Friday 12/24/2004

Today I got up early ate a yogurt and hit the road. The plan today was to head out from my parents place in Keizer, and do a loop through silver creek falls state park. Like many winter mornings the Willamette valley was socked in with a cold misting fog. By the time I'd hit the city of Silverton, a thin layer of ice had formed around the front of the break levers. Not far out of Silverton, the road turns up and climbs up to the park. Well about a third of the way up, it got really foggy and very cold as I entered the low lying clouds. Just as I neared the top of the climb, the sun started to poke through and the ice that had formed on the bike began to melt. Continuing to climb up, I broke free of the clouds, and into a very blue sunny day. I road through the park’s north entrance. On passing out the south entrance, I could look out over the city of Salem, and could see just the capital and a Catholic Church steeple poking out above the clouds. On my return, before descending back through the clouds I flatted, by the time I'd fixed it I'd cooled off a little. I got quite cold on the decent. On entering Salem, I road through the city and headed over the bridge to west Salem, to ride up the west side of the river, through Willamette mission park and back home. By the time I got back I'd been gone about 5 hours, done I estimate ~70 miles, and ate 3 -4 energy bars and two bottles of Perpetuem.