Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway

I have not been on my bike since June 5th, and then it was only a five mile commute.  My last decent ride was last month. Since that time I've been sitting in a car following cyclists across the country.  It was with some trepidation that I set off on a 300 mile weekend this morning.  Would I be able to do it?  Would I be able to keep up?

I arrived at our meeting point a few minutes late. I found nobody there.

I checked my phone for messages, and rode around the area looking for others.  It seemed that Doak was doing the same.  We eventually found each other and determined that the other half dozen were going to be no shows.  I thought I had left that behind when I left Meetup.

Doak and I started south at 6:20 AM, on the longest day of the year.  The sun had been up for nearly an hour already.

I've always appreciated local scenery, but I did even more so after my recent travels.

The Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway takes us from Champoeg Park near Wilsonville to Armitage Park near Eugene.  We travel right down the heart of the Willamette Valley, Oregon's most populous region, but stay in remarkably rural areas.

As we pedaled out the wind was calm, and temperatures were mild. A north wind by afternoon was predicted, as is common with a fair weather pattern in summer.

We pedaled along taking in the scenery and awaiting a gentle push from the wind.

We made our first stop on the north side of Salem, about 40 miles in, where we refilled water bottles and ate a quick snack.  From there the route turns out toward Independence, following the Willamette River.
At Independence the route bends back SE following the river toward the Buena Vista Ferry.  We wouldn't be crossing the ferry today as the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway stays on the east side of the river. Just before reaching the ferry we turned east and rode by the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge.

We turned south again and soon began to notice a slight north wind pushing us.  It was 10:30 AM
 We pushed onward.

We stopped for a brief tour of John Deere combines!

White Clover filled the air with a pleasant aroma.

I've done this route a number of times and always look forward to some ice cream at the Shedd Store.  A very short detour off course takes us into "town".

 Having enjoyed our ice cream sandwich, chicken nuggets, and a refill of water, we pedaled on.

As we arrived in Brownsville it seemed that they were enjoying the Summer Solstice with a festival.  There was band playing in the town square, and people all over the place.  Even a group of the other kind of cyclists were in town.

The wind was increasing, we now had a sustained tailwind of about 10 mph. We played cat and mouse with a Blacktail doe. 

We were in wide open country now and fully exposed to the wind. At one point I was pedaling along at 17 mph keeping pace with the wind.  We were making good time south, but talked a bit about what tomorrow might bring as we pedaled back northward.
We continued to ride southward, taking in the scenery as we did so.

Doak says this is his favorite scenery!

Before long we passed Armitage Park, the official end on the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway.

Today we'd pedal a few more miles yet, crossing the Willamette River into Eugene where we had reservations for lodging and plans for dinner.

I was a good day to be on the bike.  Despite earlier concerns my legs carried me well.  Doak was kind enough to slow his pace so we pedaled together most of the day. 

..........road bike..........rollers........mtb.........lifecycle....total
Today.........151...............0..............0...............0...........151 Jan............710................0..............0...............0...........710
Feb........... 578...............0..............0...............0............578
March ...........701.............0..............0...............0............701
April..........749.................0..............0...............0..........749
May...........613.................0..............0...............0...........613
 June............156...............0..............0...............0...........156
Total..........3359...............0..............0...............0..........3359