Sounds like a fun trip Toast. Glad you made it safely those last 30 miles, must’ve been a little hairy. I hate riding outside the city at night.
awesome. 
There are three on the Willamette actually. I’m guessing you took the Canby Ferry by your route above. There is another, Wheatland, on the west side of I-5 north of Salem and one south of Salem, the Buena Vista.
Sick trip, Toast. Thanks for the recap. I am super jealous.
return trip-
i wasn’t gonna be having another 11pm arrival, so i set my alarm for 4:45 and figured i could get in thirty or so before sunrise. the problem? well, i set my alarm for pm. whoops. luckily i woke up on my own accord only an hour late, scarfed down some granola/banana/juice, and headed out the door. from the trip down, i learned to stop every 10 or 12 miles for a brief rest and snack, rather than try to go 20 or 30 straight then get unnecessarily hungry and thirsty and tired. i got to brownsville in just about 2hrs 20mins, so i figured i would be on a good pace to arrive within daylight, or at least to be within portland city limits with familiar well-lit streets by sunset.
i got fancy and took a few slightly different roads back… including an unnecessarily hilly road. i suppose if something is called “ridge road” (sand ridge road, to be exact), that might indicate that it takes you up and down a little bit. i also took one flat-out wrong turn, but wound up riding parallel to my planned route, off by only a few hundred yards, for like 15 miles straight.
the worst part was def. that the canby ferry was closed for MLK day. so i took 99E… which was good for the first few miles i was on it, then it dropped down to the side of the river, and i was given like 18 inches of shoulder while logging trucks whizzed by at 55mph. i was somewhat fine to do that downhill, since i was mostly visible in a white jacket with a bright blinky and reflective crap on my bag, and going 25mph myself would give drivers a little extra reaction time. in the flats or climbs, though, i unclipped and walked through mud/dirt/ditch/crap. ah well. kept me alive and with an intact bike, so it was probably a good decision. after that it was all familiar turf, kinda during rush hour around 5, 5:30, but not too bad. i got home and ate about three pounds of spaghetti, drank a bunch of water, and watched a little pro wrestling. and got on tarck.
random notes-
about 2/3rd of the way coming home, i passed a roadie group standing on the opposite side of the road. i let out a weary “hi!” as i was climbing and overheard “a (partyfoul)! how neat!” before i crested and dipped down out of their sight. aside from plenty of college kids in eugene, a few beat-up mtbs in random small towns, and one LOOK maybe a mile from my home, that was the only contact i had with other bikes all weekend. i immediately wished i had turned in to say hi to them, but i guess it wasn’t strong enough regret to make me want to turn around and go back uphill.
i don’t want to see another clif bar for a while. ha, i also had 8 mini butterfinger bars on the way down and 3 or 4 more on the way back up, though
i got free soup at a supermarket deli in silverton on the way down. tortellini alfredo probably wasn’t the best choice of flavor, though. and by free i mean i simply left without paying. maybe a mile after that, though, i turned into a goodwill to get a scarf. so i put $3 into their economy anyway.
i think my bike is too big. i don’t feel comfortable on the actual hoods, except for climbs and sometimes descents, so most of the time my hands are on the bends/elbows. this is with an 80mm stem, too.
my rolls saddle held up much better than the arione i had used for my last long fixed ride. comfy on my junk, word.
i had to walk twice each way- on the way down, about 20 miles in for some nasty climb that i wasn’t trying to attack with 110 more ahead of me, then on one stretch of pitch-black road south of brownsville. on the way back… one absurd four-block hill just north of scio that caught me completely off-guard, then on 99E in order to not get ran over.
this was fun but would be even more amazing with warmer, longer days and panniers. and i think that is all.
