I was planning on starting the loop at Riverside Park in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland at 9:30 AM. I arrived a bit early, made my preparations to ride, then just surfed Facebook from my smart phone waiting for my friend. 9:30 came and went, still no riding partner, but a light rain had arrived early. The Facebook surfing paid off however, dear friend Monica was semi-looking for a ride. It took just a bit of arm twisting to get her riding down from the West Hills to meet me at the Hawthorne Bridge. She would make a good pinch hitter.
The route is mapped to send us mostly on Portland's 40 Mile Loop with a foray north into Washington to the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail, just to gain some miles. I had not ridden with Monica for many months. We chatted a bit as we pedaled. She has moved to a low traffic area and remarked on how she has become a bit uncomfortable around traffic now.
When we got out by University of Portland I took the Peninsula Crossing Trail rather than stay on roads out to Kelly Point. That cut off about 7 miles of our expected 58. It had been raining continuously since I started, I didn't think she'd mind.
When we got to Columbia Blvd we rode on it for a few blocks before turning left onto the path again. At that point we have to cross railroad tracks. If we had just been 1 minute quicker to that point we wouldn't have had to wait for the train to clear. At least this one kept going forward, unlike the one yesterday.
One thing about a rainy day, I carried my camera, but it's just too much of a hassle to take off gloves, take off pack, take the camera out of it's waterproof enclosure, take the picture, reverse the process. In nice weather I just reach into the pocket and take the photo. Today there were no pictures from the road. :-(
When we reached I-5 we exited the 40 Mile Loop and entered into Washington. Monica had left home on short notice and was riding without breakfast. We fixed some of that caloric deficit at a coffee shop in Vancouver.
I was on the fixie. The route was fairly flat and the weather was supposed to be dry. Alas, the weather was wet (the fixie has no fenders) and the course had a few more hills than I remembered. There was one hill just passed the Ross Substation that worked me pretty hard. I got within 50 feet of the top of the 15%ish hill, then bailed off. I was down to an excruciatingly slow cadence and pushing on the pedals with all I had. I finally gave in to Sandy Earl's voice saying, "I could pedal it, but what's the use". I walked the bike the last 50 feet.
The rain was relentless, but never heavy. The temperature was in the 50's. We've all biked in worse. As we crossed the Glenn Jackson Bridge (I-205) we were on the path nestled between 3 lanes of freeway traffic each direction. While it was not raining hard, the road was wet, and each passing vehicle whipped the water into a frenzy. We were both glad to finally reach the Oregon shore and get off that bridge.
We pedaled the remainder of the 40 Mile Loop without incident. We were both glad to be finished up, but neither of us were really finished yet. Monica turned down my offer to drive her home, and planned to ride to the OHSU tram, ride it up the hill, then pedal the remainder back to her house. I planned to put my bike on MAX light rail, take that to Hillsboro, and lend my mom my "Gravity" DVD.
The shortcut taken early in the ride had shaved off almost 7 miles. My little commute from the Hillsboro Downtown MAX station to mom's and back, and from the Moda Center MAX station back to my pickup added 8. Net mileage? 1 more than I had expected.
Ya, it would have been nice to have sunny weather, but it didn't rain all that hard, temperatures were mild, and I got to ride with Monica for the first time in many, many, months.
I guess I'll have to call that a good day on the bike!
............road bike..........rollers........mtb.........lifecycle....total
Today..........59................0..............0...............0............59 Jan.............710................0..............0...............0...........710
Feb........... 578...............0..............0...............0............578
March ........114................0..............0...............0............114
Total..........1402...............0..............0...............0.........1402
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