As a cyclist it can sometimes feel that the world is stacked against us. We've often got to deal with hostile drivers, traffic controls that don't work for us, and outdated laws that don't take cycling as a serious mode of transportation. That might be the case now, but like the man said "the times they are a changin".
Paul's bike blog
These posts are in chronological order, which makes it sort of hard to follow, for example posts from a bicycle tour. For the tours the applicable posts are attached to the tour itself where they are easier to follow.
I was having difficulty getting the stock bars on my new Disc Trucker adjusted properly. If I had it so I was comfortable on the hoods I couldn't reach the breaks from the drops. If I rotated the bar down so that I could reach the brakes from the drops, the hoods were way too low.
I decided to give this bar style a try. These are know as mountain or off-road drops. Salsa uses them on their Fargo and Vaya models. This one is made by Soma. Salsa, Soma, Surly all seem to be playing in the same market.
<br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/116323603138300579796/Mobile#5716241628589… src='https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4kDIrtbNBAQ/T1QreapiiXI/AAAAAAAAETE/…; border='0' width='580' height='452' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br /><br />
<br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/116323603138300579796/Mobile#5712524380147… src='https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3Sp4kSInjNY/T0b2qFFy3_I/AAAAAAAAERo/…; border='0' width='580' height='366' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br /><br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Campus%20Way%20bike%20path&z=10'>Campus Way bike path</a></p>
Took the quick route to Albany on Hwy. 20. It has a wide shoulder and I could go pretty fast. Pulled down to the river just before the bridge in Albany.
Started out around noon as the fog had lifted and the day was looking promising. My
goal was to ride to Buena Vista, home to an old ferry crossing I wanted to see. I headed north on Independence Highway to Springhill Road and then north on Buena Vista Road. There were several parks with access to the Lukiamute River, which was running big and muddy.
The Lukiamute River at flood levels.
It wasn't my plan for the weekend. I started out yesterday to do a nice long road ride. I was going to do the Alsea Look clockwise and throw in Mary's Peak if I had enough left in me. But right away I had a new clickety noise I couldn't pin down. After several failed adjustments I turned around and headed home, hoping I'd have time to get to a mechanic and still get a ride in. Mechanic I talked to said it sounded like the bottom bracket and he'd be able to take a look at it next Friday. Ugh. Yesterday was also the hottest day of the year hear. My house was nice and cool so I took a nap.
Mary's Peak from Bald Hill
US Highway 20
I live a block away from US Highway 20. Actually between Corvallis and Phillomath, US 20 shares the road with state Highway 34. On the west end of Philomath they split up and 34 heads southwest to Waldport while 20 heads due west to Newport.
I grew up on the beach. This was on the other coast, depending on your orientation. As a teenager summers revolved around surfing. If you wanted glassy well shaped waves you had to get up early. By late morning the onshore winds would pick up and before long the surf resembled a frothy soup. We didn't care much for onshore winds. Some days we'd just sit out there hoping maybe the wind would die down, but it never did. We didn't have anything else to do, other than maybe sit on the beach, so it didn't really matter. The onshore winds cut our fun short, and since wind surfing hadn't been invented yet were pretty much useless as far as we were concerned. On rare days, especially in the Fall when the hurricane swells were coming in the onshore wind would retreat in the face of an offshore wind. The offshore winds would hold up the curls making for the best waves we ever had.
50 years later I'm on the opposite coast (once again depending on your orientation) and living 60 miles from the ocean. I ride 6 miles to work in the morning and 6 miles home in the afternoon. As the days warmed up in the Spring I started noticing my old adversary in my face every afternoon. Now that its Summer that old onshore wind is my constant companion on my rides home from work. It manages to blow over 60 miles and over the coast mountains to try and beat me back. Each day I grunt and bare it, telling myself what a great workout I'm getting. But deep inside I'm just waiting for some monster wind to spring up out of the Cascades and blow that onshore wind back out to sea where it belongs. When that wind comes I'll just sit up and sail on home.
I'd been waiting for a warm day to try Mary's Peak. It's the highest point in the Coast Range so I knew it would be a great climb.
Here are the pictures. Descriptions coming soon.
Linda rented a beach house in Yachats for Memorial Day weekend, and we all were there.
This week I get to reflect on just how great it is to commute by bike. Of course I've been riding to work for years, but up until this year my ride was just a few blocks, in Ashland where it hardly ever rains. Since January I've had a 5.5 mile ride each way in Corvallis where it rains all the time. I haven't missed any rides due to rain, but I did take the bus twice when the roads were too icy.
I've lived in Oregon for 40 years but I never heard of a place called Waterloo. But there it was on the Mid Vally Bicycle Club's list of flat rides. I'd been wanting to do a cross valley ride and this sounded like the one. The forecast was for showers, but although it was cloudy when I left it didn't seem like it would rain. I was hoping my ride to Waterloo would turn out better than Napoleon's.
This was going to be a long ride so I took the shortest route through Corvallis, across the river, to Peoria road. Peoria road is the main escape route from the busy highway 34/20 so lots of rides go that way.
I did this ride on the Sunday after the Kings Valley ride, but didn't get around to posting it until now. I wanted to do a longer, mostly flat ride. But to get there I had to do Bellfountain Road, which seems to have more hills every time I ride it. From Bellfountain you turn east, cross highway 99W and get on Old River Road. This meanders south and east through the farm land.
There are signs to Irish Bend on both sides if the river. This was an old school.
Todays ride took me through the popular Oregon destinations of Wren, Hoskins, Kings Valley, and Airlie. Places I'm sure you've all heard of. Heading west out of Philomath on hwy 20 you climb to about 700' before dropping back down to Wren. From there you go north on hwy 223. The first stop was the Marys River which also goes through Philomath and joins the Willamette in Corvallis.
I'd been saving this one for a sunny day, and this was it. According to the route guide on the Mid Valley Bicycle Club website, this ride would go out highway 34 over the Coast Range summit, and then down to the town of Alsea, and then return on a back road past Alsea Falls and over another summit before dropping back down to the community of Alpine on the Bellfountain road. It's listed as a 72 mile ride from Corvallis, but I figured it would be under 60 from my house in Philomath.
Getting started on Highway 34
Mountain Trucking
I took the Trucker in the woods today. The entrance to McDonald Forest is a little over 6 miles from my house. I'd been hoping to get down to Ashland and bring back my mountain bike so I could get out on some of the trails. Instead I got some new tires for the Trucker. They're 700x37 WTB All Terrain. Less aggressive than most cycle cross tires, but knobbier than street tires. They worked fine on the gravel roads in McDonald Forest.
On top of Dimple Hill at 1478 feet. The picture can't capture the magnificent views across the valley from the Coast Range to the Cascades.
Left about noon. Temps in the low 50's and mostly cloudy. Roads nice and dry. I headed out Bellfountain road, past Bellfountain to Alpine. These are not really towns so much as communities. Alpine is really miss-named. Its at most 400' above sea level, with no mountains is sight.
I guess its been a while since they did much business here.