Oregon – Page 11 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

The Applegate Wine Trail

applegate wine trail I enjoy a good glass of wine, two buck chuck or a really fine glass of Pinot Noir, it’s all fun. I spent a lot of years in California, and went wine tasting with friends in the Napa Valley when tastings were free. I am certainly not educated about wine, and usually have to read the label to know what I am supposed to be thinking when I taste something. My palate is just barely sophisticated enough to recognize oak-ey, which I love, and a few others now and then. Going wine tasting always seems to be a bit more than I want to tackle on my own, and Mo and I will drop into a tasting room now and then if it isn’t pretentious and looks like fun.

Enter our neighbors and friends, Wes and Gayle. We couldn’t ask for better neighbors, but I am a bit sorry that they are only here in the summertime. The advantage of this is that we can visit their gorgeous Tucson home during the winter months if we get down that way. Having them here in the summer is great for selfish reasons as well, since they are our house sitters when we are gone and Wes does a mean job of taking care of the lawns.

Wes and Gayle know how to travel and how to have fun, and one of the things they do periodically is travel the Applegate Wine Trail between Medford and Grants Pass. We all decided to spend a sunny summer day together enjoying the beautiful vineyards and wineries on the Applegate. It was fun for us since Wes did the driving and they both know the area well, including which wineries we wouldn’t want to miss and which ones might be something to save for the next trip.

beautiful gardens at the Fiasco Winery I spent most of the day in awe of the incredibly gorgeous blue skies, with just enough puffy clouds to make it interesting, breathing in the fresh air and trying to capture the brilliance of the summery moments with my camera. I couldn’t capture the smell of the grape vines, and hard as I tried, I couldn’t capture the feel of the summer breezes filled with the fragrance of rich soil, moist riverbanks, lush flowers, and leaf heavy maples, oaks, sweet gums, and all the other unnamed deciduous trees we can’t grow on our side of the mountain.

Of course, the happy ambience created by a few tastings of vino certainly added to the warm, fuzzy feelings that I carried around with me all afternoon. Spending time with good friends doing happy things was wonderful as well.

We started at the southern end of the valley, near Ruch, Oregon, just a few miles west of Medford and Jacksonville. Valley View Winery was one of the first in the Applegate, and while the website says it was first established in the 1850’s, the attendants mentioned that when they opened their tasting room in the early 70’s they were one of only 4 wineries in the valley. Now there are 20 and more coming every year.

inside the Fiasco Winery is a very nice raked gravel floor I discovered that the websites tell what the tasting room policy is for tasting fees, which might have been nice to know ahead of time. Wes and Gayle thought that almost all the wineries they visited a couple of years ago had no fees, however things have changed as the Applegate catches up to the rest of the wine tasting world. Still, a few had no charge for tasting, and a few refunded the tasting charge with a purchase, and the standard $5. fee was certainly less than the $25 and more fees in Napa or Sonoma.

While searching about for the winery links, I also found this little treasure about Tasting Room Etiquette. Might have been a good idea to read this before we embarked on our day trip!

there is a book, After a lovely flight of whites and reds, and a purchase of a 2006 Anna Maria Cabernet, we ambled on down the road to the Fiasco Winery. I am not quite sure how the name came to be, but with another tasting fee and an attendant who wasn’t quite as personable, we decided that we were happy enough to check out the tasting room and move on to the next winery.

The best part of Fiasco was the winery dog, and in their tasting room shop was a little book called “Every Winery has a Dog”, with some great photos and stories of the companion dogs that many wine makers seem to have. We even met a few more as we continued on our way.

The prettiest winery, a new one called the Red Lily, just opened last fall With a few stops in between, we came to the newer and incredibly lovely Red Lily Vineyards . Only opening their tasting room last fall, they have been making excellent wines for several years from their own vineyards around the valley.

The grounds were gorgeous, and the attendants delightful. We tried a taste of their beautiful and tasty Lily Girl Rose and decided it would be the perfect choice for our picnic wine for the day. I am still wishing that I had purchased a few bottles of that lovely summer wine, but I’ll know where to find it.

