Lieb's Log

<p dir="ltr">I'm re-purposing this blog to talk about the things that have been on my mind lately. I want to keep writing as a way to never forget the children that died at Sandy Hook school. I am outraged at the discourse about how we can never do anything about guns, that gun control will never work, and that its really a mental health issue. It's gotten so that people believe that massacres are just a fact of life in the USA. It's not individuals that need more mental health care, it is our collective consciousness.

52 Miles

I leave Sunday for a two week tour. My plan is to go door-to-door from my house in Corvallis, ride north to Vernonia, and then west to Astoria. From there down the coast as far as Florence before heading off on back roads through the Siuslaw National Forest through the Coast Range to Alsea, and back to Corvallis.

My new touring bike built on the Saga frame from Soma Fabrications in San Francisco.

Some of the highlights:

• SRAM 2x10 drive train with 42/28 front and 11-36 rear
• SRAM Apex shifters
• Schmidt SON 28 front dynohub
• LumotedIQ Fly head light
• Old Man Mountain rear rack
• Jand Extreme front rack
• Schwalbe Marathon 700x37 tires
• Avid Shorty cantilever brakes

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 We've often got to deal with hostile drivers, traffic controls that don't work for us, and outdated laws that don't take cycling as a serious mode of transportation.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".

<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.