A River Runs Through It

Jeffrey Butts

During the first week of my sabbatical from Intel, I headed up the Willamette Valley based on a suggestion from Steve Sanz. After church one Sunday in July, he told me that he took his G35 up an outstanding road, Oregon Highway 22. Although the trip to the starting point is longer than the highway is, he said that it is worth the ride. This highway stretches diagonally SE/NW from the Grand Ronde area on Highway 18 (think Indian, er, Native American casino) out to the coast. I started from the Grand Ronde side, at Valley Junction. Grande Ronde was the site of Fort Yamhill and the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation in the late 1800's. Today, the remaining tribal members are not exactly taking scalps, but they are lightening quite a few wallets. Highway 22, as Steve had said, is a spectacular road. It is a well-paved two-lane, correctly banked road, and even on this weekday had relatively light traffic. It's also nice to see that some of the local residents who live along the highway have a great sense of humor. Following Steve's recommendation, I turned off the Highway at the halfway mark and onto the Little (lower branch of the Nestucca River) Nestucca Road. Although this road is not as roomy as Highway 22, it is every bit as scenic as it follows the river of the same name out to the coast. Along the way there are several single lane bridges of the long span metal truss variety. These are really wonderful examples of bridge building and deserve a stop and closer look. Little Nestucca Road meets Highway 101 just outside of Pacific City. I drove into town for a bite of lunch at the Village Coffee Shoppe. Not exactly a five star establishment. As you drive in/out of town, you get a glimpse of their own "Haystack Rock." Two Haystack Rocks within 50 miles of each other. Both basalt monoliths. Much like restaurant fare, Pacific City is not in the same league as Cannon Beach for food or geology. I drove up the coast on Highway 101, stopping again a short while later at Beaver. They have a great little general store and deli that I should have picked instead. Who knew? On to Tillamook and then I turned inland and took Highway 6, the Wilson River Highway, back to home.

About mid month, I got the Brick out of the hanger and took it to our church for a cruise- in. Seems odd, a church having a cruise-in, but this is an example of one of the reasons we really like this congregation. During July and August they have special events (concerts, movies, etc) that are really fun. They had a total of seventy some cars and trucks, more than the Parks department did at the cruise-in they had in July. Besides that, there were two free box lunches for each entrant AND no entry fee. How cool is that? There were some cars there that I had not seen at the usual Friday night DQ cruise or at any other summer venue for that matter. Two wonderful mid-50's Buicks were my pick for best of show but the judges went with other cars, predictably including a run of the mill Corvette. Oh well.

Towards the end of the month, Ken David and I took a ride along most of the entire length of the Nehalem River. This (mostly) easygoing river gets its start on the east side of Larch Mountain, in the coast range. It follows a path along the foot of the range, running north across Highway 26 and flows through Vernonia (see "Oregon 47, Sunset Highway to Vernonia" elsewhere on this website). It then swings around the northern edge of those mountains, winding its' way back again to Highway 26 and then out to the coast. Ken had picked a route that took us through some of the farm country near Roy, between Hillsboro and the Sunset Highway. Highway 47 runs through Vernonia and then out to Mist, site of the old Mist store, which burned to the ground about five years ago. Highway 47 continues north, across the Tualatin range to the Columbia River but we switched to Highway 202, which continues to follow the Nehalem through the communities of Birkenfeld and Jewell. Being that I am a senior citizen, and especially considering that I had a big glass of Orange Juice before I left home, we made a pit stop at the Junction Cafe‚ in Birkenfeld. This wooden, false front structure is one of two "big" businesses in Birkenfeld, the other being the store. Nice place. I also noted that, like Grand Ronde, the citizens have a sense of humor. We passed Neverstill Road. It was marked as a Dead End. Oh, the irony! We continued on until we got to Jewell, where Ken stopped to have the shop work on his 356 (ha ha ha) and then we turned onto Highway 103, the Fish Hawk Falls Highway. This is a short jaunt up to Highway 26. We headed west for two miles and then cut down to the south again at the Lower Nehalem River Road. Five miles in you reach the Henry Rierson Spruce Run Campground. There was misting rain most of the morning and this section of road was really beautiful with the sun coming through the trees and the water vapor steaming up from the road as it warmed. At this point we were a bit over 90 miles from the start of our journey. The road turns to gravel for about 15 miles, traveling down the Salmonberry Canyon. We stopped at Nehalem Falls State Park. The falls themselves were a little down on water and the adjacent fish ladder was running at just a trickle. Across the river you could see the roadbed for the train tracks. A lumber train travels most days and, in the summer, weekends see the dinner train mentioned in another story (see "The Timber Junction" for more on this railroad). We came out in Nehalem and had lunch at Wanda's, definitely better than the restaurant in Pacific City and with outstanding decorations inside including a rack of 50's chrome toasters and board games tacked to the wall. We then did a quick visit to Ken's coastal properties and headed back on Highway 53. I hadn't been on 53 for about 15 years and I was amazed at how nice it is now. It rivals Highway 22 for quality and it is much longer. We rolled into the valley about 4PM with the total distance traveled at just over 200 miles.

