Highway 36 to Junction

Highway 36 begins at Mapleton and continues to the NE through Swisshome, Deadwood and Triangle Lake. It follows some prime trout and salmon streams on its way through the coast range. The route is heavily wooded and passes through tiny former logging communities and parallels an old unused railroad track. The end of the road for us was highway 99 just south of Junction.

Although Elisa and I have driven this road as far as Deadwood we decided to explore all the way to Junction yesterday. The timing of our trip was perfect for enjoying the fall foliage and we took lots of photographs on this perfect fall day. Near Triangle Lake there is a trailhead (with restroom) for a trail to Lake Creek Falls. We will keep that in mind for another outing.

We left Florence around 9:00 and arrived in Junction about 11:30. We explored Junction for a bit with lunch in mind but didn’t find a likely restaurant. Junction has a large community of RV dealers and is also an overnight stop for travelers on I5. As a result most of the eateries are national chains like Arby’s. We decided to drive on to Harrisburg and found a classic farm town that reminded us of the farm towns in Iowa.

We walked into Jake’s Diner on the main drag and got a cheerful welcome from a young Nordic-looking waitress. We seated ourselves and received a “good morning” from a diner in the next booth. Everyone but us seemed to be local with a pair of old codgers holding court at the counter. I had a burger with a 1/3 pound patty and ham and a fried egg. The potato chips were homemade. It was a tasty and satisfying meal and they kept the ice tea glasses full.

We spotted a sign for Heintze farms just before Harrisburg and decided to stop for fresh produce. Our original plan was to go to Detering Orchards near Coburg but Heintze’s turned out just as good and was more convenient. We bought apples, tomatoes, and squash.

On the route back to Florence we decided to turn south from 36 onto Poodle Creek road through Loti to highway 126. This was a nice scenic route that avoids the traffic and population of Eugene. Traveled in reverse this might be a good route to Portland though Beltline around Eugene is probably faster.