Kicking it in Corvallis

Since arriving in Corvallis, I’ve had the opportunity to do a few great rides. The first one I did was to tackle Mary’s Peak. Mary’s Peak is quite cool, its one of the highest hill/mountains in the coastal range, rising from around 300ft (Corvallis) to a height well over 4,000ft in elevation (summit). As a total added bonus round trip from my apartment is right around 50 miles making it a logistically easy climb to do even in the evening. After my first NWTTS time trial I’d headed out to climb it but ran out of time and only makeing it up to the cut off from the hwy 34 at ~1,200ft. On my first attempt since moving to Corvallis, I started up late in the afternoon only to run thin on day light. On my next attempt, I left an hour earlier and had enough time to easily make the summit. Climbing up to the summit the road twists and climbs through an forest of evergreens which every now and then open up offering majestic views of the coastal range. At the summit, the forest gives way to open grassland. The paved road itself ends in a parking lot with a dirt road extending down from the actual summit. Pretending I was on my cyclocross bike I climbed up the dirt road to reach the actual summit.

The decent off Mary’s Peak does deserve a special mention. At some points on the way down the road gets quite twisty and is dotted with suggested speed signs. But the road is so amazingly banked that the corners feel less like hwy corners and more like corners on a velodrome allowing them to be hit easily at full speed.

Go Beavers