Gayle had come prepared with a wonderful spread of cheeses, crackers and flat breads, amazing gourmet pickles, olives and a feta olive oil garlic spread she had made, all with fine little dishes and pretty napkins. The winery has a delightful picnic area by the river with shady tables and a bandstand for music. They even provided us with a bucket of ice and glasses to enjoy our purchase with lunch.

After our relaxing and tasty repast we ambled on up the highway to Gayle and Wes’s favorite winery, the big old barn housing the tasting room for Bridgeview Vineyards and Winery. With no tasting fee here we enjoyed a flight of excellent, very reasonably priced wines, and discovered the great Pinot Gris and Dry Reisling that the valley had made famous. After another purchase of some nice wines, I walked around in the vineyards trying once again to capture the feeling of that air and light. Impossible.

and a winery cat In our happy haze ( the girls, not the driver!) we continued north along the east side of the valley to Wooldridge Creek Vineyards and Winery. We had all decided that perhaps we had tasted enough but that didn’t dampen our enjoyment of the beautiful grounds and tasting room. Again we met a winery dog and even a winery cat.

Passing several more vineyards, we stopped in at Troon Vineyard to check out the digs and appreciate the beautiful gardens and vines. Skipping the tastings for the rest of the afternoon was just fine. After awhile it all starts to run together and I have no idea how you could keep on tasting all day. Must take practice!

We ended the afternoon at the Schmidt Family Vineyards , another of the oldest in the valley and possibly the most beautiful gardens of any of them.

The tasting room was constructed in the old roundhouse for the railroad that once traversed the property and was gorgeous.

The porches were cool and inviting, with views of the gardens and many comfy chairs and tables set about for relaxing with a glass of wine, or just relaxing and enjoying the conversation and the views. Once again I tried to take photos of the breeze. I am sure some great photographer knows just how to do this, but not me. Still, when I look at the photo, I remember that warm breeze even if no one else has a clue.

I took a LOT of photos, and if you want to check them out they are here.

Here is the google map of our little day trip in case you are ever in Oregon and decide to do a little wine tasting in the lovely Applegate Valley.

our map with wes and gayle We are now packing up for our three week jaunt to Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming and by this afternoon the lush green of Oregon will give way to the wide open deserts of northern Nevada as we head east on curvy Highway 140 and then south to Winnemucca. Yay! We are on the road again!!

From the Heart

“It shifted from being written directly to my family and friends to something with more explanation and less from the heart, if you know what I mean. “ “paying too much attention to the reader community and not enough to my own preferences. “

Words this morning from a trusted friend brought me up short. I know the feeling, and I fight it sometimes. Case in point: my last post and this one. There is enough going on around here that I have some things to write about, some life to share, and yet I found myself liking the way the last post looked so much that I didn’t want to upstage it with a new one that wouldn’t have those photos of my pelicans. Now just how silly is THAT?! Mo said, “Well, why don’t you just put the pelicans up on the header photo?” Yeah, ok, I’ll do that, and yet the thoughts behind why I didn’t want to write a new post were still somewhat interesting to me. Sounds like I may be slipping into what this friend described in that last sentence I quoted in the first paragraph!

My Goal: write from the heart. Write about stuff, explain stuff, but keep the heart in it. Write as if I were writing to a trusted friend. Of course, some stuff I wouldn’t even write to a trusted friend so I won’t write that part in here. Those parts are saved for private journals that even my kids will never see. The good thing about this goal is that when I go back and read (and I DO go back and read my own blog), it will be entertaining and fun, and will help me remember not only what I saw and what I did, but how I felt about it. At least that is the goal.

Personal journals, on the other hand, can be incredibly depressing to read later. I journal a lot when I am angry, depressed, or just plain falling apart. Not fun reading. On another note, I don’t seem to have a lot of personal journaling going on now as I did when I was younger. Life is less full of angst and worry and frustration. I guess after 66 years, it is about time, right?

