Eastern Oregon – Day 22-25; The Willamette Valley. Springfield to Portland (Home)

Day: 22 – Rainy Day Retreat
June 19, 2023

Distance: 4 miles (854 total)
Armitage Park to Holiday Inn Express, Springfield

After being out in the rain so long yesterday, we decided to book a hotel and avoid it today. Unfortunately the one motel in Coburg is focused on truckers so it has a “you can’t live within 100 miles” rule which just so happens to be within 100 miles of Portland, i.e. where we live. I think they should have a bicyclist exception. Since the next town north would be a decent ride, we instead backtracked a few miles back into Springfield (suburb of Eugene) to get a hotel so we could hide from the rain.

We thought we lucked out because after some overnight showers, the bulk of the rain forecast was holding off until the afternoon so we were able to dismantle camp in relative ease/dryness.  We got everything tucked away into its neat little compartment and started off towards the grocery store just as a light rain started. So in a sense I guess we were at least a little lucky.

Our goal was to get to the hotel before 3pm because that’s when the real rain was supposed to hit.  We finished up our grocery shopping around 11am. As we were repacking our haul so that it would fit in our bikes a huge downpour started. Luckily we were safely tucked away under the store awning so we were able to wait that particular bit out.

When the rain lightened up we bee lined it to the hotel where we were happy to find out we could check in exceptionally early. And they had a pool/hot tub, plus breakfast in the morning!

Well it turns out the crazy 3 o’clock rains never came. So our rainy day retreat was more of a relaxing rest day but I’ll still take it. I also believe the crazy storm would have most certainly hit us had we been out riding on the bikes.  That’s just how weather works after all.

We mostly used our hotel time to start scheduling appointments back home and you know, prepare ourselves for real world responsibilities, but we also got some relaxation in. We should be home by the end of the week!

What We Ate

Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee
Lunch: Single serve fruit, cheese, and nut tray each plus veggie tray to split
Dinner: Fancy Ramen well err chow mein with broccoli and vegan jerky
Snacks: Bars, trail mix, orange, two beers and artichoke dip (Hop Valley Brewing Company)

Day: 23 – Terrific Tailwinds
June 20, 2023

Distance: 93 miles (947 total)
Holiday Inn Express, Springfield to Independence Hotel

Hotel breakfasts are the best when you’re on a bike tour. We started the day off strong with a hearty breakfast and rolled out of Springfield around 7am.

The winds were on our side today. North bound winds and a mostly north bound route. We were following the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway which did have a bunch of squiggles mostly switching sides with I-5. The squiggles were unfortunate because it put us in a crosswind at every turn.

Scenery wise it was mostly farmland. Which, you know, is to be expected, but unfortunately the crop of choice for most of our ride was wheat. Pretty, but also boring after a while I was also hoping we’d see more of the river than we did,  but maybe I should have known better. At least the skies were amazing.  Cool cloud action all day today. And the mountains beyond the valley were also spectacular, so not sure why I’m complaining about the crops.

Early on in the ride I noticed a weird chirping noise coming from my bike. We paused to investigate only to realize some of the sealant we had added to my tubes back in Baker City was leaking. Oh no, another flat? Well we’ll count this one as a half flat. We pumped the tire and spun it hoping the sealant would fill the hole and decided to carry on. We couldn’t find anything obvious on the tire at least.

About 10 miles later we noticed my tire was low again. Rather than try and change it, we again opted to pump and spin. That seemed to have done the trick. The sealant must have finally stuck because I didn’t have any tire pressure issues the rest of the day.

We were coming up on second breakfast time when we rolled past a farm stand with baskets of cherries for $2.00. Who are we to pass up a good cherry break?

Around mile 50 we were just outside of Albany and getting hungry. We opted to stop and eat our bean burritos by a random hiking trail/park rather than hold out for town. Which was perfect because it left just enough time for us to work up an ice cream appetite in town. Yum.

So Albany was actually our original goal for the day. We got there at 1pm which was a little early for us to call it quits for the day so we decided, we’re strong, let’s go to Independence! (The next town with hotels / camping).  In looking at hotel prices we stumbled across the Independence Hotel which was actually designed with bike riders in mind, boasting space in the rooms for bikes and having bike work stations and whatnot. We couldn’t pass up supporting bike tourism, so that was the goal for the day. (And we later found out they give a discount to Oregon residents!).

Between Albany and Independence was 30 plus miles while following the scenic bikeway. We went through the small town of Jefferson, and that was it. As we were rolling into Jefferson, we actually heard back from a Warm Showers host we had reached out to in that area the night before. But the die had already been cast, with the favorable weather we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to break another “longest ride” record. (And it was still like 3pm, when we were near the potential host, so it still felt too early to quit based on how we felt).

The very last bit of riding before Independence actually did offer us some good farm variety. Okay okay, there had been a couple other plants on the south part of the bikeway, but seriously it had been overwhelmingly wheat. But, just south of Independence we passed a large vineyard, some hazelnut groves, large amounts of blueberries, and just cool other plants. There were also, unfortunately, some surprisingly steep little hills on that jaunt.

Getting into Independence was a little annoying.  We had to cross the Willamette River (I finally got my river views) on a high traffic bridge with a stupidly skinny sidewalk. Guard rail on one side, a steep curb drop-off into traffic on the other. But after much walking we made it across the bridge and headed over to the hotel.

The Independence Hotel is a super modern hotel with a lot of fun features (including a fancy private hot tub I opted to take advantage of). They also have an in house restaurant with breakfast included. We decided to save some money on dinner though and walked over to the river front park and cook our dinner there. But in the end opted to splurge on some fancy desserts, we did almost ride a century after all.

