, and there are a few scattered in Forest Grove as well.  It is not a long stretch to think that Mr Porter donated some seedlings to the State Park about 25 miles SE.

I continued pedaling around, and stopping to read historical markers.

I pedaled out to Kitty Newell's grave. As it ends up, Kitty, a Nez Perce indian died in her 20's and was cremated, with her ashes scattered near Champoeg Creek. The grave stone does however stand in the general area where Kitty's ashes were scattered.

I never got on the road toward Salem, but that was okay.
Having spent most of the afternoon playing tourist, I finally pointed the bike back toward home.
(or in this case, Butteville, where my pickup awaited my return)

........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total

Today ....10.................0..................0....................0..........10

Jan.........26................ 0................0.....................0..............26

Feb.........7..................0................0.....................0...............7

March.......5.................0................0.....................0...............5

April.......0.................0...............66.....................0...............66

May.........0..................0..............79......................0...............79

June........2..................0...............0......................0...............2

July........64.................0...............0......................0...............64

August......11..................0...............0.....................0...............11

September 0..................0................0.....................0................0

October 0..................0...............0......................0................0

November 70................0................0......................0................70

YTD........185...............0...............154.....................0.............339