Eugene, OR to Corvallis, OR

Miles: 45.8
Total Miles: 1183
Climbing: 153’ (the trend continues)
Elevation here: 235’

The ride did not start until 8:30 today, giving us time to sleep in, eat breakfast in the hotel and have a leisurely departure. We said our goodbyes to Rebecca and had a Southern Tier reunion photo! Sorry not to see you, Barbara, and to thank you again for the wonderful after dinner walk and talk through the park. We are headed north today, and tomorrow, will be on the coast. The time has flown by! We have some big mileage days ahead of us now and will be enjoying a totally different landscape than previously.

The Southern Tier '07 Crew

The ride was very flat and with some headwinds. There were many sheep farms, sod farms, and orchards today. Lots of peaches, pears, blueberries, pumpkins, and hazelnut trees were awaiting harvesting. I saw several dust devils including one that had a spout fifty or more feet high, a veritable baby tornado!

Dust devil which had about a 50' high "spout"

There was a Mennonite school on our route so I am guessing that some of these huge farms and farm markets along side of the road were run by them.

Today's flat roads with the Coastal mountains in the distance

They make alot of hay here

Loved this sign

Hazelnut groves

After the second SAG stop today, I hooked up with Judy and Barbara S. for a pace line in the wind. Soon, Denise, our guide joined us and we were in Corvallis in no time! I checked in at the hotel and our rooms were ready even though it was only 11:30. I put my luggage in the room along with my roommate’s (Hille from the ST ’07) and got on the bike to explore the town. I rode out to the Willamette River, which we crossed getting here, and down the wonderful bike path to Avery Park where there was a beautiful rose garden. It was not as big as the one in Portland, but the flowers were every bit as colorful.

One of the beautiful roses I saw in the garden at Avery Park

After that, I rode through the campus of Oregon State University and visited several old buildings in town, including the Old Courthouse which still had the original wooden toilets, including wooden tanks!

After a shower and washing the bike clothes, I roamed the streets, window shopping, and occasionally talking to locals. I went into a little place for a cookie and the lady immediately asked me if I was with the bike group! (I guess it is the “WomanTours look”…short hair, lean, and wearing some kind of bike shirt!) There had only been one other woman from our group in that little shop! I definitely got a kick out of that. There were so many bike shops here that it was amazing. One guy told me there were seven! It is a designated "Bicycle Friendly City" and there were bike lanes, bike racks, and every kind of bike imaginable. The traffic lights even changed when a bicycle was in the bike lane. They are ranked 9th in the nation for the proportion of people who cycle to work. The university had dozens of racks in front of every building.

A few other facts about Corvallis, gleaned from in-motel literature:

...one of the highest per capita computer users in the country
...the highest library use per capita in the USA
...highest education level per capita in the USA
...birthplace of inkjet printing technology by Hewlett Packard (largest HP campus is here)
...Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling was an OSU graduate
...the inventor of the computer mouse graduated from OSU
...greenest city in the nation with “many people making small contributions making a big difference”

Corvallis was a city begun in 1845 with the purchase of land from the local Indians. With the Willamette River in the city, it quickly became a trade center when the steamboats were common. However, it became even more of a center for produce in 1870 when the railroad arrived. The Willamette Valley, as we saw today, was a big produce and timber producing area.

Tomorrow, our ride will take us to the Oregon Coast. Initially, we will be on 99W to Monmouth, and Rickreall, then on 22 to Buell, then 18 through Valley Junction, Grand Ronde, Boyer, and then Old 101 for the last few miles into Neskowin, our destination for tomorrow night.