Labor Day Cycle Ride with Eddie

 For a special Labor Day outing Eddie and I cycled the Ruth Bascom Bike Trail on our three wheeled tandem. To get to a nice starting point I loaded the bike-and-a-half onto our red car using a two-bike carrying rack. This is a handy device that folds and stores in the trunk when not in use. The photo make it look like Eddie's bike sticks out yards beyond the car but it doesn't.

 Having unloaded the bikes at our destination I discovered I had left this little widget behind, the locking pin that connects the two parts of our machine, so we had to drive two miles back to get it.

 Here's the assembled tandem with Eddie posing and eager to get started.

 A quick over-the-shoulder shot of Eddie, showing that she's looking everywhere and at everything as we go along. That's a nicer view than my rear end, I'm sure.

 Here's a much-fingered map of our trail, which runs along both sides of the Willamette River right through the heart of Eugene. All told it's about 14 miles long, and we did about 12 of those, missing the last mile and turn at the Knickerbocker Bridge next to the I-5.

 Downstream view at our first bridge, a tranquil scene though the Beltline Highway does provide a background rumble of traffic.

 Here's the same view zoomed in so you can see the Beltline bridge, with the Cascade mountains providing a backdrop. I kayaked this river a few years ago.

 The bike trail itself is a wide, mostly flat, clear path, sometimes tarmac, sometimes concrete. It's a lot nicer and easier to cycle than the River Thames towpath or the London-Birmingham canal path.  

 The Willamette river is visible in snatches through the trees that line the banks.

 I think this is a high-end retirement home. If anyone can tell me the purpose of the concrete block I'd be interested. These are left at the base of many lamp posts along the bike trails round Eugene, for no benefit that I can surmise.

 Close up of the fountain that Eddie correctly identified without prompting.

 Delta ponds is a nature area sandwiched between the river and Delta Highway, with many water fowl and turtles.

 We sidetracked to investigate this footbridge which crosses the Delta highway, and was being built when Beth and I first moved here.

 On the bridge looking south towards the Valley River Mall and Toys'R'Us

 North towards Delta WalMart and a shopping plaza or two.

 On the trail again, passing Macy's, the anchor store at the south end of the Valley River Mall. The mall's car park is used to access the trail by walkers, joggers and cyclists, there's about three times as much parking space as is ever needed on the river side of the Mall.

 It's not obvious in this picture but this is a walking bike. The man is standing directly on two big pedals with no seat. If you want to get jogging or running exercise without impact this is an excellent compromise.

 At times the trail passes very close to main roads, but they are behind barriers.

Another on-the-go shot of Eddie.

 More highway.

 Here comes the Sun. The planets appear at intervals along the trail.

 South and East of Aubrey Park the trail gets a little rougher. It's still very cycleable and tarmac, but clearly less used.

 At this bridge Eddie voted to start for home. This view looking east shows the tranquil river.

Looking west from the same spot, somebody has created some balancing rock sculptures right in the river. It's very shallow at this time of year as you can see, but can get deep and swift enough to endanger life in the wet season.

Close-up of the most impressive sculpture.

 Osprey.

 Heading back West, the path is a bit less easy to cycle and less attractive in this quarter, nearest to the University of Oregon.

 Industry rears its ugly head, but appears to be in use since there were lights on inside. Note the broken windows.

 From the name you might think you were entering a riverside zone of cafes and shopping. In most cities you would be. We've visited very attractive shopping/eating areas in Birmingham on the canals and Chiswick on Thames, and in Reno (Nevada) on the Truckee River.

 Here, there's a bit of lawn and a fountain. That's it. It's a very nice fountain, but what about a cafe, or a little shop selling drinks, sandwiches and ice cream?

 The trail is marked every quarter mile with a post like this one, so you can never get very far lost.

The trail runs alongside the  Skinner Butter playpark, the biggest in Eugene, so we stopped for a play, and bumped into our friends Kim and Preston with their children Liam and Ella. This is a great playpark but suffers from a lack of shade. Being Labor Day, the water play areas were running for the last time this year. The forecast hadn't suggested it was going to be hot, so nobody was getting wet.

 Checking out the 'ferry', a fun feature but very hard to power. A ferry crosses the river, powered by a hand crank, but after a couple of crossings cranked most adult arms are rubber, let alone kids'.

 Eddie is very proficient on all the climbing sections now, and I have little fear she will fall or lose her grip.

 Eddie is having a good day.

 Back on the trail for the last four miles. North of the play park the trail reverts to tarmac.

In one section the riverside is occupied by houses, so the bike trial has to follow a quiet back road for a while. This was my last photo of today's trip.