Willamette Valley by Bike: Day 2

Immersed in Farmland

This section of our route was the flattest and quietest of the three days, for the most part.
By this point the big city we’d left two days ago has begun to feel like a far away memory. We criss-crossed the pastoral landscape riding west to rejoin the Willamette river. Along the way we passed back over the interstate as well as the train tracks that brought us down. Each day, only one Amtrak train intersects the route in each direction. We came to the right place at the wrong time for a meeting.

See you in a couple days, train

Thanks to our early start, we were in no hurry. Of course on a bicycle tour, the entire point is that the journey is the destination. We savored the feeling of gliding across the countryside splashed with green and gold.

Each box is home to thousands of bees

The only interruption came when the route forced us to cross highway 210. When the chance arrived, we took a deep breath and darted over the 6 lanes of high-speed traffic to safety.

Look many times before crossing!

Back Door to Albany

Thankfully this bit of risk-taking was the climax of our excitement for quite a while, and we soon returned to the tranquil backroads. We passed by a small blueberry farm that we couldn’t help ourselves from pillaging (Bryant Family Farm). These berries were even heartier and juicier than the ones we picked the day before, and the owners even kept a bike rack on the farm. With the mid-afternoon sun scorching a hole through the clouds, we took our spoils and continued onward.

Mirror-like water in the river

We abruptly emerged from the tree-covered riverside path directly into downtown Albany. The sudden and surprising transition from rural to urban made me feel like we’d entered through a secret back door. We fueled up at a famous fried fowl fast-food spot and finished the day riding across the town to our hotel for the night.