Burning Bridges

I have never been on Vancouver's Burnt Bridge Creek Trail and heard glowing reports on it.  I had hoped to ride this with a friend who lived up that way, but alas..........that bridge has been burnt.

My social bike club rode a ~20 mile loop last evening that included this trail but I was busy riding intervals closer to home.  Today I had time, so I went to Rocky Butte, the location of this evening's hill repeats, and planned on riding from there along Marine Drive and over the Interstate Bridge to get to the start of that route and then just pedal it as a preride.

The first snafu came as I was exiting the I-205 path trying to get on Marine Drive west. Before I knew it I was entering the Glenn Jackson bridge.  That didn't concern me too much as I knew the way on the Washington side to get from the Glenn Jackson bridge to the Interstate Bridge.  As I exited the Glenn Jackson bridge I saw a bike sign that said "Burnt Bridge Creek Trail, 3.5 miles".  How fortuitous I think to myself, I'll just follow the signs there.

That worked until I got .5 miles from the trail, then I missed a sign, or it wasn't there. After pedaling a couple of miles I zoomed out on my Garmin which had last night's route loaded and decided to navigate cross country to the course.  My Garmin Edge 305 does not have a base map, just a line on the screen to follow.  That normally works just fine, but once off course it does little good. As you can see on the map below (showing what I actually rode) I ran into dead ends more than once and had to backtrack.

This map is interactive, you can zoom, change view, etc.


Once I reached Hazel Dell I knew for sure I was not in Kansas anymore. I did eventually reach the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail, taking 20 miles longer than that sign said it would!  Yes, it was a nice trail, at least the few miles of it I actually rode.

Once on the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail I could follow last night's route back to Vancouver. I reached Fruit Valley Rd and pedaled hard.  I was running short on time. I am the ride leader for the Rocky Butte Hill Repeats and like to be there at least 15 minutes early to get everyone signed in and give a little preride safety talk.  I crossed the Interstate Bridge and kept the pedals spinning.  I covered the Marine Drive path quickly, then turned down the I-205 path. I could see Rocky Butte, but knew it was going to be close.

I arrived at our meeting point with 12 minutes to spare before pedals were to spin.
I got everyone signed in and we were off.

I put new brake pads on my bike.  I was running my carbon wheels and they require carbon specific pads. I bought them just yesterday.  It seemed a bit odd, they were in standard packaging, but there was a sticker on the front that stated "carbon".  I'm thinking somebody got sticker happy. Coming down Rocky Butte requires a hard application of brakes at the bottom.  My brake shoes melted, leaving residue on the wheel, and making a very loud screeching sound in the process. I stopped after 2 repeats, not wanting to damage my wheels.

I guess I'll be making a trip back to the bike shop in the morning!

  ........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........50..............0..............0..........0............50
   Jan.........105.............34.............0..........0..........139
 Feb.........428............108.............0.........24..........536 March.......809..............0.............0.........22..........831
 April.........1010..............0.............0..........0.........1010
 May..........1000..............0.............20..........0..........1020  YTD........3343............142............20.........46.........3526