During early September I took a trip that I had wanted to do on my bike since the start of summer. My plan had been to do this on the Harley and join my friend Ray Cotner on his Suzuki. The partnership ride never did come to fruition. Ray had the opportunity to pre-run it with his daughter towards the end of July though and told me it was a great run. With yet another recommendation from someone else, I set out on the Milwaukee Vibrator for Carlton, a small town just south of Yamhill. You may recall that I once loved Yamhill dearly but, alas, it has become a little to "wine country trendy" for me anymore. Carlton is a mirror image town, although not quite as far up the scale in nuevo riche. Yet. Anyhow, Meadow Lake Road heads west into the coast range from Carlton. As the road begins to climb, it remains paved but not as freshly so as the part in the Yamhill Valley. McGuire Reservoir is located near the summit. This body of water builds during the winter months and is the water supply for the city of McMinnville during the summer. It is contained with an earthen dam. Although not very wide, it stretches for a mile and a half to the south of the roadway. This day it was beautifully reflecting both the trees along the shoreline and the bright blue sky above. On the western downhill slope, there is a three mile stretch of gravel road along the Nestucca River. I was a little surprised at first. Not because I didn't know it was there but because the gravel, more like golf ball size rocks, were pretty thick (deep) at the start. You have to remember that this bike weighs nearly twice what my old Bultaco did and I was a little unsteady at the transition. I applied the universal solution, give it more gas, and things became more stable. Within a half mile the big stuff was gone and it was a typical gravel road. I had no problem maintaining 30-35MPH. The gravel ends around the community of Blaine and the road flattens out and follows the Nestucca to the coast. It connects with our old friend, the community of Beaver, at Highway 101. This time I had planned to have lunch at the Beaver store. As to quality, it rates just about in between Pacific City's Village Coffee Shoppe and Nehalem's Wanda's Cafe. I was sitting at the bench outside the store when this grizzled old guy came up and started talking about bikes. He had a Harley flathead that he rode in the 50's after he came back from Korea. He talked a blue streak about his days in the forestry business. Originally from Wisconsin (Hey, Adam and Sue!), he settled right here in Beaver back in the mid-50's. After lunch I hopped onto Highway 101 north to Tillamook where I filled with fuel at 95 miles from home (42.4 MPG). Then, as with the trip at the beginning of August, I headed back on the Wilson River Highway (Oregon 6). There was quite a line of traffic and rather than do something stupid like a banzai pass, I stopped at Lee's Camp, a store that caters to the hunting and fishing crowd. I stopped here once with my friend Ron Sohler more than 20 years ago. The owner has made it a lot nicer with siding and a new roof and good finish carpentry on the inside. It was for sale, the first $450K takes it and the surrounding property. I took off my jacket and helmet and sat down at the outside bench for a Coke. In no time an older gentleman joined me. Funny how a motorcycle is a catalyst for conversations. He started telling me about how he used to race a Harley KRTT and then, later, a BSA at Oregon and Washington dirt tracks during the 1950's and 60's. I had just finished reading Allan Girdler's book about the history of racing HD's from the 1930's to the mid 1980's and actually understood when the guy was explaining some of the problems with the side valve engines. In the 70's he rode enduros along the Trask and in the Tillamook Burn area. He eventually quit riding about 25 years ago. Nice guy and an absolutely fantastic storyteller. I finally headed on home. This had been the longest trip I have taken on my motorcycle, traveling about 175 miles. Mostly I was at or only slightly above the speed limit (although I did wick it up to 90 a couple of times) and averaged 44.5 MPG for the whole trip.

Sorry to say there was one river road that I didn't get to take this year. My son Scott and I were going to use his Jeep to travel the Trask River Stage Road (a.k.a. The Tillamook Trail). This is a very rough road and he never was able to locate a map that would be necessary for the ride. This road ran from Yamhill to Tillamook and the stagecoach was in service from the early 1870's right up until about 1911. It was the main route from Portland to the beach resorts and, as bad as it was, it was safer than traveling by boat and having to cross both the Columbia Bar and the Tillamook Bar. The completion of the Pacific Railway and Navigation line (better known as the Punk, Rotten, and Nasty Railroad) from Hillsboro through Timber and down the Salmonberry Canyon to Nehalem spelled the end of the stagecoach. I was really looking forward to this trip with Scott but I guess it will have to wait until next summer.

So this was my "river wild" summer. Some great drives/rides and each can be done in a single day. Try 'em, you'll like 'em.