Celebrity

 I was invited to go for a ride today with a friend from the social bike club. We started a bit late from Oaks Park, near the Sellwood Bridge and headed east on the Springwater Corridor path.

 
  When we got to Gresham we jumped on surface streets and connected to a portion of the 2008 Race Across Oregon route. This old goat couldn't resist revisiting those roads. When we crossed the Stark Street Bridge we met a sheriff who was restricting vehicle access upstream.  We inquired if that closure included bikes, he said "no" and waved us on.  We soon caught up with a long line of vehicles, shiny vehicles.  After talking with a driver we found they were staging for a parade through Corbett.  How nice of Corbett to roll out the red carpet for an Old Goat/Desert Coyote! I didn't think anyone would even remember that The Old Goats set a course record for Race Across Oregon!

The police told us to ride carefully, watch for kids, and just roll with the parade. If I had known we would be rolling with a parade, I would have brought some candy to throw to the kids.  I didn't figure the parents would appreciate me chucking a water bottle at their kids, so I just did my best "parade wave"

After getting through all the hoopla we continued on up to Chanticleer Point where instead of the popular turn DOWN to Crown Point and Multnomah Falls we continued UP on the road to Larch Mountain.
Along the way were thousands of wild flowers.

Iris

Foxglove

Wild Parsnip

Buttercup

Indian Paintbrush

phlox?

Lupine

We had started today at an elevation of about 30 ft and 41 miles later we were at just over 4000 ft elevation at the parking lot of Larch Mountain.

I took the opportunity today to walk the short distance to the summit and look around a bit.  The sky was mostly blue, but as is common, the volcanic peaks were acting like cloud magnets.

Mt Adams

Mt Saint Helens

Mt Rainier

Mt Hood

Even when not looking at one of the 5 volcanic peaks visible from here, the view was pretty awesome.

 We were at the end of the road, so there was nothing to do but roll back down the road we had just come up.  We made the turn toward Multnomah Falls.  I roll down with a little more confidence than Carol, and arrived at Multnomah Falls 20 minutes ahead of her.  The nice weather and holiday had brought out the crowds, but I still had time to stand in line, get a hot dog, eat it, stand in line again, get a chocolate ice cream cone and nearly have that gone before she rolled up. As she went about watering, dewatering, eating, etc I went sight seeing.

a non classic view of Multnomah Falls

After nearly 2 hours at the falls we shoved off on our way back to Portland. I had plans for post ride, and our day was stretching out longer than I had anticipated for a 100 mile ride. I pedaled out at 15 mph, but it soon became apparent that if I was going to make it back in time I'd need to pedal, without regard to who may, or may not, be in my mirror. I upped the pace and headed west. I arrived back at Oaks Park in just over 2 hours after I left Multnomah Falls. Not too shabby for an old goat. ;-)



 ........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today.......102..............0..............0..........0...........102
 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 June..........1500...............0...............0............0.....1500
 July............231...............0................0............0.......231
 YTD........5074............142............20.........46.........5257