Day 37: Home to Oakland

July 26, 2006

I got on the road at 9 AM after a long conversation with a guy who sold his house in Aspen and retired early (like me, except I never had a house in Aspen!). Today I have a long day to get home. I was hoping to get on the road earlier.

Getting through the 2 miles of gravel was very easy. Then 3 miles down forest road 34 past Toketee reservoir to highway 138. Highway 138 is more downhill than uphill but the headwind cancelled out much of that advantage. The road has some good views of the North Umpqua river but not as good as the views I had going the opposite direction on days 1 and 2 of this trip. I saw several rafts and kayaks on the river.

Unique rock formation over the North Umpqua river.

The weather was sunny with low humidity but I could feel the temperature rising as I dropped in elevation. I decided I could spare the time to hike to Fall Creek falls.

I hiked a mile each way to see Fall Creek falls. The lower tier drops 50 feet.

I waded into the plunge pool to get a closer view of drips near the top of Fall Creek falls.

Just past the town of Glide I turned onto North Bank road which is 17 miles of big hills. It was interesting to note that the hillsides were green on day 1 of the tour but brown now.

The hills over North Bank road are much more brown than on day 1 of this tour.

North Bank road ends in Wilbur where I turned north on highway 99. It's not a particularly scenic road because most of it has I-5 on one side and a railroad track on the other side. But it's the way home...

Wilbur Methodist church was built in 1853.

Approaching my home of Oakland on highway 99.

Downtown Oakland. The storefronts were built in the 1890's after the original wood buildings burned.

I got home in Oakland (430 feet elevation) at 7:35 PM, just a few minutes before sunset. It was another hot day with the temperature in the upper 90's F. But at least the humidity was low. The 2100 foot net elevation drop made today's distance fairly easy.

Distance: 76.3 mi. (122 km)

Climbing: 1630 ft. (494 m)

Average Speed: 10.8 mph (17.3 km/h)

Maximum Speed: 39.0 mph (62.4 km/h)

Today's ride: 76 miles (122 km)
Total: 1,765 miles (2,840 km)

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