(June20– written by Dave)

63 Miles – 1,158 feet climbing

We survived the night in the Salem Rowing Club field (aka the Independence Boat/Bike park). The police made multiple patrol trips through the park overnight, which we knew because their headlights hit our tent. We were up early and over at the bakery at 7AM, close to a half hour after Gwen, the other cyclist staying overnight at the rowing club. Gwen knew the bakery, said it had great food and ordinary coffee – she was right on both accounts. We had a good feed and still managed to be rolling out of town just before 8AM. We didn’t see Gwen out on the road and she’s finishing her trip at Albany so that’s the last of her company that we’ll enjoy.

We had a slight headwind in the morning – it lasted all day, darn – and to our surprise it was cloudy as least until noon. We thought that we were in for another hot day but actually rode with our vests for the entire day. Gwen was riding the Willamette Valley Scenic Cycleway. We’d been on and off it a bit on the first couple days. We compared routes and stuck with our plan. We knew this route pretty well from Cycle Oregon and Chris Crossing.

It took us less than 2 hours to reach Albany where we stopped at another bakery/cafe for lunch supplies. They didn’t have sandwiches so we stuck with more scones. As we were still full from brekkie we didn’t eat them until almost an hour later out along Peoria Road at the same way-side we stopped at with team Chris Crossing.

The scenery today was the least interesting of the three days. Many of the fields were mowed grass and hay crops. Though we also passed a number of commercial scale blueberry farms as well. The blueberry bushes looked loaded with about half the fields with green berries, the other half blue. There were multiple farm worker crews out hitting the blueberry fields. Having picked our own over the years, we know how hard the work is and to do it day after day in season, well, we’re thankful for the workers left in America doing this work.

We stopped for a late lunch in Coburg where there a number of small shops and places to eat. On Chris Crossing, we stopped at all the mini-marts in Harrisburg just managing to scrap together fixings for tacos, as there is not much in those stores other than chips and energy drinks. Today we only stopped in Harrisburg for a “small” 44-ounce lemonade and held off shopping for dinner until we had reached The Mercantile in Coburg. We found some nice yuppyish toppings for our pasta – we hope it’s better than the cowboy tacos we had with team CC, though they weren’t actually too bad.

We are staying tonight in the Armitage Park, also same as the CC team. But this time, the tent sites seemed to be closed so we lucked out and got the last regular campsite instead. Well, it’s actually an ADA friendly sight so it’s not completely regular. At least it’s out of the back woods area where we were in 2024. We’re enjoying the sun now this afternoon – it was too hot yesterday afternoon but today with the grey morning, it’s perfect.

It’s funny, having a sunny, open site has given us a completely different view of the park. They still also have a laundry room which is a big plus. Nancy did a load this arvo. For some reason the free showers here have a time limit of 12 minutes. I think I could take about 3 showers in 12 minutes. Do people really take 12 minute showers?

Tomorrow we’re off to Doreen Lake and the Baker Bay campground. Like Armitage, Baker Bay is run by the good folks at Lane County. I hope that it is as nice as today’s. We’ll finally cross the Willamette River for the last time tomorrow as well. We turn towards the mountains at Cottage Grove, the official southern end of the Willamette Valley.  After that, the real climbing begins…