River to River

Today is Thursday AND gorgeous weather!  The Thursday Night Ride would be well attended and a boat load of fun.  But a bout of botrytis in my greenhouse had me empty it out today and ventilate like crazy in an attempt to lower humidity levels. I needed to be back before temperatures dropped to 50 degrees and get the tender plants back in the heat security of the greenhouse. I decided I'd have to forgo fun tonight and take care of business.

But I could still go for an afternoon ride!  I took off from Sellwood Riverside Park and rode north.  I crossed the Tilikum Bridge and continued north on the west side of the Willamette River.

It was well into the 70's as I rode along the waterfront.

When I got to the Steel Bridge it was raised for river traffic and there was a long line of cyclists and pedestrians waiting to cross.  We eventually got the go ahead and made our way across.

The nice weather brought out a lot of people. There were bikes, skateboards, roller skates, and pedestrians all over the place.  Jet skis and rowing shells jockied for position on the river.

As I stopped to take this photo, the Steel Bridge lifted again!  That made two lifts in less than 10 minutes. It was a busy day on the waterfront!

I continued up Williams Ave and made my way to Delta Park.  I crossed the park, made a few curly cues on the ramps up to the Interstate Bridge and the Columbia River.  Mt Hood beckoned.

Nothing nicer than taking a leisurely pedal, stop for a photo looking east, when right behind me on the other side of the jersey barrier there were frustrated motorists in stop and go traffic, mostly stopped.

If I had started earlier I would have been tempted to cross over to the Washington side and make my way over to the Glenn Jackson Bridge and finish the ride off by following the 40 mile loop back to Sellwood, but alas, my baby plants would be suffering, so I turned around and retraced my route back.

When I got to the Steel Bridge, it was raised again!  Rather than wait for it to come back down, I just went south on the East Bank Esplanade.  Instead of 26 miles (it was 13 to the Interstate Bridge) I'd shave off a little distance by taking the more direct route. I'd be okay with that today.

The high recorded on my backyard weather station was 75 degrees.  That is a pretty nice spring day in these parts! I got home in time to have all the plants back in the greenhouse before the outside temperature dropped below 62.  Good enough!


.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ........25................0...................0.......................0...........25
Jan...............0................0...............,...0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
YTD...... 401...............0...................0.......................0...........401