Biking to Cooper Creek Reservoir

Blog 6-13

Today we headed out on our bikes, hoping to find a good place to ride. We stopped in at the Sutherlin Chamber of Commerce, where a nice woman told us that, unfortunately, Sutherlin has no bike trails. However, she did recommend a ride out to Cooper Creek Reservoir, and she gave us a map of the town.

On the way past the thrift shop, of course we had to stop to see what else they might have that we wanted. I’ve been looking especially for a well insulated jacket to wear hiking up Mendenhall Glacier. I didn’t find one, but I did get some dressy pants and a dress, both polyester and should be easy care, non-wrinkling, packable. Ken found a jacket to replace one that has worn out.

We biked out to the reservoir, with most of the way uphill. That’s good for our leg muscles, which are definitely out of shape. We walked the bikes up one hill. The first thing we saw at the reservoir was a float plane parked on a trailer. It must take off from the reservoir.

The reservoir is large, another blue water lake set amid the pine forested hills. We saw one speed boat towing some kids in a raft. Some anglers were trying their luck. One woman we saw had several fish on a stringer in the water.

Fortunately, most of the ride back into town was downhill—the payoff for our hard work pedaling up the hills. We’ll take another ride tomorrow. Meanwhile, we moved the bike rack to the back of the truck, just to see how it would fit. The rack fits neatly in the receiver and the bikes sit well on the rack, with their handlebars above the tailgate.

We decided that we need another locking pin to hold the rack on the receiver, because the one we use on the back of the fifth wheel won’t work. The receiver is actually a 3” receiver, but it has an adapter that makes it 2”, and the extra width of the 3” receiver doesn’t let enough of the pin to fit through to lock the lock on it.


Tonight we played Upwords. Ken led for the first part of the game, but then I pulled ahead.

We’re getting a very poor Internet connection all day today. At least when we move to Portland, we shouldn’t have any problems like that.