Day 3: Rose Lodge, OR to Independence, OR

Miles: 46

Elevation (ft.): 1800

Total trip mileage: 102

Airpark in Independence

The temperature was in the mid-40s when we woke up around 7, so we decided to sleep a bit longer and take our time packing up the site. As we were eating our breakfast of oatmeal, bagels and peanut butter, the gentleman from Serbia was heading out and gave us some great bike touring tips (He’s been doing this for 40 years all over the world). After yesterday’s hills, we were a little worried about what today would be like, but we found that the hills were rolling instead of intense climbs, which wasn’t too bad. While we were riding, someone responded to a Warmshowers request that Chad sent out. Warmshowers.org is a community of touring cyclists who open their homes to people cycling through...for free. Knowing that we didn’t have to set up camp and that we would have a bed to sleep in motivated us to pedal onwards.

For lunch, we stopped in Grand Ronde to get our calorie fix of giant bacon cheeseburgers and relaxed for a bit. We saw a helicopter flying low over the fields and forests. A woman who was also sitting outside informed us that it was most likely searching for illegal cannibis farms. As the helicopter continued to circle, we got on our way. The rest of the ride took us through beautiful countryside with hills and mountains in the distance. Around 5, we arrived in Independence and found our hosts for the evening - Mark and Kelly.

Wow, the hospitality was unimaginable! She showed us to our own room with a private bathroom, had towels and toothbrushes laid our for us, and told us dinner would be ready soon. Although new to us, Kelly and Mark have been part of the Warmshowers community since the late 80s and have hosted dozens of travelers. We spent the evening discussing our trip, Kelly’s bike tours (she has done an 8,000 mile trip from Alaska to Florida), and the unique community that they live in. They have a plane in their house! After dinner, they took us on a tour of the Airpark, which is a community on a small airport. Each house has a large garage for an airplane and a taxi lane connecting the rear of the homes to the runway. They also showed us the space where the community works on building and restoring airplanes. After Kelly fed us homemade brownies and Tillamook ice cream, we thanked our hosts and passed out.