I think especially of this kind of “from the heart” writing when I think of Sherry’s story of David’s journey. I have mentioned them often enough that anyone who reads my blog has probably found theirs. Good news today with 8 million stem cells in his collection! Then, again from the heart, Laurie Brown’s eulogy to her Dad. Semi-True Tales of the Road has been one of those that stands out so far above so many of us that it is hard to see it wind down a bit. The only blog I read for years, I still always watch for a post from Laurie. Many folks mentioned her great campground reviews, but when I think of Laurie, I think of great food stories, seriously funny moments (aka Desert Hot Springs), and the clay oven.

Speaking of bloggers, last week brought us another blogger meet-and-greet treat, with Merikay and Craig visiting our world. They spent a long time hiking the trails of Crater Lake, many that Mo and I who live an hour away have never traveled. Then they camped a couple of nights right here in Rocky Point, giving us the chance to get Merikay and Craig out on Recreation Creek in the kayaks.

I love showing someone how much fun it is to get out on the water in a kayak and this was no exception. We had a perfect day with water smooth as glass for our morning adventure. Getting into a kayak for the first time can be a bit daunting, and once out on the water, it sometimes takes a few moments to get used to that wiggly feeling. Within a short time though, that feeling goes away and your body settles into the balance much like it happens on a bicycle. We had a nice, short paddle for their first run, and I do hope they will try it again. It is such a great way to get up close to the birds and feel a silence on the water that is hard to find any other way.

A little benefit of blog meet-and-greets are the photos! Loree has photos of Jeana on her blog since they met up as Loree traveled east, and we got a great photo of Loree on Jeana’s blog as well. Now isn’t that just fabulous?! Somehow the photos that others take of you are quite a bit different than the ones you might put up on your own blog.

Later that afternoon I invited Merikay and Craig to the house for supper, along with our closest neighbors, Wes and Gayle, our Tucson friends who live here in the summer. We had appetizers on the porch, dinner inside at the dining table, and dessert back on the porch, all accompanied by a few different wines supplied by each of us. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially since hostessing a meal is a favorite thing for me to do. I was having so much fun I forgot to take photos of the table, the food, and my guests. I guess that is a good sign.

Fourth of July was wonderful. I do love the Fourth, not for any particularly patriotic reason, but for its ability to bring up happy childhood memories and to create small town joys. As I spent the morning making potato salad and meltingly perfect chocolate cupcakes, I remembered my foster mother, who loved all holidays and taught me to appreciate them with huge church picnics, decorations for everything, and always always great holiday food.

With Melody and family in town, Mo and I drove in for the celebrations. Klamath Falls once again scheduled the holiday parade for 5 in the evening, ending in Veteran’s Park, where the fireworks were scheduled to go off at ten pm when it is finally dark here. It is much nicer to have a later parade and only have to drive to town once. When the parade was in the morning, it was harder to figure out what to do with ourselves while we waited for the fireworks twelve hours later.

This time, the parade was nice, but I still wish we could get more marching bands to come. There was only one. Parades need music! There were lots of red white and blue decorations, however, and the Shriner guys in their little cars always make a parade seem like the real thing. Of course, seeing my son in law and my grandson representing the Klamath County Sheriff’s department was a treat. Kevin is a reserve deputy, and Elric got a big kick out of being in the cop car in the parade. UhOh. Elric is now Xavier, but I keep forgetting. I have no clue why teenagers think they have to change their names, but I am trying to get with the program. Seems to me that Elric is enough of an interesting name, but n-ooo-ooo. He has to make it more interesting! He is 13. What can I say…

Hillary/Axel (remember that other name change I mentioned in the last post?) spent most of the time between the parade and the fireworks volunteering for the face painting booth. Terrible me, I can’t remember what the booth was promoting, but it was some sort of socially redeemable venture, I am sure. We had fun watching her and as the evening wore on, the line grew exponentially. Word was getting around that she was painting some fairly radical faces, unlike the typical butterflies and such. Well, with a name like Axel, who would expect butterflies anyway?

By the time the fireworks started, we were all starting to get fairly chilled, but the bugs weren’t out this year so that was a blessing. Why don’t I remember that even if it is 90 during the day, the air will require sweats, jackets and even gloves by ten pm. I hate to say it, but when the fireworks began we were pretty disappointed. It may have been because of the high winds that evening, but once again the big booms couldn’t seem to rise above the trees lining the lakeshore at Veteran’s Park.

