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.
Looking across a grass field to the cost range.
In addition to rye grass they grow a lot of wheat in the Willamette Valley.
I felt really safe riding into Lane County knowing I wasn't going to get nuked.
Saturday I rode north though Benton to Polk county. Today I rode south to Lane, and would be returning through Linn. That's a lot of counties. Benton is once of the smaller counties in Oregon. Once I crossed into Lane the road headed more east and maybe a little north until I hit highway 99E. I had to ride on the highway for about a mile until it crossed the Willamette and entered Harrisburg. As far as I know there are no bridges across the Willamette between Corvallis and Harrisburg.
I stopped in their nice park on the banks of the river and had my snack. It was sunny and warm. The forecast was for near 70 this day, but it was only 57 when I got to Harrisburg. Still it was very nice.
From Harrisburg the route heads north on Peoria Road. This is the same road I took a few months ago on my ride to Peoria. The road is very flat and I was looking forward to an easy cruise back to Corvallis. Unfortunately there was this slight north wind. Not bad, but enough to make it feel like a 2% grade the whole way back.
This was the first warm sunny road ride of the spring and I really enjoyed all 62 miles of it.