Crater Lake Bike Tour

Steamboat to Eugene — Saturday September 7, 2002 | Next

Our last day with Bicycle Adventures involved a short 30 mile ride on highway 138 along the Umpqua River to Glide. Although the rain from the day before had cleared out, the "mist" of the wildfire smoke hung in the valley. We rode past a tent city where the fire fighters camped. I had read that this road had been closed several weeks before as they battled the nearby Apple and Tiller Complex fires. We lucked out in having an open road. Supposedly the stretch was downhill but we pedalled most of the way. The landscape became more open, with what looked like hay fields.

A few miles from the end of the ride, Bruce discovered a nail sticking out of his tire, just after we had told the sag wagon not to worry about us. Bruce was afraid to pull out the nail so continued to ride towards lunch at a furious pace, intending to get there before his tire went flat. We passed 4 other riders, but managed to spy some deer and wild turkey as we blazed by. Bruce made it to lunch with the nail still impaled in his tire. It had missed the tube. One last lunch at the Whistler's Bend riverside park, group photo, and then we were in the vehicles heading back to Eugene.

We said goodbye to our cycling comrades in Eugene and everyone went their different ways. We enjoyed the bike tour and our companions very much. Now we had separation anxiety. We'd be on our own for meals and activities in Eugene! Pete and Beth wouldn't be telling us what to do anymore. They had been capable and informative guides. We were glad not to have had to avail ourselves of Pete's bike mechanic skills, other than some tweaking of Bruce's brakes. After major mechanical meltdowns on last year's ride in Utah, we had few difficulties this trip. Bruce pulled out the nail from his tire once we got back to Eugene and was good to go. He rode out to find some drinks and breakfast supplies for the next couple of days.

We walked downtown on the bike path for dinner at another brew pub and caught part of the U.S. Open Tennis match on TV at the bar. We each had a brew: Bruce had a beer and I had a root beer. Then we tried to figure out another way back across the river to the hotel, through the pitch black. We managed to wend our way through town to the riverside park and from there we followed the trail to the pedestrian bridge near the Valley River Inn. We rented the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" on the TV at the Inn.