Willamette Valley by Bike: Day 1

Au Revoir, Eugene

First things first, we had to get out of the city of Eugene and head to the official start of the bikeway. The city felt fairly well-appointed with bike lanes, and most drivers gave plenty of room on passing. I might have a bit of warped perspective on bike infrastructure: I spent an entire summer in Houston, Texas commuting 9 miles each way by bike to an internship on roads like this one (tip: no fun!). So at the risk of sounding like an old fart who had to trek through snow, uphill, both ways to school, I think cycling in this town compares pretty favorably!

Planes and Raspberries

A short way outside Eugene brought us to the green-canopied street entering the town of Coburg. The road in proudly displays a sign Tree City USA, but don’t be fooled like me: there are actually 3,400+ “tree cities” in the country! As with most towns we’d come across on this tour, it didn’t take long to traverse from one end to the other. Making a right at the fire station introduced us to the dominant theme of the trip: flat, expansive farms. In what would become a bit of a ritual on this vacation, we stopped at a U-Pick farm (Coburg Hillview Farm) and loaded up on a basket of raspberries for the road.

This road took us north, parallel to Interstate-5, so the constant low rumble of cars kept us company in this section, even though it wasn’t visible. It’s easy to forget how much noise a car makes when you’re sitting inside one. A little piston plane overflew us several times as it completed loops of a small airstrip (the kind not even on Google Maps). I figured the pilot was practicing touch-and-go landings.

A Little Hilly

To top off the day we had to overcome a hill on the way in to Brownsville, where we were spending the night. The brochure describes this as the one significant climb of the route... a whopping 500 feet. As conquerers of the Seven Hills of Seattle, we relished the change of scenery. You know it’s a real thing if it has a Wikipedia page.
Powered up with raspberries, we crested the climb and enjoyed the descent back into the valley. I topped out at 29 miles per hour rolling down the hill the rest of the way into town. The only restaurant open was Kirks Ferry, established in a 100+ year old building with plenty of Wild West character, like it came straight from the town of Valentine in Red Dead Redemption (of course, since this building came first, it ought to be the other way around).