It made for some interesting photos, especially with the full moon rising right where the big fireworks were exploding, but it also made for a few unhappy folks hanging around all evening waiting. Next year we may just give it up and go check out the fireworks at Lake of the Woods, closer to home for us, but not part of that small town Klamath thing that we love.

I guess the small town Klamath thing means there isn’t enough money for a big town fireworks show.

Over the Mountain

Isn’t that somehow a metaphor for life in general? One mountain after another to climb, sometimes in search of entertainment, or warmer weather, or cooler weather, or to find what isn’t on this side that may be on the other side, to cross summits that seem insurmountable, and then suddenly there we are, over the mountain. I’m old enough to remember that old song “The Bear Went Over the Mountain”, and I have been over many of them, both physically, spiritually, and metaphorically. It’s a climb, but the other side of the mountain usually has great treasures and rewards. I am thinking of Sherry and David as I write this, climbing their own huge mountain, right there in Florida where there are supposedly none to climb.

We went over the mountain last week, and even as lovely as the world is around Rocky Point, there was stuff on the other side that we wanted to experience. For once it wasn’t just a much needed trip to Costco that drew us over the pass. Not far west of Medford is the small historic town of Jacksonville, Oregon. Jacksonville stands completely on its own merits, with lots of cute little shops on the picturesque streets, and neighborhoods full of cute little Victorian cottages and Craftsman bungalows. If I chose to live on “the other side” I would choose Jacksonville, except of course everyone else has had the same idea, and I can’t possibly afford anything remotely near Jacksonville. Beside, Josephine County and Grants Pass have the lowest tax rates in Oregon, much less than Jackson County and the Medford/Jacksonville world. Someday we will move to the other side of the mountain for good, but in the mean time I appreciate every single minute of my mountain home. Snow, winter, mosquitoes and long treks to town notwithstanding.

In addition to its lovely setting, Jacksonville is home to the Britt Festival, this year celebrating 50 seasons of concerts under the stars. The shows run from June through early October every year and the lineups are often legendary. The music is eclectic with all sorts of genres represented and Mo and I try to see at least one show a year. Often we choose blankets on the grass where we follow the tradition of a picnic pack filled with wine, cheese, crackers, and grapes. This year we decided to see Melissa Etheridge, a crazy rocker lady I have always loved and Mo didn’t much care about. It was a great show and I had a great time and Mo even enjoyed Melissa’s incredible musical talent on the 12 string guitar and piano. The audience was mostly on their feet during the last 1/4 of the show.

Of course, Jacksonville is maybe 90 minutes away from home, but what better chance to spend a little time in the MoHo. We thought it would be a lot more fun to go home to the rig than drive over the mountain after wine and music so we planned a couple of days at Emigrant Lake just east of Ashland and not far from Jacksonville. Paul and Nina reviewed this great Jackson County Park a few weeks ago in April when the crowds were still nowhere to be found. When we thought of the idea, it was already too late to make a reservation so we decided to take our chances.

The week beforehand was a long and crazy one, with a full fledged field review in progress for my survey. I worked long days with Chris and the crew and then on Thursday Dave Smith, the regional leader in California (and my old boss) came up to visit with the Oregon crew. It’s probably too complicated to explain all this, but there is a huge reorganization going on and the Klamath Falls office is to become part of a completely different region, one headed by Dave in California instead of the leader in Portland. It is an administrative and technical nightmare coming up, supposedly put in place to save money, but no one has a clue how that will actually happen. All to begin on October 1.

But back to the trip to Britt. I had the review going so Mo had to do all the loading and hooking up and packing since I was gone long hours. Then, on Friday, I begged off the last day of the review because I had a quilt class…clear down at Tater Patch in Merrill (about 1/2 hour south of Klamath Falls). Now this is a really big deal because I had to prepay for the class months ago, before the review was scheduled and long before we had tickets for the Britt. No skipping this one! The class fills up right away and the waiting list is long. I had my three months of waiting and was really looking forward to it.

