Washington Road Trip: Baker City, Oregon

Long Beach, WA

There's no other love like the love for a brother.  There's no other love like the love from a brother.  ~Terri Guillemets

A friend is a brother who was once a bother.  ~Author Unknown

A brother shares childhood memories and grown-up dreams.  ~Author Unknown




As this year speeds towards it's cheery conclusion, I was thinking about what an incredible year 2013 was. Among the best things this year was when my big brother, Chris, and I went on a road trip. He's my best friend, my biggest supporter, my confidant. He's the person that knew me when I was a bratty little kid and let me live long enough to outgrow the worst of it, and now we've grown up to be friends. He's the one that got me into video games, and biking, and introduced me to most of the books that have found a space on my Desert Island list.

A few years ago, Chris and I had discussed going on a road trip to Oregon and it just never panned out, so, when I found this great Groupon for a neat seaside hotel with surfing lessons (!) in Long Beach, Washington, I knew we had to go! I talked to him about it and we agreed it would be awesome, so we packed up our bikes, turned on an Audible book (cause that's how we roll) and hit the road!

Our trip was definitely about the journey!

14 hours is a really long time to be in the car, even (or maybe "especially") with your brother. We stopped in this quaint little town in Oregon called Baker City for lunch and to ride our bikes, mostly we just wanted to get out of the "godforsaken car," as Chris puts it.

The place felt stopped in time, or like a set in a movie. All of the houses were different colors on postage stamp lots. There were clotheslines strung with flapping sheets, and flags flew in most front yards. I think we encountered two stop lights in the whole town.  Compared to Boise, the last place we stopped, it was a shocking difference! Trees were everywhere, everything was green, and the place simply felt small and old and slow. It was such a beautiful day, the sun was out and it was the perfect temperature for a bike ride. We found this park, and, to our joy, there was a bike trail! 

Cutest park ever? Quite possibly.

I'm pretty sure the locals thought we were nuts! I was taking pictures of everything, everything was so exciting! I remember this couple having a picnic were trying not to laugh at us! Chris kept his cool, but I was like a hyper puppy. We hit the trail and it was like being transported to a new world. That's what biking lets you do, it lets you experience the world in a different way, in a weird physical/spiritual way. It makes simple things feel beautiful and special. Though, Baker City was simple and beautiful and special, so that probably helped.

Baker City bike trail looks like the Shire!

Chris as a bike stand

We rode around the whole perimeter of the town in half an hour, that should give you some perspective of the size of Baker City! We left the trail and hit the surface streets, and learned an unsettling fact: Nobody actually lives in Baker City, or so it seemed to us! As we were paused looking at a very official looking building, this man in a pick-up truck stops and calls to my brother, asking where a sporting goods store could be found. Chris basically said, "I have no idea, we've been here for about 45 minutes!" Then, we got pretty lost (I know, I know, I've been going on about how tiny it is, but there were some odd dead-end streets throwing us off!), and we asked this girl walking along the street how to get back to the park. Her response, "I've only been here for three days, sorry!"

See, like a movie set, or something, everyone visits, but no one lives there. 

Reluctantly we got back on the road after two hours playing around in Baker City. Cruising down shady, green lanes and wide open fields will always be a highlight of our epic weekend!