Saturday, July 20, 2002

TT suggested that we needed to take a break. Allen thought that what we needed was a day trip on the motorcycle and TT agreed. We decided to visit a familiar place that we had not gone in a while. Maryhill is situated on Washington's southern border overlooking the Columbia River with views of northern Oregon.

We left Beaverton along a not-so-scenic stretch of US-26, passed through Portland and joined up with US-84 on the east side. This ride doesn't begin to get pretty until you are well outside of the metropolitan area.

Allen had been this way a few times before in search of motorcycle rally checkpoints but what was different for today's journey was that we were in no hurry and that there were no specific set objectives. We had all day and the only place we agreed to be during that day was Maryhill (about 110 miles away from home).

The Columbia river runs east to west along the Washington/Oregon border and there are a number of wonderful bridges connecting the land masses. We decided to ride across a few of them, zig-zagging our way to Maryhill.

About fifty miles out of Portland, we pulled into Hood River for water and bio breaks and from there we crossed the toll bridge (fifty cents for motorcycles, seventy-five for cars) to the Washington side. The town on the other side is Bingen where life looks to be a bit slower paced that what we enjoy in the "big city."

We continued east on SR-14 which parallels both the river and US-84 to the south. The views are spectacular; wind and water carved rocks are interspersed with grassy vegetation. Time and the elements have worn away the earth to create the most spectacular outcroppings. The smooth surface (recently paved) of the highway showed in stark contrast to the randomness of nature's handiwork.

The road loosely followed the contours of the high river bank, giving us an opportunity to lean heavily through the curves and thoroughly enjoy being on a motorcycle. Mercifully, traffic was light giving us most of the time and space to ourselves.

Some thirty miles later we began to see signs indicating our arrival in Maryhill. Our destination today was the Maryhill Museum, built by Samuel Hill (what the Scam Hill??) in 1914 as a residence and center for what Hill had hoped would be a Quaker community. He named the 6,000 acre estate after his daughter, Mary. In 1926 he turned the "castle" into a showplace for his extensive art collection and the museum opened officially as such in 1940.

The grounds outside the museum are a wonderful place to get lost in thought and to enjoy the modern sculpture installations. Occasionally one can catch a glimpse of the peacocks that live there. We took some photos and then mounted up again for the return trip.

We started westward on Hwy-14 and then turned south at Dallesport to cross the bridge at The Dalles dam. We rejoined US-84 on the south side and, some 80 miles later, crossed at Cascade Locks into Stevenson, Washington across the very beautiful Bridge of the Gods. The decking on the bridge is simple steel mesh so, when we had reached the center of the span, Allen encouraged TT to look straight down, through the road onto the Columbia as seen from hundreds of feet up.

Once again on the north side we rode past Bonniville Dam, through Skamania and Prindle, into Washougal and then into Camas with a detour onto SR-500. Riding into Vancouver, we stopped by Allen's parents' house but there was nobody home. (Allen's parents complain that they don't see TT often enough... another missed opportunity.)

From Vancouver we rode south on I-205 into Oregon, turned west on I-84, crossed back through Portland and finally into Beaverton along US-26.

About 230 miles round trip in about five hours with stops.