The View From Here - a blog

The only way is up – 03/11/2024

Since 2000, most years I’m lucky enough to visit the Pacific North-West to spend time with my family. To make things even better – and retain my sanity – I do a fair amount of cycling out there. Out there being Salem, Oregon. Capital city of the beaver state, which boasts mountains, lakes, rivers, coast and so much forest. I keep a road bike at my in-law’s house and have just updated it with lower gears it by “remote control,” as I wrote in my last post, Long Distance Love Affair.

Family fun and catch ups aside, I like to organise a good regular set of rides for myself, join a group ride if I can, explore some new routes, enjoy my favourite old routes and, dates of travel allowing, enter an event ride. We’re over later in the summer than on any previous trip, and for an event there was the aptly-named Harvest Century on the last day of our upcoming visit. I entered.

This is typical of the rolling terrain around southeast Salem

After arriving and unpacking the very next thing to do – obviously – is to rebuild the bike. This time my bike is somewhat altered having an entirely new compact drive chain fitted. In short, lower, easier gears. From London I’d also brought some bits and bobs that were going unused to further upgrade it: new GP5000 tyres, a Fizik saddle and matching saddlebag, plus Campagnolo Zonda wheels. I put it all together, gave the bike a wipe down and admired the handywork. It cost me more than I had reckoned, but I hoped it was worth it for a bike that I rode for three weeks of the year.

Three weeks. But a really good three weeks. Usually we stay with my in-laws on the east side of Salem in the Four Corners neighbourhood. Head east and you are in typical Willamette Valley farmland. It’s mainly long gentle rises and flowing flat roads through fields growing hazelnuts or hops or Christmas trees. Then there are horses and other livestock. It is mellow fare and I’ve gotten used to it. Maybe too used to it, because this year for various reasons we are staying in south-east Salem and it’s a little different.

The only way is up in south-east Salem

I plan a few routes in advance on the other side of town and after a reasonable first night’s sleep I head out for a typical 25 miles of a loosener. Within a mile I’m on Rees Hill Road, a climb that itself is a mile long and tops out at 17%. 17%! Some warm up, I think to myself. I soon assess the surrounding area to our new accommodation. Hills, hills and more hills. This 25 miles had close to 2,500ft of elevation gain; the so-called golden ratio. When I get back to base – later than I’d planned – I look through my other planned routes and take a breath. They are all golden ratio, ie 100 feet of climbing per mile. This is going to be interesting, I reflect. And I feel completely justified, validated and relieved to have a set of easier gears.

For my local rides I start to play around with heading towards different compass points, but the simple fact is that we’re right in the middle of lots of big bumps. I resign myself to a three-week climb-fest and how good it will be for me to have to work a bit harder that I usually do.

Hills apart, it’s still all farmland and forest. The highlights included taking the Buena Vista Ferry for the first time. I’d done the more northerly Wheatland Ferry and that got me super excited when instead of an arrow, my Garmin sat nav gave me the picture of a boat and the words “Wheatland Ferry.” I’m using a Hammerhead Karoo and it doesn’t do this trick.

It costs $1 to cross the Willamette River on the Buena Vista Ferry

Another high was the climb up towards Mt Jefferson heading along the Breitenbush River from our camp site at Deroit Lake. And the decent was delicious. There’s quite a bit of burn from the big 2020 wildfires, which was really sad. Thankfully, there’s still plenty of terrain that’s not burnt. There was about half a mile of grasshoppers all across the road, bouncing up and pinging off my legs, which was bit weird. And there’s the view at the top. And the decent is incredible. It’s 16 miles up, but 16 miles down, you drop 2,000ft and there’s almost no motor vehicles and it’s not at all technical. 45 minutes of bliss.

The big burn of 2020 has left many roads closed in the Mt Jefferson Wilderness

At the top of my Breitenbush climb

One time in the south-east Salem hills I came across something new. New to me, anyway. I’d spotted a coyote early on in my ride and then I saw three large looking birds about 200m up the road. I stopped. Be gentle, Dave, I thought. Be quiet and let the birdies come to you. One looked a bit like a peacock from distance with larger plumage. The feathered trio started towards me. These birds were not at all shy, they were absolutely legging it towards me.

Three little birds on the horizon. Or are they?

