April 25 - Backroads to Brownsville

Today’s HOG ride, led by Jon Erickson had it all – great food, beautiful backroads, multiple covered bridges, and even a ferry ride. What a perfect way to end the weekend!

Jon led us south from Latus on highway 213 to Silverton. What made the ride really unique was that he had us turn left on Eureka road in Silverton so that we could go through some less traveled backroads on our way through Scio and down to Brownsville. We meandered past orchards, farmland, and pastures, and rolling hills on our way to two different covered bridges – the Larwood Covered Bridge over Crabtree Creek as well as the Shimanek Covered Bridge over Thomas Creek.

In Brownsville we had an excellent meal at Kirk’s Ferry Trading post. I very much enjoyed my steak salad – the meat was prepared with a bourbon glaze and was moist, tender, and flavorful. It was included along with bacon, red onion, and tomato on a bed of fresh mixed greens and served in a very generously sized portion.

From Kirk’s Ferry we headed north on more backroads, this time west of I-5. The highlight of this portion of the trip for me was taking the Wheatland Ferry across the Willamette River. The ferry is powered by two electric motors and uses a cable that connects Marion County and Yamhill counties. It isn’t every day that you get to ride a ferry. Although we did get rained on a few times, there were generous portions of sunshine to go around, making for an overall wonderful day.Text here