What We Ate

Breakfast: Omelet, cinnamon roll, hash browns, with coffee and POG juice (Holiday Inn Express)
2nd Breakfast: Cherries
Lunch: Bean burrito with sundried tomatoes
Dinner: Pasta fazool-ish: pasta, cannellini beans, onion, diced tomatoes, seasonings.
Dessert: Marionberry cheesecake and brownie with ice cream (hotel restaurant)
Snacks: Bars, fruit snacks, trail mix, ice cream cone, stroopwafle

Day: 24 – Horrific Headwinds
June 21, 2023

Distance: 51 miles (998 total)
Independence to Champoeg Campground

Two hotels in a row?! What are we inn to inn tourers now? Not with all this gear, we better camp one more time before getting home.  Champoeg is the end of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway so it seemed as good as any a place to aim for. Also there was no way we could do another long day after yesterday, I’m sore in weird places now. Did you know you can get shin splints from bike riding? I didn’t.

Our ride started off pretty boring. We had 12 miles into Salem, which would also be our first grocery stop. This was also a great opportunity to swing by the capitol to at least see it; being under construction Andrew almost missed it entirely!

After our obligatory photo shoot on the capitol mall we decided we had time for coffee since it would be a short day (relatively speaking).  After coffee was a grocery trip to stock up on fuel (ie food) to get us the rest of the way home and then we were off again.

The Northern portion of the scenic bikeway (so the part we did today) definitely has more crop variety. We were excited to see hops plants up close, just because they’re grown so differently than other crops.

Unfortunately those awesome tailwinds we had yesterday changed directions and turned into headwinds for us today.  Headwinds are the worst. It made for harder riding today.

Compared to the other bikeways the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway seems a little silly. Sure it was cool to see some of the area. But not 135 miles cool. Especially not with the amount of car traffic this bikeway seems to get, and how small most of the shoulders are. This bikeway has definitely taken the place of least favorite bikeway. I also wish there were more farm stands or something to help tie in the scenery to something tangible, but c’est le vie. Maybe my negativity is all because of those headwinds. They really are horrible and drain your spirit.

Our final destination today is Champoeg State Historic Area, but about 20 miles south of Champoeg is another state park, Willamette Mission.  We swung in there to use the bathrooms, which ended up being way further off the road than we were expecting.  But, as we were taking a break and reading interpretive signs we saw that there was a little bike path by the river so we opted to do a mini detour adventure. While the river trail offered little river views, it did pop us out over by one of the river ferries which was neat to see.

The last 20 miles were a grind to the campground, a try to stay small and minimize wind resistance sort of ride. Seriously yesterday with its 93 miles was way easier than today’s 51. Headwinds man. We did at least get some views of Mt Hood towards the end of the ride.

Champoeg’s campground has some pretty decent hiker/biker sites. They have all the usual stuff you expect from Oregon State Parks (picnic tables, fire rings, bathrooms and showers) plus the nicer features of small lockers and outlets for charging electronics which is nice. We’re mostly happy that it’s close to home. Tomorrow we’re Portland bound!

What We Ate

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, potatoes, bagel, fresh fruit, a slice of bacon and coffee; Andrew obviously didn’t have bacon (Independence Hotel)
2nd Breakfast: Cappuccinos (Capitol Coffee)
Lunch: Higher Taste Vegan Sandwiches from grocery store
Dinner: Pasta pesto with cherry tomatoes and pine nuts
Snacks: Bars, fruit snacks, kinder buenos

Day: 25 – Homeward Bound
June 22, 2023

Distance: 40 miles (1038 total)
Champoeg Campground to Home (Portland)

You may have noticed day 24 ended pretty close to a landmark mileage count.  We hit our 1000 miles while we were still on the bikepath out of Champoeg which was actually kinda nice because we didn’t have to worry about traffic to take fun pictures to celebrate.

Once we got off the bike path there wasn’t much to say. We had to get through the exurbs, subburbs, etc, so kind of a drag to ride. We opted to get to Portland via Oregon City. Mostly because from Oregon City to Portland we could then follow familiar bike trails most of the way home (Trolley, Springwater, and Waterfront trails). We had also been hoping to swing into one of our favorite bike riding snow cone stops, Menehune Murph’s in Gladstone, but alas they didn’t open until the afternoon!

There were some awful rolling hills on our route. Damn cars taking all the easy routes into the city. On top of the steep little hills I desperately had to pee, which is a lot harder to find a suitable bush when it’s mostly people’s yards. (We did manage to find me a decent bush before it was too late.)

Once we made it to Oregon City we decided to be touristy and check out the Willamette Falls. They seemed smaller today than normal but what do I know. Afterwards we opted to take North America’s only vertical street down the hill (so you know an elevator) because why not?

The rest of ride home was uneventful. We did chat with a dog walker about bike tours for a bit during one of our breaks, but otherwise nothing really of note. We had hoped we may stumble across someone we knew on one of those trails home, but no bones. I guess all our friends have day jobs or something.

Overall it’s been a great adventure experiencing Oregon by bicycle, but we are glad to be home! Now it’s time to take care of our bodies and our bikes and start enjoying a Portland summer.

What We Ate

Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee
2nd Breakfast: Peanut Butter burrito
Lunch: Miso soup soba noodles (home)
Dinner: Chinese takeout with enough for lots of leftovers!
Snacks: Bars, fruit snacks

Can O’ Beans: 13

Ice Cream: 14

We have an official winner. (And also we totally bought 3 different kinds of ice cream on our first grocery trip after getting home, I hope our high metabolisms last a few extra days).

Read about our Final Thoughts