Hello Everyone! It is wonderful to be back on the coast here in Washington State where the weather is cool and shoulder season crowds are small and subdued. While I really enjoyed heading up the Columbia River Gorge, it was just too hot in the interior, and I had to make a beeline back to the coast. I will take my time as I head north and I know that by the time I head inland again it will be well into autumn and cooler temperatures will prevail. Despite a few hiccups, it’s been another great week all around and I’m very happy to be on the road in coastal Washington.
When I finished off writing this post last week, I was in Hood River, Oregon having just spent two fabulous days exploring the Columbia River Gorge. I had every intention of spending a few more days on the trail, chasing waterfalls and exploring the area, but as I mentioned, it was just too hot out there. I had been watching the weather, and while it had been hot for months it seemed like there was a bit of a cool spell coming through. That had held true for those first two days, but ended last Wednesday as temperatures climbed back into the 90s. It cooled down at night, but not very much and not until well after midnight. The heat is my biggest challenge when it comes to sleeping in my van as it absorbs heat on a hot day and it’s tough to cool it down (I don’t have a working a/c). I’ll take cold and rain and storms any day over a hot night. On top of the heat I found Hood River boxy and unattractive and while not altogether unpleasant, not particularly welcoming either. They had parking meters up all over town which I think are a terrible idea in a town that size, and really in most places including back at home in DC. Hood River wasn’t a bad place, but it wasn’t a place I would rush to get back to either. I did enjoy a few beers at Full Sail Brewery which is another old-school craft brewery which has been brewing beer longer than I’ve been drinking it. The beers were excellent and the bartender was quite pleasant as well. After a decent but unexciting stroll around downtown, I decided to call it a night, but it was just too hot to sleep, even with my “emergency fan” which I carry for just such an occasion. It served its purpose, but I still didn’t get much sleep. When it finally cooled down enough for me to doze off, my alarm was going off because they were going to start enforcing the meters at 8am (and they were out and doing just that not too long after).
When I don’t sleep, I don’t function well and I was on half-speed for most of Thursday. I headed up to a park just outside of town called Panorama Point where I had my coffee and breakfast. The smoke from the wildfires that are burning in Oregon took away most of the view, but I could at least see the outline of Mount Hood in the distance. Mount Hood is part of the Cascade Range which runs up the inland region of the west coast and includes spectacularly isolated, snow covered cone volcanoes which can be seen for miles around. They are absolutely stunning and always make me feel good and it definitely helped my mood a little bit. The overcast weather and cool breeze let me catch a short morning nap as well. When I got up, I headed down to the waterfront area to grab a cup of coffee and then decided it was time to cross the river and head west again towards cooler weather and save the rest of my exploration for another, cooler time. I remember doing the same thing a few years ago in Detroit and being very happy I did.
The bridge there in Hood River is quite nerve wracking to cross as it is very narrow and the metal guardrails on either side have obviously been hit hundreds of times or more the entire way across. Bridges don’t generally make me nervous, but this one did. Right on the other side of the river was a little tourist information center (and a must-stop Welcome to Washington sign for this post), so I pulled in to take a photo and say hello. The lady in the Visitor Center couldn’t have been any nicer. She was born and raised in the area and told me that when she moved away she couldn’t wait to get back. She was a perfect representative of the communities on the Washington side of the gorge and helped with all of my questions, throwing in some stories of her own for good measure. She told me that the bridge I had just crossed was privately owned, hence the poor condition it was in. She also told me that it wasn’t very structurally sound and I was glad I wasn’t going back over it any time soon. When I asked her if it was always that hot in the beginning of September, she told me it was chilly for that time of year and motioned to her jeans and her sweater. That made me smile and, feeling a little better about the day, I decided to pop up the hill and check out the town of White Salmon at the top. White Salmon was small and charming and a big contrast to Hood River just across the bridge. I had a wonderful walk around town, taking some photos and enjoying its quirks (I especially loved that many of the crosswalks were actually painted with white salmon crossing the road). I stopped in the bakery for a snack and my mood was starting to take a real turn for the better. After wandering around town for a while, I headed down the hill and came into the neighboring town of Bingen. I was surprised that they were separate towns given how close they were and how small each of them was. It turns out that the rivalry goes back to the towns’ respective founding families, the Sukdorfs of Bingen and the Jewetts of White Salmon who were bitter enemies. I believe the towns are on better terms today, but I’ll bet their sports teams are still healthy rivals. Bingen had some neat little places to see as well and I especially loved a statue called “Oh Joy of Joys” which was a tribute to a beloved member of their community, Guillermo "Willy" Fisch. Willy had been born in Argentina and after years of traveling the world settled in tiny Bingen, Washington. He was apparently so well liked that he was often referred to as “Bingen’s Second Mayor”. I would be over the moon if a statue as joyous as this one was ever made of me and I’m sure Willy is out there somewhere smiling about it. I also stopped into Chips Tavern which was a perfect little neighborhood bar with lots of great old news stories and photos on the wall to keep me busy.
