Dry days in November are rare in Oregon, so when one comes along you've got to jump on it. This Saturday was such a day and @
gugie and I planned to ride the
Historic Canby Ferry Loop. This was the fourth time in three years that gugie and I had planned to incorporate the Canby ferry in a bike ride, and for the second time in those four attempts, our plan was thwarted.
The first time we tried it was on President's Day in 2019, when we discovered that President's Day is one of six days a year that the ferry is closed. Since then we've been sure to check ahead of time to be sure the ferry was open. Unfortunately, gugie entrusted this duty to me and I made the critical error of trusting what the
web site told me. When we arrived yesterday to find it closed, we called the phone number listed on the web site and were informed that the ferry wasn't running because of high water. Isn't high water the reason ferries exist in the first place?
But just as you can't fight City Hall, you can't fight a ferry operator who is taking the day off.
And so 16 miles into a planned 20 mile ride, we were forced to turn around and go back the way we had come. That was OK though, as it's a beautiful ride, especially on that side of the Willamette. It was mostly a lot of this:
I hadn't taken any pictures on the first pass through Oregon City, but on the return trip I got a bunch.
The highlights were the McLoughlin Promenade and it's views of Willamette Falls and the Oregon City Municipal Elevator. According to Wikipedia, Willamette Falls is the largest waterfall by volume in the Northwestern United States and the 17th largest in the world. I wouldn't have guessed that. The Oregon City Municipal Elevator, again according to Wikipedia, is the only outdoor municipal elevator in the United States. More importantly (to me), it keeps you from having to walk your bike up a nasty climb. And, of course, Oregon City is where you end up if your oxen don't die along the Oregon Trail.
