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Blueberry Cafe Ride Report 2/16/02
Rider Photos - CLICK HEREEleven riders eventually came to Salem for the Blueberry Café ride. We were pleasantly surprised by beautiful sunny weather especially after gloomy weather reports from the night before. Never trust weather forecasts! We rode all day without so much as a drop of rain or even a headwind.
After filling up on blueberry pancakes, Liz, Larry, Bruce and ourselves were joined by friends, Rich and Gayle, David, Joe, and Roger and Sarah. The group split up occasionally during the first part of the ride as we climbed steadily towards the Cascade Highway. We appreciate how everyone regrouped at the top of the hill. After telling everyone they were done climbing for a while, we immediately headed up the next hill before descending into Silverton. We regrouped again at the town-square where we repaired a flat tire on Joe's bike. We took time to socialize and take everyone's picture at the "danger hill" sign because a 20 percent grade is much more fun to climb after you have completely cooled down!
"Danger Hill", the sign said on one side. "Slide at your own risk", it said on the other. Our fearless group ignored all warnings
and proceeded to climb Danger Hill. Just around the first turn, we were passed by Joe and David, sprinting on their half bikes.
They were followed by Roger and Sarah on their tandem. Soon after, Liz powered past us with so much force that we could feel the
wind at our backs. After that all we could hear were the moans of agony as the rest of our group climbed Danger Hill. Just then,
we passed Liz stopped on the hill. She was breathing hard and we thought that she had passed her anaerobic threshold, so we
continued ever upward.
We regrouped at the top. As soon as Rich and Gayle arrived, they informed us that Liz was having bike issues. We headed back down the hill to her rescue. It appeared that Liz had been pedaling so hard that she pulled her rear wheel out of the dropouts! We got her wheel straightening out and got to do part of the dreaded Danger Hill all over again. When we reached the top, everyone was there, still waiting for us. It was then that we knew what a fine group we had assembled.
Louie had warned the group of the bad roads they were about to encounter as they descended into Mt. Angel. Happily we had no accidents from the 2-mile section of giant bike eating cracks in the road all the way into town. Mt. Angel was our final regroup point. Most everyone took time to enjoy snacks and powder their noses. It was at this point that we considered slathering on the sun- screen, but we didn't. Little did we know the next day our noses would look like roses.
Back at the ranch, we all decided to have dinner at the local Mexican food restaurant. Still not satisfied, we waddled across the parking lot afterwards for pie. Now that we have undone all the good we did with the exercise, we will have to ride again next weekend. See you all down the road.
Blueberry Cafe Ride Report November 2000
The Blueberry Café, where Lycra meets leather, was the starting point for the November Blueberry ride. Tandems and Harleys cozied up together outside in the parking lot. Inside in the back room both bikers with tattoos and bikers without were served delicious blueberry pancakes. I half expected to see the old biker who painted the name on The Blueberry seated next to us. After filling our tummies we all walked outside to an unseasonably warm day. Except for the gold and red colors of the leaves we would have believed this to be summer. This was going to be a great day for a ride! Louie and I like to ride sweep so we let the others take off ahead of us. We want to be able to be there for anyone that might need some help along the ride. The first part of the ride took us up to a viewpoint where we could look down on a small valley. The trees were dressed in the autumn best and a mist hung in the air. I chatted happily as Louie took me up and down the rollers. It wasn't long before we came to Silverton and Danger Hill. No fooling. There is a big red sign that says, "DANGER," and another yellow one under that that says, "HILL." It has to be over a 10 percent grade. Louie loves going up so up we went. I huffed and puffed and pushed with all my might while Louie stood dancing on the pedals. Once to the top we wondered how many of the other riders would tackle the hill. (We had an alternate route for the faint of heart) Later we found out that most did. Good for them! I almost got a zitch (white horse), but it turned out to be a donkey. I can think of all kinds of puns I could use in this story about donkeys and such but I will spare you, though Louie did not spare me. After Danger Hill we rolled into Mount Angel and had some lunch in a gazebo in the park. It is such a cute town with a fountain in the middle of the main street. We met a man there who was riding a Friday. He was very into it and bike Tuesdays. He talked like Walter Cronkite and wore some vintage bike clothes. We think he must have been riding for many years. He was a bit on the cranky side so we could see why he was riding alone. We decided that he might have been cranky because the shorts he was wearing were so old that the padding had to be worn out. He said he saw a bunch of tandems going "that way" but didn't know for sure which way that was. He was very happy that he saw a Tandem Tuesday in the bunch. The rest of the ride was though mostly flat farm fields punctuated with blueberry fields. We stopped at one field and leaned The Blueberry up against a telephone pole. I held it steady while Louie climbed up on the seat and handle bar to take a picture of the Blueberry field for our web site. We will see how it comes out. There were all the spider webs with tiny spiders attached that were floating through the air. Occasionally one would hitch a ride. When I looked out in the field to the left of me, it looked as if the field was covered with silver lace as the spider silk glistened in the sun. All too soon the ride was done. I have no problem getting my self out to do a ride. My problem is stopping. I wanted to continue on down the road, but here we were back at the Blueberry Café. I hope everyone enjoyed the ride as much as we did and we see you all back out there on the next Blueberry ride.