We had a great stay in Portland and were so grateful to be able to spend time with family. The city is beautiful and we loved the bike infrastructure made it super safe and easy to get around town.
We’ve never seen so many cyclists out and about—it was amazing.
Heading out of Portland, we took the Springwater Corridor Trail and the Trolley Trail toward our next destination in historic Champoeg State Park and the beginning of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway.
The trail system takes you right out of the city into towns like Milwaukee, Gladstone, Oregon City, and beyond. Oregon City kindly provided us with some massive hills, but the weather and the countryside were absolutely stunning.
Once we got out of Canby, we took a quick water break and grabbed some produce and fresh baked banana bread.
It was a good thing too because the general store near the park in Butteville was closed. (Seriously, who closes shop at 1pm?) Champoeg showcases a lot of deep Oregon history, so if you’re into that stuff, you should definitely check it out. Our campsite was lovely and we had a spot under the trees.
Champoeg is also the start of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway, the first official Scenic Bikeway in the United States. We found quiet country roads through farmland on the way to Salem—there were TONS of blueberries, hazelnuts, and hops.
The bikeway takes you right through Salem, through some older, historic neighborhoods, the capitol building, Willamette University, Bush Gardens, and more before kicking you out onto the route to Independence, where we’d camp for the night.
Beautiful this time of year with the fall colors, it felt very sleepy.
We arrived in small, historic town of Independence mid afternoon and quickly found a place to grab some food and electrolytes before setting up camp at the boater / biker camp that was just a couple of blocks away. It was a cool place to camp but also a little weird because we were just sleeping in the town park on the river. Weirdness aside, you can’t beat the $10 price tag.
The next day we headed down to Albany-Corvallis area to another campsite. We enjoyed unseasonably warm weather and felt lucky to be out. Our campsite gave us a nice place to relax and grab a shower.
This was our last day of pedaling before arriving in Eugene. We left early and headed for our camp at Armitage Park Campground in Colburg. There was a ton of fog and the day was full of some really challenging hills on quiet roads. Before coming into the last stretch, we stumbled upon a converted gas station (now burger shack), complete with Tesla charging stations. And we treated ourselves to a lager and some killer onion rings. We earned them, right?
After about 50 miles, Armitage Park was a good place for us to stop. This last stretch proved to be the most challenging—with the most climbing—and after 4 days of 40-50 milers, we were ready for a rest. We are both really looking forward to our upcoming rest in Eugene.
Looks beautiful! Especially that pizza. Its almost 10 am in the morning now and I am thinking about pizza. You are doing it! Way to go!