Leaving Bingen, I headed on down the gorge to Stevenson, another cute little town which caught my eye and had me hit the brakes and find a parking spot. Stevenson was super quaint and had some lovely waterfront parks to sit on a bench in the shade and look out over the Columbia River. I stopped in for a quick beer at the Walking Man Brewery which was absolutely adorable and had the feel of a small country pub somewhere in England or Ireland. Their hot water was out and the guy they had working on it was named Tom. He sat and had a beer with me and we ended up chatting for almost an hour. We had a lot in common and he was great to talk to and eventually he went out and got the hot water working again. During that time, one of the musicians who was playing that night at the brewery had wandered in and convinced me to stay and hear them play. It seemed cooler there than upriver, and my van was parked in the shade so I thought I might just stay the night there in Stevenson. I got some dinner, wandered around some more and came back for the music which was excellent. It was definitely cool enough for me to sleep that night, but I hadn’t counted on the trains that pull through town every hour in both directions all night long. While Stevenson is a “quiet town” so they don’t blow a whistle when they pull through, they’re still trains and they’re still loud. It was another night of bad sleep, but I did enjoy my time in Stevenson.
Friday I headed straight back to Vancouver which is the city opposite Portland across the Columbia. I started out with a nice visit to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, which was once the administrative center for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Columbia River region which covered the fur trading area from Alaska to Mexican California and from the Rockies to the Pacific. Built in 1829, the “fort” itself wasn’t much (and never fired their canons except in ceremonial ways), the community that grew up around it was really quite fascinating. There were obviously Brits there to represent the HBC and probably a few Americans, but also French Canadian fur trappers, representatives of 35 different American Indian bands and a surprising number of Hawaiians. These groups intermarried and had children and created quite a diverse community there. After 1840, Fort Vancouver would serve as the end point of the Oregon Trail and the cities of Vancouver and Portland would grow up around the fort. It would remain a fort when Oregon became an American territory and stay one through both World Wars, becoming a National Park Site in 1948. The reconstructed old fort is cool to visit and I especially enjoyed chatting with a volunteer in the old trading post (which was apparently run by the fort’s doctor). After my visit, I went up to the old Grant House in a more modern part of the fort, which now houses a small wine room and restaurant. It was lovely to poke around inside and the people working there were super friendly in letting me do so. Ulysses S. Grant never lived in the house which bears his name, but he had served as the quartermaster of the fort in the early 1850s and at some point people started calling this house the Grant House. I enjoyed a glass of wine there and then headed downtown. Downtown Vancouver is nice enough, but I was pretty tired so I didn’t stay down there too long. I did have a cocktail at the Wahi Hana tiki bar, a couple of beers at some of the old pubs around the neighborhood and a burrito at Muchas Gracias. I stayed right next to the fort and finally got a good night’s sleep.
The next morning, seeing as it was Saturday and I was right across the river from Portland, I decided to go watch my Penn State Nittany Lions square off against Florida International at the Satellite Bar I had been to the week before. It was a noon game on the east coast, so a bright and early 9am game in Oregon. The staff was ready with a breakfast menu and plenty of coffee and there was a reasonable showing for an early season, inconsequential game at 9am (which we won 34-0). After the game I had a bunch of errands to run so I set off to see what I could accomplish. Since there is no sales tax in Oregon, I got what I could over there before re-crossing the river and finally heading north in the late afternoon. I pulled into Kelso just as it was getting dark and found a quiet place to spend the night and slept like a baby.
I was up bright and early Sunday morning because I had a lot I wanted to accomplish before heading back to the coast. I hit the gym and then pulled into the back side of the mall to do a couple of maintenance projects on my van. I changed the oil which is always easy and the air filter, which is way more complicated in these old vans than it should be. Then I drained my radiator so I could flush it and that would be it for the day. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get my radiator plug (petcock) to go back in. Everything I put in my radiator flowed right out again. I couldn’t believe that this simple project, which I’ve done plenty of times, was going to be what caused me grief. But I couldn’t go anywhere without coolant in my engine and it was Sunday so no place was open. After a couple of hours of racking my brain trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I decided to call it a day on worrying. I filled it up with water and drove the 3 minutes down the street to a fortuitously placed radiator repair shop. Then I went to the movies and saw Caught Stealing. It was a little more violent than I would have liked, but very fast paced and watchable and excellent to distract me for a while which is exactly what I needed. After the movie I went to Papa Zuzu’s pizza for a hot pizza and some cold Rainier beers before calling it a night.
