Day 12, #ridingeverydayinNovember

Today was going to be a test.  For the 12th day of #ridingeverydayinNovember I decided to ride Portland's 40 mile loop.  In years gone by this was nothing more than a Sunday saunter for me, or maybe a training ride if I was riding it hard.  Followers of my blog will note that I've not been riding much this year, so just finishing this 38 mile loop would be a challenge for me.

It was raining lightly as I shoved off from Sellwood Riverside Park.  I rode the route counter clockwise today, the opposite direction of the way that I normally would ride it.

Shortly after I began pedaling the rain stopped.
I got to Cartlandia just in time for lunch.  ;-)

The 40 Mile Loop heads north along the I-205 bike path.  As I was slowly climbing near the route's high point, I passed by a friend of mine going the opposite direction.  She stopped, and I turned around and pedaled back.  We hadn't seen each other in quite some time and spent a short time visiting.  She was on a group ride with the Portland Wheelmen and invited me to turn around and join them.  I thanked her for the offer but said I wouldn't be able to keep up. She thought I was joking!  :-(
We didn't talk long, her friends kept riding and she'd have to catch up, and I had a lot of miles to go yet.  The day was brightening up, but Mt Hood was still obscured by clouds when I reached the Columbia River.

I had a decent tailwind as I pedaled along the Columbia.  I turned south as I pedaled along the Peninsula Crossing Trail and lost the tailwind, however, as I left the banks of the Columbia River the wind wasn't nearly as noticeable. I turned left on Willamette Blvd and pedaled by the University of Portland.  There was still a bit of color on the trees there.

 I continued on around the loop.  One of the reasons I don't usually ride counter clockwise is that there are some difficult intersections along Interstate Avenue, one being where Brett Jarolimek died in 2007. His death, and the others that followed in rapid succession, and the lack of holding drivers responsible,  galvanized the local biking community and resulted in some substantial changes in the area.  I was pleased to see several of the more troublesome intersections improved for cyclist's passage since the last time I had pedaled this way around.

When I got to the Willamette River I was surprised to see it so calm.  I suspect that the tide was near high slack, stopping the flow of the river. I had never seen the Willamette so calm.

I was notably tired as I pedaled along the East Bank Esplanade.  It might have been partly caused by being hungry, but more likely just that I'm horribly out of shape!

#ridingeverydayinNovember is a good excuse to start working on that.

It started raining again just shortly after I took that last photo.  It rained all the rest of the way back along the Springwater Trail to Sellwood Riverside Park.....and then some.  Tonight and tomorrow are predicted to be wet and windy.  I guess it will be the rain bike for the next few days (at least!)

........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...38.................0.................0...............0..............38
Jan.........304................15................0...............31..........350
Feb..........0..................0..................0...............0.............0
March.......18.................0.................0...............0............18
April.......113................0.................0...............0...........113
May.........155................0.................0...............0...........155
June..........10.................0.................0................0.............10
July..........79..................0.................0................0.............79
Aug..........76...................0.................0................0............76
Sept...........97..................0.................0................0............97
Oct..........36....................0................0................0.............36
Nov.........170....................0................0................0............170
Total......1064...............15.................0...............31..........1110