David Hill Circuit pt2

This road is a highway (Hwy 8, a continuation of Canyon Road from Beaverton) and sees a decent number of logging and quarry trucks. Most of the road outside of town lacks a paved shoulder. Despite biking during weekday business hours, I still felt safe thanks to infrequent traffic and would recommend this route to anyone comfortable biking along rural highways.

Gales Creek and Gales Peak are named after Joseph Gale (I guess it should be "Gale's Creek", with an apostrophe), a very early pioneer in the 1830s and 1840s. If you're looking for his name in the registrar of Donation Land Claims, you won't find it. In true Oregon hipster fashion, he deemed the area "played out", sold his land (including modern-day Watts and Gales Creek) and moved to California before the Act was even passed.

My first stop along Gales Creek is...Gales Creek.

Gales Creek (the town)

For an unincorporated community, Gales Creek is a happening place. It's got a tavern, a special-needs school, a church, and a fire department. The commerce, today, seems focused on lumber, quarrying, and outdoor recreation.

At one time, Gales Creek was the final stop on the wagon road before Tillamook (now highway 6). The post office opened in 1874 and operated until 1959. There are several shuttered shops representing a more vibrant time as a pit stop to the coast.

Residences are a mix of old farmhouses, more contemporary ranch housing and some truly old structures.

There is a bridge in Gales Creek over Gales Creek. Here's the view:

Continuing South, the road gets more remote for a few miles. There's still a mix of vineyards and other agritourism:

About 2/3 of the way to Watts, there's a side road with a bridge over Gales Creek. This area was known as Rippling Waters, another popular hang-out spot on hot days. Today, the pulloff is barricaded for wildlife remediation.

From Rippling Waters, the Parkin Quarry, operated by Farmington Rock can be seen harvesting gravel from the side of Gales Peak. While WashCo had dozens, if not hundreds of similar operations over the years, this is one of the most easily visible active quarries today.

Also nearby is a Scholls Valley nursery, specializing in native plants. The roads are unpaved and I'm on a road bike so I continue south.

Watts

Today, Watts is a cluster of homes centered at the crossroads of Stringtown and Gales Creek, surrounded by increasingly larger hobby farms. There's no government or business or communal facilities today.

In 1844, Joseph Gale built the first grist mill in the county along the creek.

The town isn't named for him, though. In the 1870s, this was a commercial hub with several saw mills, stores, and taverns. When the area got it's first post office, the office was named "Peak" after the nearby Gales Peak. In 1881, the Watts family donated land for a schoolhouse and it was named after their honor. The whole town followed suit and Peak became Watts.