Ride #4 (Wash. County Edition) Sherwood to Beaverton @ Murray Scholls Library

This longer ride looked promising, as the map indicated I would pass through the Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge. At seven miles each way, it also promised to be one of the longer rides in Washington County.



I pedaled out of small-town-feel Sherwood...



...and quickly rode into rural backroads, with interesting flora growing in the ditches, and the prerequisite old-style farmhouse barns.







As I headed up BUSY Roy Rogers Road (love an alliterative road name!), I passed another large barn, this one fairly well known Baggenstos Farm:



Baggenstos is rather famous around here for their seasonal pumpkin patch, and particularly their artistic corn mazes. Gotta remember to check it out this fall!

Proceeding along the several miles of this road, I noted that I was on the "Vineyard and Valley Scenic Route." I guess it's scenic if you're in a car, but on a bike it's just a long, noisy slog along a very busy and noisy road with not much to look at but dried out fields of rather indistinct former crops of something. I'm sure it looks much nicer in the spring when things start to grow again.



And then there's Friendly Lane...which is a dead end. How friendly is that?



Just after this, I turned right onto also-busy-but-much-more-bike-friendly Murray (and more honestly named) Boulevard, with double-striped bike lane and plenty of space.



There was just a bit of detritus in the lane along the way, thanks to a very blustery previous night and that morning, but nothing too difficult to negotiate:



Just past some Dr. Seuss-like arborist creations, I arrived the library, and noted that the sign is a little different than other libraries. I like the vibrant red coloring and modern sleekness to the type font.





Inside, the familiar local library scene, kids with books on the floor, adults meandering, taking occasional drinks from a faucet, etc.



And in the CD section, and great find: FOUR Talking Heads CDs in the rack! I'm stating it here, this is a cool library! I picked out one of those, as well as one of my old favorites by the Alan Parsons Project, and for something new, a 6-track CD by Jake Shimabukuro, the ukulele wiz kid who achieved some YouTube internet fame a few years back. This guy is good! A very pleasant listen.
[Note: As I was getting ready to post this blog, I got an email from the Aladdin Theater here in Portland announcing that Jake is playing there this October 25th. Isn't synchronicity amazing?]





Next week, the Beaverton City Library (the main one, not the Scholls one), about 5 miles north on relatively flat roads. Should be pleasant.