Polk County

I spent my Labor Day Sunday on my bicycle.  I started in Sherwood in Washington County, pedaled though Yamhill County and even passed through Polk County.  One of my Japanese friends, Takahiro Kazahiro, decided to bike from Milwaukie (Portland 'burb) back to Oregon State in Corvallis.  We drove and thought he was crazy.  Then we thought he was dead in a ditch when he didn't arrive and it was late.  Well after dark he finally showed up. 

It must be said that Polk County is primarily an agricultural community.  The towns are pretty small and my bike ride was almost all past farms of varying sizes and crops.  Grapes for wine is in the foothills and regular farmy-type farms on the valley floor.  Fruit stands abound and the peaches sold there are amazing!

Over the summer we made an effort to visit an old company town (mentioned in my Washington County post) that was abandoned in the 80's and was inaccessible due to fire danger.  That was the best I could think to do in Polk County.  The bike ride was a spontaneous challenge that presented itself.  My goal was riding at least 100 miles from the Portland area on the west side of the Willamette River.  By Polk County I was peaking.  I felt good and had made good progress.  Between Dallas and Monmouth there is a bike path that parallels Highway 99W that puzzles me, as the road is the same width before and after and the traffic isn't any heavier.  Yet here is this path.  And they just re-paved it. 

Monmouth has a Burgerville, which is a local burger fast food chain that sells locally grown/processed food.  Monmouth is also the only dry town I know of in Oregon.  I hit the town at lunch time and had a turkey club with an iced tea that was just what I needed.  I don't think my being geeked out in lycra was too welcome there, but no one said anything.

There you have it.  Polk County has it all: Burgerville, unexplained mysterious bike paths, and people who don't like lycra.