Irish Bend

March 7, 2022

Team Anderson has done a decent job with managing its planned evacuation of the apartment they’ve been staying at for the last month. Panniers are packed and ready for travel, save for things that are needed on the road this week; and most belongings that will be staying behind for the year are piled in a neat heap in the corner. Scott collects them all and heads out in the Raven to drop them off at the bike locker and storage unit while Rocky finishes cleaning up the apartment.

Finally, we grab what’s left and head down to the car when we slam up against a last-minute snag: we can’t drop off the keys to the apartment. The instructions are to leave them in the lock box on a fence across the street, but when we get there we open up the email we received from our host this morning and see that she didn’t include the lock box combo.

Annoying, but we start scrolling through old emails for the one we received a month ago with our check-in instructions. Unfortunately it’s not there though. With some time on my hands last week I ruthlessly cleaned out about a million old emails, apparently including this one. Rachael phones the host, but she’s not receiving calls at the moment; but the text she sends next comes back soon enough with the needed info.

The code works, the lockbox opens; but it won’t close with the two sets of keys we’ve been given - they don’t fit. Rachael heads back up to the apartment to leave one there while I wait and stand guard over our belongings, and when she returns a few minutes later we finally succeed in dropping off the key and are finally free to leave town.

And in an averted near-disaster, I notice at the last minute that our copy of the entrance fob to Elizabeth’s condo (which we use to get access to her parking spot) was still attached to one of the key rings. If the lockbox had been just a bit larger it’s likely we would never know where that fob disappeared.

Waiting while Rachael drops off the second set of keys. At least it’s not raining!

Those who’ve been paying close attention will be surprised to learn that we’re driving to Corvallis today. Our original plan for this gap week was to drive up to Walla Walla for some biking there, but I always viewed that as a stretch goal. It’s still pretty early in the year and we’d have to be lucky to find good weather there.

We’ve been following the weather forecasts daily for over a week, and finally it became clear that Walla Walla was the wrong plan this year - still too cold, with even a chance of snow. So we scrap that and book a room in Hood River, which is much closer, at lower elevation, and has a more promising forecast.

Until Hood River’s weather takes a turn for the wetter too, so we change plans once more and book a room at the Corvallis Hotel, a renovated and rebranded downtown motel that offers a decent rate for the next five nights. But not for the sixth night that we’d also like, so we shrink our time down by a day and will return to Portland a day earlier than planned.

Whatever. It’s all good, and we’re happy to be heading south under clear skies on the reasonably short drive to Corvallis. We arrive before noon, register our car at the motel so we can leave it there even though we’re not booked in yet, and soon are biking east crossing the Willamette over the rickety Van Buren Bridge. It’s like revisiting an old friend, listening to its wooden planks rattle as we bike across.

This is likely our last chance to bike over this bridge. Built in 1913, it’s a bottleneck and no longer seismically safe. A project to replace it with a modern structure is planned to start next year.

We’re both excited about coming back to Corvallis for a few days. It’s one of the towns we holed up in for a month two years go as we hopped around trying to stay one step ahead of Covid. We were surprised by how attractive we found the town to be even under partial lockdown, and by what a good base for cycling it is. We arrive with a portfolio of about 20 day rides to choose from, and it’s easy to come up with the day’s route.

The ride begins with the familiar route east on the bike path paralleling US 20 for a couple of miles and then turning south to parallel the river on Peoria Road. About ten miles later we come to the small waterfront park/boat landing in Peoria and stop for lunch and pit stop. We’ve probably broken here at least a dozen times over the years - it was a traditional break point when we would occasionally bike south to Eugene for an overnighter.

Looking east across the river to Mary’s Peak, the dominant formation in the coast range in the mid-Willamette Valley. It looks like there is still a teensy bit of snow up at the summit.

First bald eagle, and only five miles into the ride. We’ll see if we can keep to that standard.

Our picnic table is showing a bit of new growth.

It’s nice to see the Riverside Church again.

We continue on south for a few miles more pushing into a modest headwind until we come to Irish Bend Loop, a quiet side road that branches off to touch the river at the 90 degree elbow bend that gives the road its name. The road our Garmin has us mapped to doesn’t actually exist any more, as part of it has been washed away at the eroding bend in the river. It’s pretty cycling, but the big surprise for me is the views to the east. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a spot in the Willamette Valley where you could see the peaks of all of the Three Sisters, poking up above from the east side of the Cascade Range.

For the Outbuilding Challenge. Dog house? Tiny house? While I’m taking this shot an enraged German Shepard lunges at me from his side of a fence, and a voice yells you “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” The risks I take for this challenge!

I’m surprised that you can see all three of the Three Sisters from here.

Another view. From this angle you get a fair view of the Middle Sister, in the middle.

Our Garmins map us down this road, which no longer exists much past the sign. Too cold for a swim today, so we elect to stay on the pavement instead.

I’ve spent most of my photo budget by now and when The Whip doubles back at me on Lake Creek Drive to get me back on task I know the game is up for the day. We bike pretty much without stopping all the way back to Corvallis, keeping a brisk pace once we get past an unexpected mile and a half of gravel that RideWithGPS didn’t warn us off from, and make it back just past four. Along the way I from time to time point out an attractive viewpoint or feature, which she reacts to with an uninterested ‘yeah’. She knows if she shows any enthusiasm I’m likely to stop for a quick shot, so she’s not biting. A chastened good boy now, I don’t even stop when I see a second bald eagle flying low overhead.

And, a few miles later I don’t even stop to document a first in our cycling experience when a small but obnoxious dog runs out to attack us on otherwise quiet Church Road. I shout at him several times to ward him off, but to no effect. Then a third voice breaks the silence: a heavily bearded man, the apparent owner, shouts out from his porch “He’s deaf! The dog is deaf!” Well, no wonder he’s deaf. Fortunately he’s slow besides, and we have no difficulty dropping him. Good plan, letting your deaf dog run free!

OK, you’ve had your fun for the day. Scoot, Scooter!

RideWithGPS claims that aptly named Malpass Road is paved - but trust the name, not the app. It does give us a very nice view of the Halsey pulp mill though, the dominant landscape feature in the heart of the valley.

Back on pavement, we race into the wind for the next fifteen miles.

For a day that begins wierdly, it ends the same way. We were hustling back to the motel so we could get to Murphy’s on the River before it got too crowded, but we needn’t have bothered. They don’t answer their phone, and when we drive by they’re not open in spite of their posted hours as one of the few places in town open on Monday night. I wonder if they’ve gone under?

So we call up our second choice for tonight’s meal : Lupe’s, a Mayan/Central American cafe that serves Poc Chuc, something the Grampies can critique once we make it over there. But they don’t answer the phone either. So we drive over to our last fall back choice, Cibelli’s Pizza; but the sign in their door says they’re closed today too. Three restaurants allegedly open on Monday, but all closed! Very discouraging.

As a last resort we end up in the local McMinamin’s, always a reliable and predictable option. Not quite the meal either of us imagined for tonight, but good enough. And their list of rotating taps is impressive.

What’s left of a 5th Floor IPA. We could have seen the whole deal but Rachael hogged the phone trying to make a reservation for tomorrow.

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Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 2,486 miles (4,001 km)

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