When they were 20m away I got out my phone to take a picture. I snapped them at 10m and at 5m, which them still charging towards me, I thought better of hanging around and sped off. What the heck were they? At home I Googled and it turns out they were wild turkeys. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. These were Merriam’s wild turkeys, they love living in pine trees and the males can grow to 20lbs in weight. Apparently, despite their weight, wild turkeys, unlike their domesticated counterparts, are agile, fast fliers. Maybe next time I’ll see a wild turkey fly.

This was close enough for me

One of the Salem bike shops, Scott’s Cycles, has a Tuesday and Thursday evening group ride. It’s always very friendly, has a mix of ability and fitness and three routes. North, south and east. They don’t go west. It’s north the night I go. Up through the pleasant suburb of Keizer, past the baseball stadium and out on to some very flat farm terrain. The pace is a bit spicy, in truth. I can usually push it at the front of there rides, but I’m distinctly mid-pack this time around. And that might be an overestimation.

A quick regroup halfway round on the Scott's Cycles ride

As the holiday winds down, I decide to take a couple of days off the bike before the Harvest Century. I haven’t done 100 miles for a while. I did RideLondon two years ago on a tandem with +RichardM but my last solo Imperial century was before the pandemic. Gulp. I was getting nervous. I yo-yoed between doing the metric and Imperial century route.

Despite being 40 mins drive away, I still needed a car. As this was the last day of our trip, Angie, my wife, has planned to drive up to Portland with our sons to see some cousins we hadn’t managed to spend time with yet. I reached out to some Salem Strava groups and a email group figuring someone would be going there and I could catch a ride. No luck. Except a guy called Chris, who lived in Estacada on the other side of Molalla and therefore couldn’t offer a lift – offered for me to join his group. Liftwise, I forgot to ask my father-in-law if I could borrow his truck. Doh! “Of course you can have it,” he said. Sorted.

I arrive at Molalla at dawn for an early start

Chris taught in a Molalla school and knew the area well. To do 100 miles you have to do the smaller Challenge Route (37 miles) first, followed by the Imperial Century Route. Chris said his local knowledge suggested to do it the other way around. I figured I’d do the 100km and finish. No more yo-yo thinking on distances. When I get there and get registered, it turns out Chris’s group consists of him and one buddy and they are going to do the 37 miles then the 100km. Okay, I’m in for 100 miles.

My new riding buddies, Chris on the right

There’s only 5,000ft of climbing overall, but half of it is front-loaded in the 37-mile Challenge route. I take it steady and plan to do so throughout. I’m middle strength out of the three of us. Chris is the strongest and rides very generously. I cruise around mainly on his rear wheel, except for the climbs, where he just floats up and away from me seemingly without effort. He’s started racing gravel events this year - the Oregon Triple Crown Series - and in his very first he claimed third in his age group and you can see why.

Cruising into the finish I’m looking forward to the apres ride provision. West Coast cycle events – or as they say, bike events – are typified by excellent food provision. I’ve done the Blackberry bRamble a couple of times. That goes out of Eugene and you get blackberry pie and ice cream, plus a beer at the finish. The Portland Century, which seems to be in hiatus right now, was known as the gourmet century. There were well-stocked food stops every 15 miles, and, I kid you not, the final one being pizza. Then, if you’ve got an any space left in your tummy, you get a three-course meal with a beer. The Harvest Century had options for a sandwich lunch and a meal at the finish. I’d ticked both boxes and paid the uplift.

The Harvest meal I’ve bought into is brats and every kind of salad you can think of. There’s also two beers included. I pick a tasty IPA and have a friendly chat and a bit of a boogie with my riding buddies and their families. I can only handle one brew as I’ve go to drive the truck back 30-miles from Molalla to Salem. For all my anxiety about riding 100 miles for the first time in a while, I feel pretty good. How you feel the day after is usually the big indicator of endurance fatigue, but I feel fine. Just as well, because we are flying back to the UK and that is a big day.

A well earned brew at the finish

Sure, I love my cycling and I always get some extra mileage from my usual on our US trips, but we’ve done plenty of other stuff, too. Camping in the foothills of the Cascades and on the coast, fishing in Detroit Lake, crabbing in Waldport, hiking up to Marion Lake, sampling IPAs, interning my mother-in-law’s ashes, family BBQs (there were a few) and more generally getting “Oregonized” and sucking up the local vibe. If you like the outdoor life and get the chance to visit Oregon, Washington or northern California, take and bike and take in the wider lifestyle, you will not regret it.

Camping and cycling are a killer combo - this is the Detroit Lake State Park