Becky Hawkins

Bike Camping!

Added 2023-07-12 17:56:44 +0000 UTC

These days, when I'm not at the children's theater (or recovering from summer camp chaos), I'm in full outdoorsy mode. Most of the time that just means taking the scenic route home from work, but a couple weeks ago Naomi and I did a 3-night camping trip in the Columbia River Gorge. We took the light rail through the suburbs of Portland and then biked 22 miles to the campsite.

It's customary to take photos of the scenic and/or blissful moments of a vacation, so I try to balance it out in the drawings.

We biked on the Historic Columbia River Scenic Highway, which was created as a marvel of engineering, a bid for Oregon tourism, and a chance to enjoy nature from the comfort of your motorcar. There are a bunch of waterfalls, hiking trails, and campsites all along it. If you want to go fast, I84 was built a few decades later and is a pretty straight shot along the river. You still get some impatient drivers on the historic highway, but it's also great for biking if you're ok with a LOT of uphill!

The road between Portland and the campsite is a long uphill followed by a long downhill in either direction, so the mid-point of our bike trip was Vista House.

I'm such a sucker for early 20th century civic-pride showoff buildings. Vista House can sell me all the vintage postcards and fridge magnets they can print.