Day two: Sauvie Island Odyssey

"When you're on a holiday..." you can set your heart free and go anywhere you want.

"Ride Tri Met #17 bus to Sauvie Island, or drive to the island and park your car at the parking lot located at the foot of the bridge. The most popular ride is the 12-mile loop around the lower end of the island comprised of Sauvie Island Road, Reeder Road, and Gillihan Road." -http://www.sauvieisland.org

"You can't find the words to say, All the things that come to you..." It's funny how you can't really put feelings into words, if you're having a really wonderful intense experience, you can't really take pictures of it, or capture it in words. Well, that never stops anyone from trying though. Such is life. I too, will try to chase the elusive muse and try to capture some of the flavor of a day on Sauvie Island with no car.

"On an island in the sun, We'll be playing and having fun, And it makes me feel so fine, I can't control my brain" (or my hands, really, they were stuck up in every blackberry bush and cherry tree I could reach). I got lucky, the weather was nice, and I got up and did the bus odyssey from my neck of the woods all the way out to Sauvie Island, which can be done, but it takes about 2 hours. Sad but true. Still beats driving in the sense that I didn't have to worry about where to leave the car. It sure is time consuming though, glad I brought a book. Still, I feel like I miss so much when I'm out there in a car. There's nowhere to pull over when you get a notion to gander at something, and there's a lot of things I've always wanted to stop and look at. Well, now I finally get my chance.

When we finally drifted over the bridge and landed, I got my bike off the bus rack and discovered to my horror that the brakes had wiggled loose and locked up making the front wheel immobile. Silly me, a million miles from home with no tools to speak of. But lo and behold, I did happen to be in the one place on earth where I could fix that problem...I was at the foot of a major construction site crawling with construction workers. All I had to do is suck up my pride, march over there to the office and see if I could find someone with a wrench. Luckily, instead of teasing me too much, they took pity on me and an awesome woman loaned me her toolset which luckily contained a small wrench. I pried the brakepads away from their deathgrip on my rims and was back in play in no time. Thanking everyone profusely, I took off down the road.

The first thing I discovered was that there were native wild blackberries (not the Himalayans that are the scourge of the PacNW) in the hedgerows along the road that were quite ripe. Yummmmmm. Nice to see them out bright and early...the other kinds won't be ripe for quite awhile yet. I stopped about every ten feet and picked them until they ran out.

"When you're on a golden sea, You don't need no memory" Maybe not, but the scent of hay in the afternoon sun drifting out of the fields on the breeze brought back intense memories of the countryside around Ashland. The air scented by hay drying in the sun...oh that's a fine scent. If you listen closely, you can hear the seedheads popping in the sun like rice krispies, it's such a funny thing.

"As we drift into the zone" after the initial burst of blackberries, the scenery leveled out and one flat farm field after another stretched out towards the horizon of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood, both of which can be seen quite well from Sauvie on a clear day. This side of the island seems desolate compared to the other end of the loop where more people live. This side, nearer to the river, is dominated by large nursery fields and plowed and planted with pumpkins and such. About the only people around were a few scattered groups of laborers hoeing weeds and doing other farm chores. I saw an egret nest on a telephone pole, and a redtail hawk sitting on the telephone pole next to some robins. My first stop was at Columbia Farms which had ripe blueberries already. I picked a few and snacked on some of the serviceberries growing by the picnic area and ate some of my PBJ. Then it was back on the road.

Once I got past Columbia Farms the steady traffic of trucks thinned considerably and riding became less terrifying...you'd think that Sauvie Island on a weekday would be pretty low-traffic but it's not. Between farm workers, summer tourists, construction workers, farm transport, deliveries and who knows what all else, the roads get a steady stream of traffic and there ain't much of a shoulder to speak of so it's a bit intimidating for a lone cyclist.

Once you hit the intersection, it's like the island undergoes a dramatic change. On the other side, it's more houses hidden back behind walls of trees, smaller farms, and woods. I think more of this island is part of the wildlife refuge.

On the other side, I found more cherry trees, and stopped and picked those in addition to the blackberries. There was a pull off with an entrance to the marshes so I pulled off and ate the rest of my sandwich and hit the trail mix a bit. Then I pedalled on past the farmsteads I usually see on the weekends when I drive through this stretch on the way to the refuge. I stopped to see if my favorite blueberry spot was open, but it wasn't quite yet. Before I knew it, the Bailey's rose field was in front of me and the familiar junction.

All in all the ride only took about an hour and a half and that's stopping about every 5 to 10 minutes to look at something...I wasn't there for a serious racing workout. Other people probably could do it in 45 mins to an hour. And luckily I only had to wait 6 minutes for the 17 to come and pick me up. What a piece of luck.

"On an island in the sun,
We'll be playing and having fun,
And it makes me feel so fine,
I can't control my brain,
We'll run away together,
We'll spend some time forever,
We'll never feel that anymore"

(Note, I went with Weezer, "Island in the Sun" but I really think it reminds me more of Hatteras than Sauvie, but it's the best I could find on this theme.)