The 40 Mile Loop

As I was on my way to Sellwood Riverside Park to begin Portland's 40 Mile Loop, friend Carol called to see if I wanted to go for a ride. She thought maybe Springwater Corridor.  Well, the 40 Mile Loop includes Springwater, so a plan was hatched.  I waited for Carol to arrive.

We started from the park and headed north on the Springwater Trail toward Portland.  She had never been on the new Tilikum Crossing bridge, and me being a seasoned rider with 1 crossing under my belt, was designated tour guide today. When we got to the bridge we detoured across and back.

There was a moderate NE wind blowing.  Nothing serious, but noticeable as we pedaled against it.

As we crossed the Columbia Slough I noted the very low water level.  There is tidal influence here, but I had still never seen the water this low. The Columbia Slough will of course be influenced by the level of the Columbia River, so I can only presume the Columbia must be low as well.

We crossed the peninsula and were now riding along the Columbia River. The expected headwind in this exposed section was not nearly as bad as we expected, but it was still there.

When we got to Interstate 205 we turned south on the I-205 Bike Path.  There seemed to be some component to that wind that gave us a headwind heading south too!

We stopped at a drinking fountain and waited our turn to quench our thirst. (The light morning clouds had burned off and left a 77 degree afternoon)

We reached the Springwater Corridor and turned west.  Remarkably, we now had an even stronger headwind!  The wind had swung around from a traditionally dry NE wind, to a harbinger of wet weather SW wind.  Along with the switch in wind direction, some high thin moisture bearing clouds were moving in too.  A change of weather is in the offing.

The threat of rain was no where near imminent, so we stopped at Cartlandia for a bite to eat.

We finished up the loop, and still had some time before Carol had to go to work.  We rode the Springwater Trail back to OMSI, enjoying our first tailwind of the day.   We looped around OMSI and started making our way back against the wind.  The Hawthorne Bridge was raised for passing water traffic.

We got back to Sellwood Riverside Park and would have one more bit of excitement.  A shady looking character was making his way down the street, pulling on metal posts, carrying a very large stick, and clattering a pipe against the cyclone fence separating the path from the road.  He looked shady enough that I paused, expecting that he might come into the parking lot looking for cars to prowl.  He never appeared.  As I was backing out of my space I had to wait for another car who was passing behind me.  The woman driving got past me, but hesitated before exiting the parking lot.  I back out and as I was going around here she said "Fire!  What should I do?"  I looked down the road less than 100 feet and saw flames shooting 8 feet in the air.  I told her to call 911.  I drove up to the fire, which was burning two small trees and spreading into the dry grass on the bank.  The area burning was about 8 ft across.  I got above the fire and started kicking a fire line around it, kicking the dry dirt into the flames as I did so.  Before long I had the grass fire portion under control.  The trees were still burning.  I kicked at the branches and broke the burning limbs to the ground.  A cyclist came by and used her water bottle to cool hot spots.  Before long we had the flames out, but some very hot spots remained.  I continued to stomp on hot spots and break apart smoldering sod.

I was hoping the fire department would arrive soon. I was afraid the hot spots would rekindle.  Before too long I could hear sirens.  The Portland Fire Department arrived.  I had walked up to the intersection to direct them in, the fire and smoke were doused enough that the fire's location was not easily discerned from a distance.

The fire professionals came in with water and foam and thoroughly doused the area.  That fire won't be rekindling.  All of the foliage is quite dry. Who knows how far that fire would have got before the fire department arrived if we had not got it knocked down quickly.

I did look up the trail to see if that shady guy was still within sight, but alas, he was nowhere to be seen.

.......Road bike........Rollers.......MTB.......Lifecycle....Total
Today.......46...............0..............0..............0..............46

Jan..........765.............0..............0..............0.............765
Feb..........248............0..............0..............0..............248
March......183...........0...............0.............0...............183
April........228...........0...............0.............0...............228
May.........200............0..............0.............0...............200
June.........199...........0...............26...........0...............225
July..........246...........0...............0.............0...............246
August.....502...........0...............0.............0...............502
Sept..........974...........0..............44............0..............1018
Oct...........247............0...............0.............0...............247
Total........3644.........0...............70............0..............3724