Confusion set in as we tried to figure out just how to manage being in three places at once. Finally settled on a scheme, and I drove the Tracker and kayaks to Klamath and then to Merrill early in the morning, and Mo left for Emigrant Lake with the MoHo and the animals early enough in the day to get a site. Or so we thought. When I finished my class at 4pm, a message from Mo said the park was full, it was in the high 90’s so boondocking with the animals was out of the question, and she was settling in to Pear Tree RV Resort along the interstate…with full hookups, lots of pavement, and freeway noise. Hmmm. The park served its purpose, but was so unexciting that I neglected to even take a single photo while we were there.

Now leaving Merrill at 4 meant I had just two hours to get to over the mountain to Ashland, find Mo and the RV park, change clothes, and then get to Britt by 7. Whew! It was one of those crazy kind of days that I remember from having teenagers who often had to be in two cities (Spokane and Coeur D Alene, and we lived in the middle) on the same day for different things. I am definitely out of practice for that kind of thing!

Somehow it all came together and we managed to be everywhere we needed to be when we had to. After the show we meandered along Old Stage Road right back to our little waiting home and I slept like a rock in spite of the freeway noise. The next morning we left the cat safely in the air conditioned MoHo and drove the few miles east to Emigrant Lake with the kayaks. Ahhhhhh……..

The lake is one that is easily visible from the interstate when driving from California into Ashland, and I have seen it for years and never actually driven down to look at it up close. In this part of the state, most of the lakes are reservoirs, but the water was still high enough that we didn’t have that ugly reservoir brown ring to look at. We found a free launch site at the southwestern edge of the lake, and while a bit muddy, the launch was simple. The lake was lovely, and that was actually a surprise to both of us. We had glassy water in the beginning, but a slight breeze came up, just enough to keep us cool and blow away any bugs.

We paddled along the southern grassy end of the lake and then north to the campground so well reviewed by Nina. On this day however, every site was full with most sites already reserved for the following weekend and some even for the weekdays. We left the kayaks at the beach and walked the campground, checking out the various sites and the views and decided that a weekday visit might be fun and would give us a chance to check out the eastern arm of the lake that we didn’t feel like doing this time.

By the time we got back to the rig it was mid afternoon and the temperatures were hitting the high 90’s. The park had a swimming pool, spa, club house and all sorts of other amenities, but the cool depths of the shady RV felt awfully good to us and we just settled in for naps and a movie and an easy supper. I didn’t even have any knitting or a computer with me and had to really relax. It is amazing to me just how relaxing it is to get away like this, as much as we enjoy our home and our space there, somehow cozying up in the MoHo is so different. No chores, no schedule, nothing at all that we have to do except kick back. ahhhhh……again.

sites at Emigrant Lake Campground We took our own sweet time getting back on the road Sunday morning, leaving the MoHo on the northern side of Medford while we ambled up to Grants Pass for another look at property. Still hoping for that perfect site to build an RV shed and store the MoHo in the winter. While we haven’t found anything yet to fit the bill perfectly, we have a ton of fun exploring all the nooks and crannies of the small southern Oregon town. By the time we got home on late Sunday afternoon we felt as though we had actually “been away”.

Another week of work for me ahead, with quilting homework in the evenings, a day-long quilt class on Friday, and then we will head south into California next week for another nice little camping trip at Lake Oroville with friends and fun and kayaks.

I wrote most of this post last Sunday, and it is already Thursday afternoon and this blog is still waiting for photos. I can hear Mo outside mowing while I am in here plunking around on the computer. Sometimes I just have to get away from numbers and spreadsheets and maps and data and refresh my brain with a little bit of memory making. So in go the photos and with the push of the “publish” button, up goes another memory.

The Bridge of Marion County

After so many days wandering the back roads of Oregon, searching for bridges, we decided to spend our last day out taking things easy. One lovely bridge was on our agenda for the morning after a great rainy day breakfast at “The Gathering Spot” . On the menu were crepes with Black Forest Ham and swiss with arugula, and home fries with fresh baked pastries. I even had a perfect cappuccino with floral designs in the foam in a big ceramic cup.

Before traveling north the short distance from Silverton to the bridge, we walked around town a little bit, checking out the antique stores and a few other shops. I still don’t quite understand why there are always antique stores in these little towns. Is it a low overhead to run an “antique” store? Most of the stuff was certainly less than antique…more like oldish and used.

