Sweet Home and beyond

Date: 
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Miles: 
125
Bike: 
Soma Saga
Buddies: 

My first double metric century. The longest day of the year, and the longest ride of my life. A couple of weeks ago I did the Strawberry Century on my road bike. It wore me out pretty good, not the distance or the time, but the fast pace. I reasoned that if I just took it easy, and took all day, I wouldn't have any problem going a lot further. Also my about 80 miles into the Strawberry my feet hurt, my butt hurt, even my hands hurt. I decided it would much more comfortable to do a long ride on my touring bike.

I started out at about 7:30 and headed straight across the valley to Waterloo, where I stopped at the county park for my morning snack. Waterloo is on the Santiam River. It's about 30 miles across the valley. Once the weather get's hot and they start harvesting the rye grass seed the valley is full of dust and you don't want to ride across it. But today it was beautiful. Lots of white clover fields in full bloom. The smell alone is intoxicating.

From Waterloo there I followed the route of the Strawberry Century I did a couple of weeks ago. It follows a lot of back roads that I wouldn't be able to remember, but the route was well marked from the ride. The east side of the Willamette Valley is pretty different than the west side where I live. More hills for one. There are a number of ridges that stick out at angles from the foothills of the Cascades into the valley. The roads either skirt them or cut through them. I had already crossed over from the Willamette drainage to the Santiam. From Waterloo the route starts out on Old Santiam Highway but them wanders around though woods and farmland before coming out on the north side of Foster Reservoir. There is a big park on the east end of the lake where I stopped to eat my first lunch. I was already over 50 miles. From there its across to highway 20. This is now right on the edge of the Cascades. If I had turned left I'd be on my way over the mountains to Sisters. Instead I turned right and followed the south side of the reservoir back to Sweet Home.

I didn't spend any time in Sweet Home other than to find a store to replenish my drinking supply. The steepest hills of the ride are just west of Sweet Home as you climb out of the Santiam valley and cross over to the Calapoia which I followed pretty much all the way to Brownsville. There I stopped for my second lunch at about 3:00. I had 76 miles by now. Its only 25 miles from Brownsville to Corvallis by the most direct route. Since my goal was 125 I took Brownsville highway which hugs the east side of the valley to Lebanon. There was a pretty good climb on this road as well. I decided not to go all the way to Lebanon because I don't know any good routes from there to Corvallis, so I turned west on a route I was familiar with. I was happy to find the west wind was not howling as it had been last Saturday when I ended my ride with 25 miles of stiff headwind. I really was a perfect day, cool all morning and about 80 by late afternoon.

I looped around a bit on the back roads to Peoria which is right on the Willamette. It's 10 miles from Peoria to Corvallis but I took a couple of side routes to add more miles. By the time I got to Corvallis I only needed to do an extra 3 miles to get the 125. I was gone just under 12 hours. I probably spent a little over 10 hours in the saddle, so I averaged about 12 mph. We always say to do the first have of a long ride slower than the second half, but this was the first time I was able to do that. I found myself picking up speed as the day wore on. I got home with 2 good hours of daylight left, plus it had been light for 2 hours when I left in the morning. Potential for some really long rides if you just keep riding.