Accidental Half Century

It is Thursday, time for me to lead an installment of the Rocky Butte hill repeats ride for my social bike club. I took the opportunity to ride in from Oaks Park tonight just because the weather was so nice, I got off work in time, and the extra miles would be a good thing. I hit some heavier than expected traffic on the way to Oaks Park so had to ride hard to make it to the ride in time. I rode east on the Springwater Corridor then north on the I-205 Bike Path. I'm not normally a big fan of bike paths but it worked tonight.

Thursdays have become a less attended event than the Tuesday rides. Tonight we had 4 cyclists total. I rode 6 repeats. Not a hard ride by my normal standards, but hard enough to get some training value. I got a little visiting in while doing it too. ;-)

Following the ride we split up to go our separate ways. It was a very nice night for riding so I accepted the offer to join one of this evening's participants on the ride home. It was nice bonus miles, and a nice chance to chat a bit. When that trip was finished I turned south and made my way across town via residential streets rather then return the ~70 blocks to Rocky Butte and follow my inbound route back.

I knew that if I just kept going south I'd have to bump into the Springwater Corridor at which point I'd turn right and head toward the Willamette River.
Somehow riding in the dark I missed the Springwater Corridor path and continued south for several more miles before it became glaringly obvious that I had missed the path. I was in Milwaukie and a few miles beyond where I should have turned. I made a call to my sister who mapquested my location and where I wanted to be. She gave me directions on how to get back on course. Okay sis, I take back almost all the things I said about you when we were kids.. almost! ;-)

I got back on course and got back to my pickup just before 11PM. Tonight's ride, with planned commute would have been about 38 miles. I came in with 48.4 miles. Not raining, not cold, only 1.6 miles to go to make a nice round 50 mile ride. What's a bike rider to do? Ride the bike of course! I rode around a few blocks and watched the odometer roll the 50 miles into view.

This weekend I had planned on riding in Central Oregon, 100 miles on Saturday and 100 miles on Sunday. Century Drive one day and up to Paulina Lake the other day. Two of my favorite Central Oregon rides. However the social bike club is involved in a fund raiser for one of our members who was involved in a bad bike crash and has been hospitalized for many weeks. The leadership asked that all competing rides be cancelled.

I'll make my donation in another way and go ride my bike. I'm thinking I may go to the coast and ride the Three Cape Scenic Loop, a nice ~75 mile lap, or maybe I'll ride the Tillamook Double course that Sandy Earl put together last year.
We'll see what happens. Stay tuned!

........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........50..............0.............0..........0..........50
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......502..............0.............0..........0.........502
April.......524..............0.............0..........0.........524
May........1003..............0.............0..........0........1003
June.......1016..............0............10..........0........1026
July.......1148..............0.............0..........0........1148
August.......77..............0.............0..........0..........77
YTD........5278..............0............37..........7........5322