Road Trip: Day 7

After a night dreaming of “rich stuff” I woke-up and after a quick breakfast headed out onto the road. Since my original plan had me spending last night in Portland, I needed to cover the first part of this drive just to “catch-up”.

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Before leaving Astoria I stopped-off at the Columbia River Maritime Museum parking lot for a quick photo of the G8.

The drive towards Portland went quickly, and after two hours I reconnected with the Columbia River and spent the remainder of the morning driving along its banks. I had planned on taking a trip onto the backroads, but after driving ~3 miles I was stopped by a closed bridge.

While the roads around the Columbia River weren’t very technical, the scenery more than made-up for it (way better than US101).

The traffic today was much lighter than the past few days, and gone were all the tourists. They were replaced by truckers, but fortunately they can drive their rigs at the speed limit!

Mid-day I reached my primary objective… The Rowena Loops. It’s a short stretch, but it was well worth the trip! One of the most unique aspects of this area are the white picket-fence guardrails… very “high class”.

I must hand it to John A. Elliott and Samuel C. Lancaster (the men who designed the road) for creating a road that climbs up such a steep grade with such gentile sweeping curves. Sight lines are a little obstructed mid-apex, but it wasn’t too bad… I wish I had the road closed-off like Justin Bell and Townsend Bell (no relation) did on “Shut Up and Drive”! I really should have gone over this section a few times, but I still had a few hours of driving ahead of me.

The last part of my drive for the day was around the base of Mt Hood. While it was a change-up from being along the river, the roads were not technical at all (I think I was using the cruise control the whole way). To make things worse, I didn’t even find a place where I could pull-over to get a photo of the mountain.

Tomorrow is another long day of driving (my farthest of the trip), but it should take me to a few fun places.