South Sister Road to Eugene ( Armitage Co.Park).

Back again! I Head out early as the day  dawns. I've seen signs here and there: "CTR", "Legacy", and "RIDE". I'm still trying to figure out if they connect to some organized rides. I'm pretty much all aloneup here, riding along in the middle of the woods.Now I'm starting to climb, I've just passed a quarry, where all the gravel trucks I've seen have been going.  I'm climbing seriously, a steady steep grade. A lot of recent clear-cutting trashes my beautiful views, as I attain Ox-bow Pass. Then there's a swift descent (hang on to your handle-bars!). Then eventually after awhile I come to a junction . There is a large wooden map of the area:  the Siuslaw River Rd. and Wolf Creek Rd. are carved on it. Unfortunately,  my intended route Siuslaw River Rd. is closed between MPs 15 & 16. So I take Wolf Creek Road ( more direct to Eugene). Wolf Creek Rd. involves another good climb and there are more log trucks, but lucky for me I can hear them coming miles away and have time to pull off the road. A little raccoon was not so lucky. At the highway I turn left and after a few flat miles, I take Crow Road. Here Again I run into the summer road crews. I always go right up to the flagger, who explains  the safest way to proceed. After Crow Rd, I took Hwy 123 to a stop-light, then left, and left again onto Ferncliff Lane Bike Trail to downtown, through the Willow Creek Natural Area and Amazon Creek. This area preserves the "wet prairie" which used to predominate this area, but now makes up less than 1 % of the terrain. This important habitat for may-flies, dragon-flies, Dobsen-flies (larvae called Hellgrammites), giant water bugs, stone-flies, beaver, nutria, red fox, etc. Amazon Creek got it's name because it used to flood all the time. From 1913 til 1996 they chopped, mowed, scraped, dug, and concreted. Now they're trying to restore things. We so often learn the hard way. Down-town I found a food truck "Chatyo" and had Thai pumpkin curry ( go for less spicy!). I went to the library at 10th and Charnelton where I found a really nice Eugene Bike Map. After inquiring at Hutch Bike Shop re the best route out of town, I got back on the road. Following Coburg Road, at the Mckenzie River, I found Armitage Co. Park. They have Hiker-Biker camping for $16/night, including showers and laundry. It's a big beautiful park along-side of the McKenzie River and a good spring board for the next stretch of my journey up the Willamett Valley. Lot's of birds to see (great Blue Heron, ducks, grackles,osprey,king-fishers...), many people fishing, nice and shady under  old Big-Leaf Maples with crazy massive branches. Later I listened to Kutsinhira Marimba Band playing for a company picnic. They had more of an African sound. Check them out www.kutsinhira.org. I picked up a quote somewhere: "Many  go all their lives fishing, without knowing that it is not the fish they are after" (Thoreau). I'm taking that to mean, that when you're exploring you should be open to whatever shows up around that next corner. And now to sleep.