Gallon House Covered Bridge was one of the older bridges we saw on this trip, built in 1916. We now recognized the old Howe trusses, and noticed that the portal was large and square, an indication that it had been redone to accommodate bigger logging rigs over the years. The roof was especially lovely, fresh with new lumber from a recent restoration.

Back to the park for a relaxing afternoon in the rain with books and movies felt wonderful after all the running around we had been doing. Silver Spur RV Park was a good place to be on a rainy day. The park was only about 1/3 full, with the majority of rigs grouped along the upper boundary near the fishing pond. The lower area with huge pull-through sites was nearly empty. We found out later that the upper sites are for longer stays with metered electricity. In spite of the cloudy skies, the rain came and went and made everything look so fresh and clean.

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The next morning we planned a visit to the beautiful Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, right on the way via the back roads from Silverton to Mo’s brother’s place in Beaver Creek. Our trip was coming to a close, with a night at Dan’s spent visiting family and picking up the log splitter that Mo had taken there previously to benefit from Dan’s amazing welding expertise. We were treated to the most amazing display of tulips I have ever seen at the farm.

Even though the “official” dates for the Woodburn Tulip Festival ended last weekend, the fields and store were still open for a few more days before closing up shop until fall for the Pumpkin Festival. Most of the huge fields of early tulips were long finished, but the display of late tulips still in bloom were breathtaking. Mo especially enjoyed the old wood burning steam powered tractors.

After spending a relaxing night at Dan’s, we put on our traveling shoes and headed straight home down I-5 and 140 over the pass to Rocky Point. Using the power of the MoHo to pull the trailer loaded up with the splitter, I followed along in the Tracker. Not a speck of ambling, even though we knew there were bridges waiting for us near Myrtle Creek and other points south that we hadn’t yet explored. Another time. We were like horses going to the barn, ready to get back to Rocky Point to see if our very own tulips had opened. Sure enough, all was well, and we didn’t miss that ephemeral moment of tulips in full bloom.

Six Covered Bridges East of Salem

This is the last time I am going to post this paragraph! Just in case you haven’t seen it already.

Clicking on the linked bridge names will take you to Bridgehunter.com with historical information about each bridge, location maps and photos. Hovering with your mouse over the photos will give you the name of the bridge as well. Again, the google map and link to our tour is here. My picasaweb/google photo albums have many additional photos of the bridges and our trip.

As someone noted in a recent comment, the Benton Oaks RV Park was a fairly pricey stay. Although expensive, we wanted a location central to the western area bridges and the fairgrounds were the cheapest deal around. We really weren’t up for boondocking in cold rain in the forest, and were glad at least for electricity to power the little electric heater we have for cold nights. It is so much nicer and quieter than the big noisy furnace.

Corvallis is the home of Oregon State University (the black and orange colors for the Beavers are sooo much prettier than that yellow and green Duck thing (University of Oregon). Just thought I might mention that for a couple of my more regular readers. 🙂 Very important that folks don’t mix up OSU and O.

As is often the case in a university town, expenses are high. In fact, Corvallis has the highest cost of living of any community in Oregon. It is a beautiful small city, with a vibrant and interesting downtown with lots of restaurants, breweries, great local shopping venues, and a fantastic live theater. Of course, not as fantastic as the one in Albany, but darn nice. (Yeah, my daughter sang and acted at Albany Civic Theater for years.)

It also has a beautiful quilt store, and of course I had to check it out. Again I was thrilled at the incredible variety of fabrics and styles and came away with another pile of amazing gorgeous fabric. Who knows when I will ever get a chance to actually quilt it, but my newbie stash is growing exponentially.

After our two day stay in the somewhat funky expensive campground, we decided to head for Silverton and the fairly new Silver Spur RV Park, one of the few parks in the area that honors our Passport America discount. Being the middle of the week, we didn’t worry about a reservation and simply knew that after a long day of bridge hunting, we had a nice park to go to with all the amenities we might need for half the price of what we paid to stay in Corvallis.

