Day 24 and 25 Junction City to Eugene and a rest day in Eugene: Planning to not be in the area for the eclipse

July 27, 2017

We woke up refreshed from a great sleep at the Territorial BnB and enjoyed a perfect breakfast of yogurt, fresh fruit and granola before saying goodbye to our wonderful host, Mary.

The ride into Eugene was pretty straightforward and uneventful. We stopped a couple of times to take pictures, one of a squash that we couldn't identify

And another to catch a field of mint being watered. I loved the smell of mint in the air and Jim was concentrating on capturing the rainbow made by the sprinkler. Funny, the best rainbow shot came from my phone just as we were heading out!

Down the road a ways, we came upon a Christmas Tree farm.

too early to pick out our tree? Only 150 days until Christmas!

We rode past a large fruit stand and didn't intend on stopping, but were caught off guard by the smell of fresh caramel corn wafting over the air. Too late! We were already past, but we vowed to stop at the next one we saw to see if there was any caramel corn to be had. Just down the road we spotted Thistledown, another large farm market. We peeled off and went in to investigate. Yes, they did in fact have caramel corn, but the fresh peaches on display won out. We retired to their little garden outside to enjoy our juicy, tasty treat before once again heading off to town.

A great place to buy fruit, vegetables and all sorts of hazelnut related things!

As we entered Eugene, I stopped to check for routes to our hotel. We had an option to stay on the somewhat busy road we were currently on or to take a little longer on a trail. No question there - we found the turn and moved over to the most beautiful trail we have seen yet. Sorry, Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, Eugene has taken the lead for the most amazing city riding! The Ruth Bascom Riverbank Path System runs along right through the city out to the University of Oregon. We were able to ride on this trail to within a km of our downtown hotel and it was heavenly. We were in a park the entire way through!

Leaving the trail, we headed towards our hotel. A passing cyclist stopped to chat with us about our travels. We told her we wanted to check on routing with a local bike shop or two and she said to check out Arriving By Bike, where she had experienced great service. We thanked her for her advice and quickly found our hotel, checked in and headed out to find this shop. We had been dithering about which route to take from Eugene to the coast and wanted the opinion of some local cyclists who would have ridden either of the routes more recently. The folks at Arriving By Bike were very helpful, not only answering a few questions we had about equipment (remember Jim's chain - we are still not sure about all that) and routing. They recommended the Wolf Creek/Smith River Road route as the most enjoyable and safest. Stopping by a second shop (after a quick iced coffee at..you guessed it, Starbucks) this route was also recommended by a young man who had ridden it several times recently. Great! Decision made!

We had expected our planning to take much longer, so found ourselves with an extra day in Eugene so we decided to spend the evening exploring a local brew pub's fare and then the next day taking a scenic ride along the Riverside Path again.

Our second day began with our short but lovely ride. We went out to the University grounds and over a pedestrian bridge where we came around the corner to find the stadium for the University of Oregon Ducks. Now, I am a big University of Washington fan and Jim a MIchigan Wolverine, so it was a little hard for us to say this, but wow! The grounds around this place are beaufiful and I can imagine how pleasant it would be to walk over to a game from the University grounds. It is pretty nice down here in Duck Country, I have to say!

There is a lovely rose garden in the park as well

Finishing our ride, we dropped off the bikes at our room and went for a stroll to find some coffee and pastries. We looked around at some of the local shops and were particularly intrigued by the woodwork in a little shop callled Out On A Limb. There were so many little pieces of wood with inspirational (and sometimes very silly) quotes on them, as well as some beautiful tables that we were quite taken with - too bad we have no room in our panniers!

This one is for all of my teacher friends!!!

We had a short nap back at the hotel before wandering over to the 5th Street Market. There are some pretty nice little shops in here

wondering if my brother, Tom would like this for Christmas

What? How are these two pillows next to eachother??? It became obvious when we looked at the next one over - it was a Beaver pillow. Ah...the Husky pillow was there to separate those two!

Hey Annie, I think you need these in your new house!!

A glass of wine was enjoyed at the Sweet Cheeks Winery store while we listened to a local musician, then it was off to Ambrosia where we at outside and had a great dinner.

Tomorrow we are up early early to head out to the cost. Given our pace over the last little bit, we are not sure if we will manage this part in two or three days. As there are no services, we are packing plenty of food and water to tide us over. Wish us luck!

Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 868 km (539 miles)

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