Day 7: A Winery and Mt Hood

After breakfast we drove south from Salem to the Willamette Valley Winery so I could have a winery experience. The visitor/taste testing room is high up on a hill overlooking several fields of grape vines and neighboring fields of trees, and flowers.

I wasn't sure what to do but the place wasn't busy and they guy at the taste testing bar explained the drill. There were five wines being tasted for free that day and eight or ten more for sale by the glass. For tasting you get just enough to get the flavor of the wine. There was a container to slurp into but that seemed gross so I only poured any leftover wine into the container before the next round.

This winery mainly grows Chardonay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir grapes so that's what we were tasting. There were two styles of Pinot Noir and, amazingly, we could tell the difference between them. We bought a bottle of the oaky Pinot Noir which I'll have to conceal in my suitcase so I can get a taxi home tomorrow.

We decided to drive north toward Mt. Hood. We didn't have a plan for what we'd like to do but it was clear and we were sure visibility would be good today. We took 214 off the I5 just so we could say we went to Boring, Oregon then cut west on 26. We drove west until we saw the Forest Service Headquarters in Sandy. We mulled over their list of possible hikes and decided on a hike to Mountain Lake which is on a ridge area south of Mt. Hood.

The Mt Lake trail rose steadily from the parking area through a number of switchbacks but the hike was not difficult. The Fir forest was cool, very pretty, and generally quiet even though a number of people were going up and down the trail while we were on it.

After about a mile and a half we came up to the lake. The lake was small, fairly shallow, surrounded by vegetation and towered over by several high ridges. I didn't test the water temperature but the happy screams of a group of younger people swimming in the lake for a few minutes assured me that it was very cold.

As we walked around the lake we realized we hadn't seen Mt. Hood yet. Then I looked up and there was Mt. Hood, looming over the lake. The mountain, about 20 miles away, was a bit hazy but we could see the south face and it's glaciers very clearly. So beautiful!

The trail continued up to the ridge near the top of Tom, Dick and Harry mountain but did not continue on.

We headed back down and drove to Portland. Our Comfort Inn here is about half as good as the one in McMinnville but it's only for one night. The funny part is a sign giving the price of everything in the room in case you want to purchase it instead of steal it. The thin worn washclothes are $10, the ugly quilt is $100 and the blanket that doesn't look like it's ever been washed is $75. We think that anything that doesn't have a price is free to take!

We drove over to the Reed neighborhood for dinner. We went to the Delta, a southern food place frequented by Reedies because of the large portions and the mint julips. I had one of those mint julips on another trip and I agree they're excellent.

After we ate we walked down Woodstock to Reed. During our quick walk through the campus we discovered a brand new Language House and a lot more water flow through the gorge. Reed really does have a nice campus.

Whenever I walk from the parking lot onto campus I remember my first visit to Reed with my prospective student in ????. The cool, green campus was a wonderful change from the So. CA smog we had spent three days in.

Back at the hotel I'm trying to figure out if we can get to downtown from the airport after we check in. We have to get our car returned early but we don't want to sit in the airport all day.