There are six bridges not far east of the interstate north of Albany and south of Salem. I had some difficulty trying to map out a route that didn’t include a bit of backtracking, so we just let it be and backtracked as needed.

Our first bridge of the day was the Hoffman Bridge near Crabtree, (pictured in the first collage above). Not far from Crabtree, this bridge is on a main route to the highway, and with its asphalt decking seemed to be pretty popular with bikers. Instead of worrying about dogs this time I had to be careful to stay out of the way of the bikers when I was taking photos. The route to the Larwood Covered Bridge (above) was a bit less straightforward. We had dropped the MoHo off at a wide spot in the road just before the Crabtree bridge (which was a good thing since it only had a 10.5 foot clearance!) and picked it up before traveling east to find Larwood and the Roaring River. I was driving the MoHo and Mo was following in the baby car as we attempted to find a place to turn around. In the entire six miles from the highway to the Larwood bridge there wasn’t a single turnout, wide place, or even a road to turn around at all. Crabtree Creek at Larwood Bridge Instead, we drove all the way with both rigs, and thankfully there was parking on the far side of the Larwood Bridge at the most lovely little park I have seen in a long time. We stayed there a long time, enjoying the river, the park, and the beautiful setting of this lovely open bridge.

The GPS wasn’t much help, but I had cell service and was able to navigate back to the highway and the town of Scio without having to turn around. Wandering the back roads of Linn County gave us a chance to see some lovely farms and fields, freshened by the spring rains.

Back to the town of Scio, we once again left the MoHo parked in town and drove the few miles to the Gilkey Covered Bridge (above) about 3 miles back west along Goar Road. The countryside was lovely, and Gilkey was another bridge with open sides showing off the weathered trusses. In addition, the roof rafters were still visible and quite lovely. More bikers were using this country road as well and enjoying the asphalt paving. Of course, after seeing so many bridges with wooden pavers, we didn’t appreciate the asphalt as much as the bikers did.

Returning to Scio, we passed the MoHo parked safely along a side street, and drove 6.5 miles back east toward the Hannah Covered Bridge (above). Another open sided bridge with visible trusses and an asphalt deck near an open road, the redeeming quality of Hannah was its beautiful setting on Thomas Creek.

In all our circling around, we had actually passed the Shimanek Covered Bridge (above) twice, seeing it from the main road and decided that we would visit it last. Just a few hundred yards north of the highway, this little red bridge somehow only seemed “OK” to us. Easily found, with asphalt sporting a yellow line down the middle, and fresh red paint, I only took one photo of this little bridge. The traffic was coming and going and there was no place to stand with a camera that felt very safe.

For our last bridge of the day we drove north of Scio to the town of Stayton. I had never been to Stayton before and was surprised to discover a delightful, clean, charming little town tucked away amid green fields and open roads. The lovely Stayton-Jordan bridge (photo above and collage below) is housed in the city park and has a great story. It was built, lost, saved, moved, rebuilt, lost again, and then finally rebuilt again.

From Bridgehunter:

“Prior to 1986, the Jordan Bridge spanned Thomas Creek in neighboring Linn County several miles east of Scio. The original bridge location had once been the site for a dam, a cheese factory, two mills and a general store.

When Linn County announced the aging Jordan Bridge was to be replaced in 1986, Stayton residents asked if they could take title to the structure. A covered bridge preservation company was formed, enlisting the help of numerous volunteers and Marine Corps reservists for the 6th Engineering Battalion in Salem. The span was rebuilt over the Salem Power Canal to serve as a foot bridge connecting two parks. The process of rebuilding the Jordan Bridge occupied nearly two years, culminating in a dedication ceremony in June 1988.

In the Tuesday, December 27, 1994, edition of The Stayton Mail, the headlines read “A community dream in ashes.” The bridge had caught fire December 20th at 2:00 AM when Christmas lights ignited the roof. Photos of the still standing charred trusses depicted the scene. The city decided to demolish the trusses and burn what remained of the bridge.

Local citizens toiled throughout 1997 and 1998 to construct a new covered bridge at the site. The new bridge incorporates glue laminated members for added strength and was dedicated in September 1998.”

Next Post: Silverton, the Woodburn Tulip Farm, and the last bridge of our trip