I try and look at things through the lens of what went right instead of what went wrong whenever I can. Being able to wake up in front of a radiator repair shop which opened at 7:30am when I had radiator problems after spending a cool and quiet night in a pleasant little town – that’s all good stuff. A van issue could happen anywhere, and this was one of the best places this particular issue could have happened. The gentleman I spoke with at Hart Radiators told me that they only work on radiators which have been removed from the vehicle they come with, not actually on the vehicles themselves but told me he knew a thing or two about radiators and would have a look. He rolled underneath and told me that when it was screwed all the way out, it was closed and when it was screwed all the way in, it was open. This was something I knew but my brain just wasn’t letting me remember the day before. It’s counterintuitive which is why it should be easy to remember, but for whatever reason I didn’t and hadn’t been paying enough attention when I opened it the first time. Regardless of any of that, he fixed it for me in 20 seconds and rolled back out, shook my hand and sent me on my way (after asking a dozen genuinely inquisitive and good natured questions about Washington DC). Definitely good luck I would say and a huge thank you to Hart Radiators in Kelso, Washington – you not only represent your business well, but your whole community.
With my van back in service, I headed to the gym for a workout and then to the library to work on this post for a while. Then I made a beeline for the coast. It was a really nice drive down the Columbia River and I was so happy to be headed west towards the beach, cooler temperatures and the setting sun. When I pulled onto the Long Beach Peninsula, I knew that my day was just getting better. This is the kind of coast I love with small town maritime vibes and just a touch of tourist kitsch. It was after 6pm when I arrived, so I decided to just head up the peninsula to Oysterville which has a Victorian church that I really wanted to see. Oysterville is a tiny little village with only about 20 permanent residents but a whole lot of character to go along with it. When I pulled up to the church, which was as beautiful as I imagined it would be, a big, happy dog came bounding up the road towards me with her tail wagging. She was a healthy dog with a collar and tags so I assume she was a local dog and she sure seemed to be the welcoming committee as well. I took some photos of the church and grabbed a walking tour map and she came with me as I wandered down to the old schoolhouse and past a number of the houses in town, many beautifully maintained. I felt bad when I had to leave, but she said goodbye and then strolled down the road. It almost broke my heart when I looked in my mirror on the way out of town and she was bounding after me at full speed. What a great dog and a wonderful town.
I drove down the east side of the peninsula and stopped to check out some of the oyster fleet along the way. Huge piles of oyster shells lined the roads to the piers and the working boats were as captivating as ever. This area once shipped a lot of oysters up and down the coast which brought a lot of money to this little corner of the country. They’re still in the oystering business, but the demand isn’t as high as it once was. I passed some cranberry farms on the way back down the peninsula as well and made it back to Long Beach for a beautiful sunset over the ocean. I had a lovely evening just walking up and down the main street and looking at all of the statues and murals I would photograph in the morning. It was so nice to fall asleep in my van with my blanket on and the windows closed as the temperatures hovered in the 50s.
I got up feeling great yesterday morning and stopped into Dylan’s Cottage Bakery for a bite. They honestly had one of the best bakery displays I’ve seen in a long time with a wonderful and diverse offering of pies and pastries. I had to settle on just two and a cup of coffee and used that to fuel my morning wander around town to take some photos. After an hour or two I headed just south of town to Cape Disappointment which houses a state park, two lighthouses and a wonderful museum about the journey of Lewis and Clark which ended right there at the mouth of the Columbia River (after a six day stretch in a gloomy and awful nook which they called the ‘Dismal Nitch’). Of all of the Lewis and Clark museums I’ve seen on this trip, this was one of my favorites. It was straight and to the point and moved right along, with plenty of great visuals to go along with the story. The Lewis and Clark story is of particular interest to me and this journey I’m on as my very first stop of this trip, way back in November of 2017, was in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia which was where Merriweather Lewis began the outfitting of his Corps of Discovery. It took them 18 months to make it to Cape Disappointment and it took me almost 8 years, but we both got here in the end. Nothing else to do but spend some time on the west coast and then head east again, which is exactly what they did and exactly what I plan to do. Much like Merriweather Lewis, I will probably return to Washington DC in the end, although I doubt any president will be waiting to greet me there. It brought me great joy to find several photos in this museum from the legendary Edward Curtis, the “Shadow Catcher”, after whom my van is named. Beyond the museum, I really enjoyed chatting with the volunteer manning the North Head Lighthouse about Fresnel lenses and lighthouse architecture before heading back north along the peninsula. I stopped in at Ilwaco for a nice walk along their marina and a lovely cider or two at the local cidery. Then I headed back to Long Beach where I had decided to take a room for the night because they are reasonably priced and I thought it was time for a little break. I had some delicious oysters for dinner at Castaways before calling it an early night in my quiet, cool hotel room.
And that’s where I am at the moment. I’m going to wrap up this post this morning before I go and then it’s time to say goodbye to Long Beach and time to head north again. I will stay tonight in South Bend, Washington and then continue up the coast for the rest of the week. I hope to find some great beaches, quiet towns, delicious seafood and maybe even a lighthouse or two. I’ll hopefully be getting real close to Olympic National Park by this time next week, but you’ll just have to check back in and see what I got up to. Whatever it is, it will be on the cooler side, and that is all I could ask for. Have a wonderful week out there, wherever you are and thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike
White Salmon Crosswalk and Town Hall