The Oregon Desert

Wednesday, September 13. Walla Walla, WA to Umatilla, WA.

After saying our goodbyes to Helen and Zach, we rode over to Clarette's for breakfast, then stopped for ice and water at the Safeway before heading out for the day's ride.

The Walla Walla area has recently seen a surge in vineyards, and some of these vintners are winning prestigious awards for their wines. As we pulled into Lowden, there were several tasting rooms within sight of the highway-- 3 Rivers, Woodward Canyon, and Le Ecole No. 41. I'd have stopped, but none of the tasting rooms open before 10am. If wine isn't your thing, Walla Walla onions are famous for their sweet taste, and there are more than a couple of roadside stands. At a few places around here, you can pick up wine, onions, espresso and fill dirt.

If life had a soundtrack, we would have heard the warning when we saw the wind turbines lining the hilltops. An always-available, never-ending supply of wind makes this area a popular spot for turbine farms. If you're fond of oil refineries, these statuesque, odorless sentries are bound to disturb you. Back on Hwy 12, we have a wide shoulder--which is a good thing, because there's a lot of semi-truck traffic on the road today. My personal favorites are the hay trucks--they're large, smell nice, create a huge vortex of wind as they pass you and leave a swirling parade of confetti-hay behind. Not for the allergy-ridden.

After passing Touchet, there would be no more services of any kind on the raute until reaching Umatilla, some 36 miles away. We stopped at a c-store for a break.

At about 29 miles, we left Hwy 12 and followed Rt 730 to the Columbia River. The landscape here changes to desert, and in just a few miles we reached the WA-OR border. This area is called the Scablands, created by a flood some 20,000 years ago. An ice dam holding back the ancient Lake Missoula broke, sending billions of gallons of water rushing down the Columbia's channel. Odd that so much water created a desert, and that a river as large as the Columbia runs through that desert. The hills in this area look like something that you'd find in Utah or New Mexico.

Matthew was struck by the scent of the water, which was thrust at us by the wind. I'll let him describe it: The scent of the river brought images to mind I usually associate more with the coast - of docks and fishermen, and fresh fish. I get this picture in my head of people making their livelihood at the margins of the land, not pushed there by society but impelled there by their own need to be at the edge. All, just at the whiff of the Columbia River.

The wind picked up as we got to the Columbia, and by the time we reached Umatilla, we'd be riding into 35mph headwinds. The hotel staff said it was the windiest day they'd had in quite a while. Since there were no services in the area, we stopped and had a picnic lunch under the "Welcome to Oregon" sign. By 3:00pm, the skies had clouded over and by the time we finished the day's ride, we were both exhausted. We'd been warned that the wind can be fierce in the Columbia River Gorge, and we'd had our first taste of it. Yum!

Tomorrow, we plan to go to West Roosevelt, to camp in the park there. Our bailout point is Crow Butte Park, on an island in the middle of the river, just 30 miles from Umatilla; West Roosevelt, a bit more than 50 miles from here, opens the possibility of being able to stay the night in Portland on Sunday. We'll have to see if the wind dies down tomorrow.