Cycle Tour of Sherwood

Originally, Six Corners was so named because it was a 3-way intersection between Edy, Roy Rogers, and Hwy 99W. That doesn't make much sense today:

Now, 99W dominates. The other corner roads have been rerouted to a few intersections. This coffee shop is about at the site of the original intersection.

3-way intersections are a logistical nightmare. It can be a huge traffic safety quagmire so I'm not surprised that this area has been redesigned, favoring one road above all others.

If there's a challenge, now it's safely crossing 99W, especially as a pedestrian. Sherwood has a fix for that, too, meet the 99W pedestrian bridge:

The bridge spans the highway connecting a high school to a YMCA. When I read about the grand opening in 2025, I knew it would be a great centerpiece for the bike ride here. It's exactly what I needed.

Yes, the pictures look empty...because I deliberately waited for an opening to snap them. Even in with school out of session and on a very hot weekday, this infrastructure improvement project is well-utilized.

From the YMCA, I continue to my next destination.

Middleton

By Oregon standards, Middleton is very old. Before Sherwood, before the first rail line there was Middleton (nee Stringtown). A post office was placed here in 1869 to facilitate better communication between Portland and Lafayette (Lafayette was apparently far more important in the pioneer days than now). The site was chosen to bisect the distance between the two cities and the name reflects that.

The Newberg Branch SP railway came through in 1892. Back when the company supported a passenger service, Middleton was a stop. I couldn't locate the Post Office site, but the train tracks are still there:

What happened to Middleton? I'm seriously asking; I don't know! The post office closed in the first years of the 1900's. The line is still active, but freight only, and it never stops here. 

My guess: Sherwood's rise led to Middleton's decline. Most of historic Middleton is suburban sprawl within Sherwood (see the first image of this section) but near the tracks, I cross the city limit and the area quickly reverts to rural:

From the tracks, I turn back, toward the City Center.

Sherwood

Before arriving in downtown Sherwood, I take an indirect path to visit some of the city parks and pedestrian trails.

Sherwood was founded as Smockville (named for the founders and first post master, the Smock family) in the 1880's. The name was changed in the 1890's. Tradition holds that it's named after the forest in England where Robin Hood lived but it's really named after a town in Michigan.

The downtown is oriented along the same tracks as Middleton. That's hilarious because the train doesn't stop here anymore. There's a park and ride...for the bus.

Maybe I'm a bit jaded after visiting every city in the county, but it's challenging to see the unique aspects of each one. Every one has a park where there's a weekend farmer's market: 

And a city hall/public library

But maybe homogeniety isn't a bad thing. When every city has a Sesame Donuts, Mod Pizza, coffee shop, and taphouse, it doesn't matter where we happen to live. Pick one, they're all great. 

I keep kicking around the concept of "great place to live, fine place to visit". Sherwood has everything I need. If my house were there, I'd probably never go to Hillsboro. But I live in Hillsboro, so there's rarely a reason to bike to Sherwood. 

From here, I head northeast and outside the city limits.

Cipole

Cipole is the Italian word for "onion". We'll discuss why that was an apt name for the area in a few minutes. This is another mirage town: something on local maps despite not being nor never being an actual community.

Cipole was another stop along the Newberg Branch. Today, it's a sprawling corporate park. This is unincorporated but within the urban growth boundary, the ideal place to put shipping/logistics depots, lumber yards, FedEx distribution, and packaging facilities.

There's also a golf course:

If you don't work at one of these shipping centers, there's really no reason to ever visit, especially on a bicycle (very busy high-speed roads with inconsistent shoulders). I suspect Cipole hangs on to modern maps to point lost truckers toward their destination. If there is/was a downtown, it's this plumber near the tracks:

From here, it's north to my final (and weirdest) destination of the day.

Onion Flats

This absolutely should not be on our maps. It's just an empty field. It's got a pretty cool history, though. The early settlers of the Tualatin Valley loved to drain wetlands to grow non-cash crops. We did it to Wapato Lake near Gaston and we did it here. 

The wetlands were drained beginning in the 1870s (it's a lengthy process) and eventually evolved into the largest onion producer in the state. Cipole (above) was the stop that the day laborers used to reach work.

Of course, today, onions are literally the cheapest produce in the grocery store. Modern agricultural methods prefer arid hillsides over muddy fields. The onion industry has shifted east. That left us with an empty, useless field that we spent decades draining. Nothing left to do but fill it back up! 

The Onion Flats are now inaccessible to the general public.  Restoration and rehabilitation is underway. The National Wildlife Refuge across the highway has long-term plans to rewild and build trails. 

At this point I hopped onto 99W. Unfortunately, there's no pedestrian bridge here. The crosswalk button was broken and on the holiday, there was no truck traffic to trigger the light for me. I waited several minutes for a long enough pause for me to dash across the road and check out the open side of the NWR. 

Summer is a low season for birding but I catch views of American Goldfinch, Gadwalls, and Herons during my brief stop.