Day five, The Old Columbia Highway

My son rode out of Portland with me. Coming out of Portland wasn’t all picturesque but when the Springwater Corridor trail lined up with Mount Hood, that was incredible.

We came across a farmers market in Gresham, OR. Hard not to stop. I had heard of Hood Strawberries before but have not been lucky enough to experience them. They are a kind of strawberry that can’t ship well, they have softer flesh. But the flavor is out of this world.

Shortly after the market we got onto the Old Columbia Highway which was an engineering marvel that was built in the 1920s along the Columbia River. Some of it is open to cars while some of it only allows bikes and people on foot. The scenery is sublime. We ate our lunch at Multnomah Falls and my son caught the bus back to Portland.

There were so many beautiful waterfalls! If the lesser falls were somewhere else they would get top billing and folks would come from miles around to see them.

After my son had told me about Hermon the Sturgon a few years ago, going to see him has been on my list. So when I saw that my route was going right past the Bonneville fish hatchery, I had to stop. Because who doesn’t want to see a 10 foot long 900 pounds sturgeon!

I got to camp at Viento State Park where a nice guy named Bob offered to share his campsite. (Thanks Bob!) Bob was from Mendocino California. And he had just climbed Mount Saint Helens that day, starting at 3 AM. Somehow he managed to stay up for about 45 minutes to have a conversation with me before going to bed.

I covered 62 miles and it wasn’t flat. So I went to bed shortly after Bob.