Fall Trip '06 — Day 2 



Picture for this entry can be found here.

Another bright and early (Pacific Time early anyway) morning. The three of us got ready and trooped downstairs to the lobby for the continental breakfast to get something light to eat — didn't want to fill up since we would be doing brunch on the train. When we had gotten up the temperature outside was 31°, and when I stepped out to the car before I ate (wearing light khakis and a polo shirt, no coat) it had warmed up to a balmy 40°. The lobby of the Inn is kind of in the Lodge-style — even if the rooms were just modern hotel rooms (large-ish ones mind you) —and the floor was was an interesting, alternating diagonal patterned parquet of the butt-end of pine 1-by-4 boards.

We finished eating, grabbed our bags, loaded the Buick and checked out. As we were leaving the parking lot, Lynda and I had a disagreement about which way to go. By going left as she wanted, it would have been hard to have gotten back onto US 26 eastbound as the Loop Road junction is design for easy access for eastbound 26 traffic to get on the Loop and westbound Loop traffic to get on westbound 26. Since I am driving, we went MY way, but Lynda was convinced that this road only went up to Timberline Lodge which was up above the snow line on the mountain — the snow was only 500 feet vertically above us — and I had a difficult time convincing her that I knew what the map said and had looked at the whole town on a satellite picture and actually knew where I was going. I don't think I will every live down the male reputation that we are clueless navigators who will not ask for directions, or she will never forget that ONE time we drove ten miles up a wrong road in South Dakota's Black Hills when I missed a turn that had had its sign stolen.

A couple of blocks from the Inn we had a spectacular view up AND down the mountain that showed us just high up the slope of the mountain we were. Mt. Hood towered above us and the view would have made a great picture, except for the overhead wires (another argument for underground utilities) and the not very attractive roofs of the buildings of Government Camp. Hood had been clouded in last night when we came in, so we didn't see anything but brief glimpses of snow on rocks and crags, but I didn't stop this time because I figured I would get a better shot up the road and I was concerned about finding US 26 and not sure how fast the drive would be on OR 35. About a minute later we found 26 and two minutes after that, we were on 35 and swinging north toward Hood River, Oregon, our destination for the morning.

A couple of miles up 35 we came around a curve and were wowed by Mt Hood filling the windshield, framed on both sides of the road by huge trees. Of course, there is no place to pull off through that stretch of road guard rails on both sides instead of shoulder. Around the next corner and the view was gone. We would get several chances farther down the road to take pictures of Hood and there even a few places where we could see Hood and Mt St Helens at the same time, but St Helens was far enough away (60-70 miles) that the intervening haze rendered her not that photogenic. Oregon 35 is a very pretty drive and not nearly as twisty as it looks on the map. Oh, before I forget, there was one feature of note back pretty high up on Hood — if you look on yesterday's posting here at the Google Map image I placed in that blog entry, there is a place on there that looks like snow, or maybe a glacier crossing OR 35 not too far northeast of Government Camp. When we reached that place, we crossed a mile-wide moonscape-dead zone of tumbled, house-sized boulders, with a little half dry creek in the middle of it. You could see it going back up the mountain above us to the snowline and sweeping on down the slope below. Had it been an ancient lahar, or runoff from a tremendous snowmelt. I am not sure what caused it, but it is so stark and the scale is so big, that I felt like an ant crawling across a dry creek bed.

We got to the train station in Hood River about 9:45 after only an hour on the road. Not too bad since Lynda MapQuested (yes, I made a new verb) and it said an hour and a quarter; and we stopped a couple of times for pictures and I wasn't exactly pushing it (I'm on vacation, not in a hurry). Lynda picked up our tickets and we just kind of hung out around the depot. The depot building is in the Craftsman style and was built in 1911 and is on the National Registry of Historical Buildings. I am usually not that impressed by that designation, since I lived for 10 years in a building that was on the list (427 Spring St., Jeffersonville, IN) and that building wasn't all that, other than the brass plaque; but the depot had been restored fairly well. There wasn't all that much in the gift shop, so no souvenirs this stop.

We boarded at 10:30 for our 11 AM departure. The dining cars are from the 1930s or 40s I would say, but I will have to get on their website and double-check this factoid. They had nice comfortable booths, white linen tablecloths and a vase with a flower. Not haute cuisine elegant, but a far cry above fast food shabby. We settled in for a nice two hour journey up the mountain for 22 miles to Parkdale through old forests, apple and pear orchards and two hours back down over the same route. What it amounted too was four hours of eating and being rocked almost to sleep. Very nice, leisurely way to spend a Sunday. We had all opted for the crepes, which were very good, but we were started off with a nice little fruit tray, with our choice of champaign or sparkling cider, a choice of fruit drinks, coffee. Next we were served a cracker plate with salmon mousse or cranberry mousse — cranberry mousse went really well with the crackers, even the cracked pepper water cracker. Lastly on the trip up, we got are crepes. They were delightful, filled with apples and smothered in a warm fruit compote and fresh whipped cream and they were served with rosemary-season red potatoes. Delicious.

We stopped at the end of the line in Parkdale for 15 minutes to stretch our legs and take pictures of the train and Mt Hood. In a little park next to the train was an interesting scuplture of a little girl reaching up to pet a Clydesdale horse, made entirely out of barbed-wire that had had the barbs ground off. There are a couple of pictures on the Flickr link above.

Our dessert on the way back down was a small square of chocolate cake sitting on top of a square of lemon cheesecake, joined together with a dab of white chocolate mousse, drizzled with a little chocolate ganaché and garnished with a half a strawberry dipped in dark chocolate. Was good, except the disappointing cheesecake component.

Back to Hood River and then westbound on I-84 back to Portland, then around Portland on I-205. We had a good view of Mt. Hood as we crossed the bridge over the Columbia. Hood was probably 60 miles east of us. Mt St Helens made an appearance about mile marker 10 on I-5 in Washington. We crossed back over the Columbia from Longview, WA to Ranier, OR to pick up US 30. Longview stinks bad from the paper mill there, you get a great view from the overlook on 30 behind Ranier over the Columbia, and we saw Mt St Helens (50 miles away) quite well and she had a pretty spectacular cloud cap.

We ran into ran as we topped the pass through the coast range and it rained on us all the way through Astoria and on down to Seaside where we stopped for the night at the Best Western Seaside Resort. Ate at the in-house Italian restaurant (ok, nothing to write home about) and went back up to our room to crash for the night, although Lynda and Heather took a beachside walk down the Promenade in the dark.

Tomorrow, down the coast to Newport. 

Posted: Mon - September 18, 2006 at 12:09 PM          

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