Living Positive: Willamette Valley or Bust

August 11, 2023

We decided to ride another part of the Old Historic Highway this morning. We were told that we could get to the trailhead from our campground. 5 miles and a remote road with big hills later we arrived at the Wyeth Trailhead.

This stretch of the walk/bike path was about 6 miles, paved and in great condition. However, many parts of the trail is next to the busy Interstate 84 so it was very loud and stinky. You are well separated with sturdy fences but it was not one of my favorite riding conditions.The plus side was that the traffic noise drowned out the dog whining coming from the trailer! Bear did a little better as long as I stayed behind Don where he couldn’t see me.

Going back was a little challenging since the wind was coming towards us. That along with the many hills was taking a toll on our batteries. We glided back into camp after 25.9 miles with Don at 1% battery remaining.I was still at 50% which is surprising because I think I used my boosts more than Don did. Here’s the analogy that I came up with along the way: An e-bike is like having a morphine drip. Just when you start feeling a little pain you can up the juice a little! I apologize to any bike purists out there..

After lunch we left the trailer behind and headed to Portland. After a couple of stops- Camping World and Starbucks, we went in search of the Willamette Valley which is home to many wineries and orchards. We had a few recommendations from others so we had a plan since there is no way to visit all or even a majority without spending many days and risking severe liver damage. However, Portland traffic mid afternoon was terrible so it took longer to make our way than we wanted. We ended up only visiting one of the recommended wineries because many closed at 4pm (really? It’s Friday night!) and another random one that happened to be open until 6pm.

The first was called Raptor Ridge Winery in the Newberg area. They mainly grow Pinot Noir grapes which is their estate wine. It was very good. Bear enjoyed their estate water served in a nice metal bowl as well.

Next we took a few curvy back roads over to the Dundee area. For those of you who have ever witnessed how Don drives the twisty drive up and down Berthod Pass you would have been shocked that Don was considered a slow poke and we had to pull over to let the crazy Oregonians pass us who were taking those curves like Formula 1 drivers!

We arrived at Domaine Willamette with 30 minutes to spare.It was a very fancy place. Even though their wines have been around since the 80’s, they just opened this new building which houses a restaurant and beautiful patio for wine tasting. We only had time for a glass - no tasting. They specialize in sparking wine and Pinot Noir from the grapes grown there. Their merlot and Cabernet are from their vineyard in Washington. The Pinot was better than their Cabernet in my opinion.

Well that was it for the winery visits. It was disappointing that we weren’t able to visit more but no sour grapes- we’ll just have to visit again!

Note: we were surprised to see many people have brown lawns in the Portland area. When we asked a local about it, she said that most people don’t water their lawns in the summer because the rains come back in the Fall and they green up again. Now you know..