I had loaded the course onto my Garmin, as did some of the other riders so equipped. The rest had to deal with a cue sheet that had over 150 entries. There was some frost this morning so I put my wind pants on over my long riding pants. I figured it would warm up quickly as we pedaled so I took no other precautions against the cold other than riding with booties over my cycling shoes.
The first 11 miles were pretty uneventful, other than a lot of slowing down and/or stopping for those with cue sheets to figure out if we were still on course. At 11 mile in we were to ride about 3 miles total on 39th Ave. For those not familiar with East Portland, 39th is a 4 lane (2 each direction) 35 mph main arterial in the area, with (horrors!) no painted bike lane. Many of the riders weren't comfortable with this. 4 of us rode on, taking the mapped route, and the lane. We had no issues at all, no displeased motor vehicle operators, we just took our place in traffic and pedaled on. As it ended up, this would be the last we saw of the ride leader and the rest of the pack.
We rode the route and the advertised pace. As it ended up, that was way faster than the rest of the group. As we neared Oregon City we stopped at a convenience store for a potty stop as well as a few bites of bars for some of our little entourage. After about 10 minutes we pedaled on, thinking that trying to regroup with the rest of the riders would happen easiest at the Oregon City Bridge. Unless the others completely bailed on the trip, they would have to cross this bridge. We pedaled off with plans to stop near the bridge. I stopped long enough to get a picture of the Oregon City Bridge from under the George Abernathy Bridge (I-205)
We crossed the OC Bridge then pulled off at a convenience store with a view of the bridge and waited.
I also called the ride leader and left a voice mail, saying where we were at, named all 4 of us, and said we would wait there 15 minutes unless we heard from them.
After 15 minutes we rode on. If the group didn't like 39th Ave we wondered aloud what they were going to do when they were confronted with Hwy 43 north of Lake Oswego. It starts out as 4 lanes, but narrows to 2 lanes, and no shoulder. (guard railing within inches of the fog line) It is a busy road. Again, we took the lane when we needed to. We were glad to be off that section, even when it meant getting on a waterfront mutli-use path. The view was nice, but the sunny day meant everybody and their dog was out enjoying the trail. Oh, and those with I-pods were out too. A lot of good a bell or an "on your left" does when they are marching to the beat of a different drummer.
We got to downtown Portland and Saturday Market was in full swing. My group wanted to stop for Elephant Ears. ;-)
We stopped for just over a half hour with an eye on the path for our friends, as we munched on the deep fried delights.
We finally gave up on seeing them, and pedaled on.
We had a good ride and arrived back at Hayden Island in 4.5 hours after we left. That calculated out to a 10.2 mph clock time average. The Garmin showed a 13.3 riding average. We loaded bikes and were partaking in some post ride chatter, when after about 20 minutes some of our group rode up. As it ended up, they took their leave of the remainder of the group near Oregon City. They said there was just too much stopping and getting lost for them.
They were surprised that we had stopped at Saturday Market for over a half hour, and they still hadn't caught us. Frankly, so were we. I milled around where the cars were parked in an effort to thank our ride leader, but alas, they still hadn't pedaled in when it was time for me to get moving.
I guess they didn't quite make their "16 mph on the flats" pace. Some people just don't know what their average pace is. "Hey, I saw 16 mph on my speedometer on that one section" :-(
It was a good day for a ride. I had so much fun I'm going to go for another 50 mile ride tomorrow! :-)
Today.............48...............0.............0..........0.............48 Jan..................93..............0..............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............435..............0.............0.........0............435 Total..............942.............0...............0.........0............942
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