Not the best of days

I was scheduled to ride tomorrow, but the ride got cancelled because of the predicted heavy rain and gusty winds.  Instead, we rode today, which was predicted to be slightly less wet, but in fact, during our expected riding time, there were only two brief periods where it was not predicted to be raining.

I met Sara and Jan at Sellwood Riverfront Park. It was not currently raining, and hadn't been for nearly a half hour.  We were burning up rain respite number one.

Jan is notorious for not posting the route ahead of time.  I didn't have the intended route on my Garmin, but really don't need it for an out and back on a paved multi-use path.  I did however have it on the bike for recording ride data.

The three of us pedaled along visiting "like a bunch of old women", until we were just over 5 miles in and I noted that the Garmin was no longer on the bike.

I immediately excused myself and began backtracking on the slim chance of finding it. Most likely it bounced a time or two and found its way over the edge of the old RxR right of way into the shrubbery, or one of the many trail users out today pick it up.
There are a lot of homeless people living along the Springwater and today the churches and civic organizations were out with portable food kitchens. The trail was alive with activity.

My riding partners continued on, expecting me to catch up.  I rode around an extra 10 miles searching  for the Garmin.  While on my search the rain began to fall. I knew that on a 20 mile out and 20 mile back route, that I couldn't give them a 10 mile head start and expect to catch them. But since it was an out and back, I did expect to see them as they were riding back. About 5 miles from Boring I saw them riding back toward me. There weren't many smiles. While not as wet as predicted, it was still plenty wet. Adding insult to injury, it was cold too, with a temperature in the low 40's.

I turned around and followed them back to Sellwood. I had planned ahead and brought a complete change of dry clothes.

We had Mexican food, then went our separate ways. I got home and posted an ad to Craigslist Lost and Found. Keeping my fingers crossed.



.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .......39................0...................0.......................0............39
Jan............0................0...............,...0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......100................0..................0........................0..........100
YTD...... 224...............0...................0.......................0...........224