Day 14 of #ridingeverydayinNovember

I am back in my home state. The low temperature today was 29F, but that occurred at 12:30 AM, by daylight the clouds had rolled in and the temperature was up to 37F. There was a 30% chance of rain this morning, morphing into partly cloudy skies by afternoon.  I figured there was no hurry in getting out today.  I had found myself in possession of a mtn bike that had bad rear wheel bearings and had been stripped of any useful parts. I decided that the best future for the bike would be donating it to the Community Cycling Center. I have volunteered there in the past, assembling bikes that would be donated to those in need, or sold at discounts to those who only needed some help. Some would be sold at fair market price, proceeds going to new helmets for kids and other worthy projects. They would certainly be able to use parts from this bike to help their projects.

Being on the north end of Portland, I decided that starting a ride from Delta Park might be a good plan. I stopped for a bite to eat, and while there, some light rain began to fall. WTH?  It was afternoon, it was supposed to be dry.  I had a raincoat along, so after a bit of surfing Facebook, I clipped on my rear fender and began to ride, it was #ridingeverydayinNovember after all!

The rain was very light. probably less than 0.1"  I pedaled around the park, and even pedaled on a road from time to time. :-O

The weather gradually improved as time went on.  I pedaled out to the Columbia Slough.  I was here today at low tide.  While many miles from the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia River, Willamette River, and associated waterways are all affected by ocean tides.  Today it was hard to imagine that as a younger guy, Dad and my uncle and I would take a 18 ft boat and fish for Salmon here.

Some sections of the slough barely had enough water to take a row boat through, while other areas hardly looked affected by the tide.

The light was beginning to fade, and while all my bikes have taillights on them at all times, I usually don't have a headlight with me, and today was no exception.  I decided it was time to hurry back, since I had about 8 blocks of roadway to share with automobiles before I'd get back to my vehicle.

Back when I lead several rides a week for a social bike club, I used to require headlights on any winter ride, saying that one would never know when fog might appear, or a delay would put us in dark before we could finish.  I should have listened to my own rules.  I had okay visibility to the rear, but I really should have had a front light on by the time I finished.

........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total

Today .....12.................0..................0....................0...........12

Jan.........26................ 0................0.....................0..............26

Feb.........7..................0................0.....................0...............7

March.......5.................0................0.....................0...............5

April.......0.................0...............66.....................0...............66

May.........0..................0..............79......................0...............79

June........2..................0...............0......................0...............2

July........64.................0...............0......................0...............64

August......11..................0...............0.....................0...............11

September 0..................0................0.....................0................0

October 0..................0...............0......................0................0

November 164................0................0......................0...............164

YTD........282...............0...............154.....................0.............436