spur of the moment ride

Mid morning I get a text message to my phone......would I like to ride early this afternoon? Only took a few seconds to process the information. Pretty girl, check. A rider that can challenge me, check. Good cycling weather, check. "Sure" I respond.

We worked out the details and at 1PM I picked her up and we were on our way to Canby with intentions of riding south and east and returning north and west, hoping for about 60 miles.

We did a bit of exploring from Canby riding through the little burg of Lone Elder and then continuing on to Marquam. The stretch was surprisingly busy for early afternoon, and a fresh coating of chipseal made for a challenging ride. From Marquam we turned slighty west to Silverton. We were far enough east that we had some rolling hills rather than the flat prairies found just to the west. In Silverton we continued on past the Oregon Gardens until finally turning west towards Salem when we were about half way to Sublimity. When we got to Howell Prairie Rd we turned north, into what had developed into a noticable headwind. We took a turn to the east when we started getting too close to being committed to a ride up Hwy 99 and got on Elliot Prairie Rd. (we took a brief stop to eat some wild blackberries we found growing along the road!) We then took another turn to the north taking Meridian Rd back to Lone Elder Rd and then on to the small town of Lone Elder closing our loop. We were on nicer roads the last half of our ride, smoother and lower traffic even though it was now "rush hour".

The Oregon Randonneurs have a route called "Three Prairies" that runs through this area. We managed to ride fewer miles and hit four prairies: Gribble Prairie, Howell Prairie, Elliot Prairie, and Mark's Prairie........as well as the edge of the Silverton Hills!

We ended up back in Canby with 58 miles, and more notably for me, an 18.8mph average. It surprised me since we had a few hills in the first half and probably a 5-10 mph headwind in the last third. Always a little faster when you've got a riding buddy pushing you a bit.

Erinn continues to be one of my favorite biking partners. Always a smile, always challenges me. Sometimes she kicks my behind, sometimes I kick hers. I guess you call that pretty evenly matched!

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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today...........58...............0.................58
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
April total...629.....+........57.....=...........676
YTD...........4152....+.......743....=.........4895

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