60 miles. 1037 feet up, 1250 feet down.
Ho hum; I can't say it was my favourite ride but there was nothing offensive about it either (until ugly city traffic the last few miles). We were riding through the southern part of the Willamette Valley all day. The Willamette Valley is a 240-km long valley in Oregon. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, the Oregon Coast Range to the west, and the Calapooya Mountains to the south. The Willamette Valley contains most of Oregon's population. It extends from the Portland metro area in the north to Eugene in the south. The valley's numerous waterways, particularly the Willamette River, continuously deposit highly fertile alluvial soils across its broad, flat plain. It is a massively productive agricultural area and was the destination of choice for the oxen-drawn wagon trains of emigrants who made the perilous journey along the Oregon Trail. Today, the valley is often considered synonymous with "Oregon Wine Country", as it contains more than 19,000 acres of vineyards and 500+ wineries. I-5 runs the length of the valley, and we spent the day dancing around I-5 on very quiet "scenic bikeway" routes. And - it is definitely the flattest day we have ridden yet!
I didn't see much in the way of vineyards & wineries today (maybe they're further north or closer to roads that we were not on). But - lots of orchards. It was a pretty cloudy day today, and I actually threw a rain jacket in my bag as insurance. It was cloudy enough that I really couldn't tell what the scenery was behind those clouds.........
Through the town of Coburg at about 5 miles. I entertained myself for a while by stopping to take a picture and then catching up with the fastest riders, repeat, repeat. Then I ran out of interesting things to take pictures of and don't really like riding close to others so I dropped back
There was so little elevation change that I got excited when I saw a ramp over the interstate ahead.
Working hard on the land.........
Just look at the capacity of this place! And it sure wasn't the only one along this road.
At about 26 miles we passed through the town of Brownsville. A few of us stopped in to a local coffee shop.
The photographic opportunities were a tad limited today..............
Lots of orchards. Filbert trees?
There were lots and lots of empty fields. They looked like they were ready for planting. Maybe already harvested, plowed under, and ready to take in the next seeds? Where's a farmer to fill me in......
I sure didn't go hungry today. Two SAG stops on such an easy ride. At the second ride Katie fed my chocolate milk addiction with a mega-dose of the stuff. I am my mother's child........ Oh - and another day of endless blackberries by the side of the road.
I'm not sure what this was, but many fields of it too. I found out the next day that it is grass. Apparently the Willamette Valley is one of the world's major producer of cool-season forage and turf grass seed, and is known as "the grass seed capital of the world". Grass seed crops are grown on more than half of the total harvested cropland in the Willamette Valley. Grass seed is produced on nearly 1,500 grass seed farms in Oregon. Over 390 seed conditioning plants located in the Willamette Valley prepare the seed for market once the harvest operation is complete. The plants are perennials, so after harvesting they just start to grow again.
I'm guessing this is the Willamette River.
Coming into Albany............
We have one more day probably similar to today, and then we'll be out to the ocean. After today, just six more days. I would be pretty happy if this were to turn into the "endless tour"; not the least bit ready for it to be coming to an end. And - it's at that point in the tour where the legs are strong, and distance and climbing stats for the next day are not the least bit intimidating. Bring it on!
The Ride:
Garmin: 97.13 km. 961 feet up, 1175 feet down.
RWGPS: 98.1 km. 345 m up, 410 m down.
Temperature range: 14C - 20C. I'm comfortably wearing exactly the same one layer that I wore when it was over 40C. It is interesting to me to see the many layers that have come out the last few days, including buffs, skull caps, ear muffs, gloves, etc.
The Route:
Albany OR. Population 56,472
Albany is located in the Willamette Valley at the confluence of the Calapooia River and the Willamette River. It is just east of Corvallis and south of Salem. It is a predominantly farming and manufacturing city that settlers founded around 1848. In recent years the city has worked to revive the downtown shopping area. The first nations Kalapuya population in the valley was between 4,000 and 20,000 before contact with Europeans, but they suffered high mortality from new infectious diseases. It is estimated that as many as 90 percent of the Kalapuya population died between 1782 and 1833. The city was named Albany after early settlers' hometown of Albany, New York. In 1871 the trains first reached Albany and in 1888 the world's longest wooden railroad drawbridge was built here. By 1910, 28 passenger trains departed daily from Albany going in five directions. In 2000 about 12% of the population lived under the poverty line.
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