Unprepared

I took off late this morning for a short ride.  I thought maybe I'd ride into town for a burger, or maybe teriyaki. I put on a helmet, but was wearing a sweater and blue jeans.

The weather was gorgeous, despite a 30% chance of rain, rising to 90% by late afternoon.

I rode to the other side of the freeway via the path under the Boone Bridge.

 I got across the little wood bridge in the above photo, and found an abandoned road that looked interesting.  I rode around the gate (hey, who was going to mind?) and went exploring.  The place obviously hadn't seen traffic for quite some time.

I'm not sure what it was in the past. I didn't see any foundations, so suspect it might have been a mobile home park. There were some metal anchor points around, but no power poles left.  Just paved roads covered in moss, some leveled out areas that looked like driveways, or side streets, and a lot of non native ornamental plants.

I continued on, with no real destination in mind.  Lunch could wait! I rode some paths and fringe streets and eventually made my way to Graham Oaks Park again.  The through trail open to bikes, the Tonquin Trail, is part of a larger planned network of trails that will connect several parks.  This sign talked about the ice age floods that scoured the landscape northwest of here.

More recent landscape changes were caused when small rivers were piped and diverted, and wetlands drained.  Now some of that process is being reversed as Graham Oaks Park is being developed to return the area to an Oak Prairie.

From there I pedaled northward to pickup a burger.  I noted that a hawk was also looking for lunch.

Having negated the health benefits of the morning ride, I headed back south.  The weather was still quite pleasant. I made my way along Boone's Ferry Rd, and noted these historical markers. Bill Flynn thought he'd cash in those waiting for passage on the ferry, and on the increase of business brought in by the railroad being built, and barged his mahogany bar from Butteville downstream to Boone's Ferry and up the river bank to this location. The building stood until April 1971, when it succumbed to a wind storm.

(you can click on any of these photos to see full sized versions....which are easier to read!)

The era of community baseball was not just a city thing.  My dad told of baseball being a big deal in his young adulthood.  Even the tiny farming community of Verboort had a team. A member of the Verboort team, and dad to my elementary and high school classmate as well as cousin, went on to do quite well in the major leagues.

I rode back into Graham Oaks Park, this time from a different access point, and saw these two signs.
The first describes again the huge ice age floods that created this landscape.

This one describes the glacial erratics that are found around here.

I continued riding around neighborhoods and fringes.  I came to a sign that puzzled me.  It was on a gate that accessed a Oregon Department of Transportation storage yard near the freeway.  It talked about how they would remove any personal property within 1500 ft of the sign, despite that it would mean  removing personal property that was outside their perimeter, within a church parking lot, residential driveways, and a car dealership.  I'm sure it must have been instigated by some issue, but I doubt that this would be enforceable.

I rode back along Boone's Ferry Rd.  The train that was to bring customers to Mr Flynn's bar, today was carrying freight as it passed by. I waved, the engineer waved back.  ;-)

As I made by way back under the Boone Bridge, I noted a bike in the brambles.  It has obviously been there for some time.  I suspect it had been stolen.  I did my best to ride two bikes. Not the easiest thing to do when riding a fixed gear.  I found it hardest to stop, with one hand on the other bike, and only one hand left to provide leverage to exert back pressure on my cranks.

As I neared downtown Wilsonville, it began to rain.  I ducked into a picnic shelter in Memorial Park to wait for the shower to pass.

After some time, the rain tapered off and I continued my trip northward, with two bikes!
I ended up bringing the bike to the police station.  They said they didn't have facilities to store it.  As we were talking, another woman who appeared as if she worked there, said that they donate bikes to a non profit nearby, where kids work on bikes and sell them.  I said that sounded good to me.  The bike didn't need much, probably a new chain and a few cables. The tires looked good, and held air when I pumped them up.

It was a good ride, not many miles, but nice to get out. I was unprepared for the possibility of rain, and my jeans got soaked from the water rolling off the front tire and splashing against the down tube, my sweater got wet and heavy, but at least I was warm!

............Road Bike........Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........27................0....................0........................0...........27
Jan..............304...............15...................0......................31..........350
Feb................0..................0....................0.......................0..............0
March..........18.................0....................0........................0............18
April............88.................0....................0........................0............88