72%

I had plans to ride to Multnomah Falls and back today, a 100 mile round trip for me.  The last few times I've planned on it things happened to keep me from doing it.

Today was no different.

I took off easy.  Before I even got to Oregon City I pulled into a park next to the Tualatin River, just to look around.  As it ended up there were a few informational signs about the Willamette Meteorite that was found nearby. There was a 1/5 size replica of the meteorite onsite, the actual meteorite is in a museum in New York.

Instead of taking a picture of the pretend meteorite I took a picture of the Tualatin River. I've been at the headwaters in the Coast Range. It's a much larger river here near its confluence with the Willamette River.

From there it was just a short ride to the Oregon City Bridge.  The Oregon City Bridge crosses the Willamette River just downstream from Willamette Falls.  Willamette Falls is the largest falls by volume in the Pacific Northwest, and is the 17th widest falls in the world, but industrialization of the area has kept the public away from the falls for over 100 years.  Today the best views are from the cliffs above on the east bank in Oregon City.  I tried to find a place between trees and buildings to get a view coming along the west bank, but the best I could do was to get this shot of the eastern portion of the falls from the center of the Oregon City Bridge.

Just out of the frame of the above photo is the row of industry that limits access.

This was also a good angle to see the Willamette Falls Locks. These locks opened in 1873 and were operated until 2011, making them, at the time, the first and the longest serving multi-lift locks in the U.S.

Once across the Willamette River I made my way to the Clackamas River Trail.

 I  followed the Clackamas to High Rocks, where I accessed the I-205 Path.  I followed that to the Springwater Corridor and followed that to Gresham.

I took the Stark Street Bridge over the Sandy River and pedaled the Historic Columbia River Highway over Chanticleer Point and on out to Multnomah Falls.  I had a few snacks at the lodge then began to retrace the route back home.

I got back to where the Springwater Corridor path crossed Foster Rd.  I waited for the signal to change.  As the signal turned green I started to pedal but felt that strange thud as the chain fell between my 42 and 30 tooth chainrings.  I rolled to the side of the road and attempted to dislodge it.  I hadn't put power on it, but it was bound up tight.  I've had this happen a few times. Once in San Diego just as I was about to give up and call SAG, the chain came free as the bike was set up on the wheels.  On last year's Race Across Oregon my crew could not free it, despite having a full array of tools available.  Today I had a tire lever.  I fiddled, twisted, used rocks and sticks, looked for anything that might help.  Alas, the more I wiggled it, the worse it got.

Today, the easiest way out of this predicament was to call my sister, the same sister that has bailed me out on several other bike adventures. I made the call, then tried to get comfortable.

In about a half hour she arrived, I loaded the bike, and we were off.

72 miles of the planned 100, but at least I was going to make it home before dark.



 ................road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today.............72...............0.............0..........0.............72 Jan..................93..............0..............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653..............0.............0.........0............653 April..............344.............0...............0.........0............344 Total.............1504.............0...............0.........0..........1504