Another ride that exhausts a modest vocabulary of superlatives. This one suggested by Dave Abrecht.
The Row River Trail is 17 miles of paved, mostly flat surface that takes you to three of the covered bridges near Cottage Grove, OR, passed Dorena lake, up into the foothills.
Once the clouds had parted, it was in the mid-70s, with a moderate westerly breeze. Heaven for bike riding.
Most of the covered bridges in mid-Oregon were built in the first part of the 20th century, the earliest in 1920, the latest (surprisingly) 1948.
Quite a few are scattered around Cottage Grove, a not very prosperous town that sits along the Willamette River.
There is a website that has details on biking the covered bridges, but the best way to get yourself situation is to visit the Visitor Information office that’s part of the Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce, ask for their bicycle map of the Row River and for their map of the Cottage Grove covered bridges.
You can park in the library lot, or the municipal lot a block away, and bicycle the three blocks to the trailhead. Afterward we tried a Mexican restaurant across the street that advertised $4.95 lunches with soda. The food was great, but the bill came to about $16! (We didn’t argue. It was worth at least that much.)
The Row River Trail. Add it to your list of must-do rides in the Northwest.
