Day 4: Brownsville to Lebanon

June 23, 2022

I had a breakfast burrito at the downtown coffee shop 2 blocks from my room. I finally left my room at 9:45, but spent another few minutes wandering around Brownsville.

Northern Road wasn't especially scenic coming into Brownsville, so I decided to cross the river and return to Crawfordsville on OR 228 just to see something different. It has moderate traffic, but has a barely usable shoulder.

I didn't cross the river yesterday. I was surprised to see that Brownsville has more historic buildings across the river from downtown. 1890's churches were the most notable old buildings.

OR 228 has more traffic than Northern Road, but it's flatter and shorter. It's more in the middle of the valley, with better views of the surrounding hills.

I had never seen this white flowering crop before. Later I learned it's radish seed. The Willamette Valley grows 1/4 of the world's radish seeds.

I took a short stop at Crawfordsville Covered Bridge to see it in different light compared to yesterday.

I passed by Crawfordsville Covered Bridge again. The sign is faintly readable.

Then I turned off OR 228 onto Crawfordsville Drive which is a great cycling route. Low traffic. Narrow road. First through farms. Then the valley narrows and the road climbs steadily alongside the Calapooia River.

Crawfordsville Drive. Sometimes narrower is better.

Crawfordsville Drive and Calapooia River.

After climbing for miles, Crawfordsville Drive only descended 30 feet to connect to OR 228. From there OR 228 climbs 300 feet at 6-7% grade before descending to Sweet Home. Traffic was heavy, the road is winding with poor visibility, and there is no shoulder. I think it was the most dangerous road segment of this tour. Today's route is about 2/3 quiet back roads and 1/3 busy narrow highways.

In Sweet Home I turned onto city streets to go east to a city park that has a covered bridge. The park is hard to find but it's a real jewel with a great playground, creek, covered bridge, and accessible forest.

Enchanted forest playground in Sweet Home adjacent to Weddle Covered Bridge.

Weddle Covered Bridge is a great specimen. I like the wide open view because it has no wall boards at all. The park is very nice, but Sweet Home is a struggling former sawmill town with many social problems. This is the only covered bridge I saw with gates that are locked at night.

If this bridge is opened and closed every day, I wonder why the roll gate at Lowell Covered Bridge (day 2) couldn't also be opened and closed daily?

Weddle Covered Bridge. Built in 1937 over Thomas Creek near Scio. Moved to a park in Sweet Home in 1990.

Weddle Covered Bridge is one of only a handful of covered bridges that have been disassembled, then reassembled in a faraway place. I like the idea of moving an old but very big covered bridge to a city park where more people can appreciate it.

See-thru Weddle Covered Bridge and Ames Creek.

Weddle Covered bridge is open for pedestrian and bicycle traffic but it doesn't really serve a useful transportation purpose. It connects a major city park to the back of the high school athletic fields. One side of the bridge is just a sea of mowed grass.

I like the wide open view with no wall boards.

150 feet downstream of Weddle Covered Bridge is Dahlenburg mini covered bridge. The 1989 date indicates that it was built just before Weddle bridge was moved to the park. It's impressive for a high school shop project. The mini bridge is now gated to keep people out. It was probably a hangout for homeless people. Too bad it has to be locked up.

Dahlenburg mini covered bridge is a 1989 high school shop project 150 feet away from Weddle covered bridge. Built on an old millrace.

I detoured a few blocks to downtown Sweet Home just to have a quick look. It has a strip of impressive annual flowers. And I had my only distant view of Mt. Jefferson during this tour. I stopped for lunch at Subway.

A peek of snow covered Mt. Jefferson in downtown Sweet Home.

A few blocks west of downtown I stopped to see still another mini covered bridge. Whittemore Bridge is another high school shop project built in 1990. It's smaller than Dahlenburg mini bridge, but still open to the public. In fact it's the main entrance to a small city park. It crosses a deeply eroded seasonal creek that was still flowing thanks to recent rains.

Whittemore mini covered bridge is a 1990 high school shop project that crosses a seasonal creek and is the main entrance to a Sweet Home city park.

I followed back roads from Sweet Home to Lebanon. The back roads are north of the South Santiam river. Longer, hillier, and more scenic than busy US 20 south of the river. I enjoyed the river views, and was conscious that I was riding out of the Cascade Range foothills into a big flat wide valley.

First view of South Santiam river looking upstream.

South Santiam river looking downstream as it slices through a lava flow.

McDowell Creek looks impressive flowing rapidly in a narrow rocky channel. My original plan was to pedal 5 miles up McDowell creek and hike a 1.6 mile trail to waterfalls. I decided to abort that plan because it was already past 3 PM and I don't want to get too tired. The next two days will be the most challenging days of the tour. I think it was the right decision.

McDowell creek flowing into South Santiam river.

I had great views of the South Santiam river when crossing into Lebanon.

South Santiam river in Lebanon, looking upstream.

South Santiam river in Lebanon, looking downstream. In a wide valley now.

I spent a few minutes looking around downtown Lebanon before continuing half a mile south to my motel. I was surprised to see a farmer's market still operating at 4:30 PM.

Downtown Lebanon looks okay. It reminds me of my county seat of Roseburg. Lebanon is bigger than Sweet Home but it also has a reputation as a struggling former sawmill town with many social problems.

Tonight's home is Shanico Motel. It's the nicer of two motels in Lebanon but I would rate it as a 1-star motel. $83, cheapest night of the tour. Dinner was at the diner next door.

Today was sunny with a high of 75F (24C). Perfect. A missed turn added 3 flat easy miles to today's plan. Forested areas have mosquitoes. First mosquitoes I've noticed so far.

Today was more interesting than I expected. I thought it might be boring with only one "new" covered bridge. But it had many good farm and river views. Sweet Home and Lebanon were interesting towns that I had never seen before.

Distance: 39.8 mi. (63.7 km)
Average Speed: 9.0 mph (14.4 km/h)
Ascent/Descent: +1217/-1213 ft. (+371/-370 m)

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 166 miles (267 km)

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