I attached my lights since I was planning on joining the Thursday Night Ride when I was finished riding the trail.
There was a bit of an east wind blowing as I made my way eastbound toward Boring, on a slightly uphill rails to trails path.
After a slight uphill struggle, and a bigger headwind struggle, I reached Gresham and rested a bit while taking in the "Welcome to Gresham" information.
I hopped back on the bike and continued my easterly trek. I arrived at the paved trail's terminus, at the community of Boring, which was named for a Civil War soldier. (Union) In Oregon we don't really honor the traitorous confederate soldiers. As close as we get is South Albany High School which was divided off from Albany Union High School in 1971 and took the mascot of Rebels and adopted the colors red and gray. They took that one step farther and had a confederate flag hanging in the gym until it was removed in 1989.
There are many reminders that railroads and street cars were once king around here.
At the Boring Trailhead there is a map showing the extent of the street car and passenger train lines that opened this former frontier to development (and logging)
I had planned to join TNR (Thursday Night Ride) tonight, so I had my Light and Motion Stella 300 headlight along,so I wasn't too concerned about the fading light. I stopped to take a photo of the sunset. As I was taking this photo a female commuter came from the opposite direction. She saw that I was taking a photo, looked over her shoulder, then exclaimed "Clearly, I'm riding in the wrong direction!". Indeed she was. Not only was she riding against the wind and uphill, she was missing the show!
. Unfortunately, I soon found that my headlight would not work. Not sure if the battery failed or the light itself. I'll have to look into that later. For now I took the Planet Bike Turbo Flash tail light off the back and held it in my hand facing forward to increase my visibility to oncoming cyclists on the dark unlit trail. It was bright enough to hit the reflective markings on the bollards at various locations and keep me from running into them. I wish that dark clothing walkers not carrying light also had reflective markings. They weren't nearly so easy to see. More than one required a last minute maneuver for me to avoid collision. I reduced my speed considerably.
When I got back to Sellwood I stopped by my pickup and grabbed a flashlight and my spare Planet Bike Blaze headlight. This little light doesn't hold a candle to my Stella, and wasn't designed to, but I was at least legal now. I shoved off toward Salmon Street Springs, the meeting point for the weekly Thursday Night Ride which has been happening for several years now. I had not attended in over a year because...... well, because I haven't been riding. :-( I was going to remedy that tonight.
I arrived early, just as the crowd was beginning to assemble.
The crowd was a bit smaller than I've been accustomed to and there were still a few stragglers riding in as we shoved off after waiting 10 minutes beyond the advertised start time. No problem, there is an online tracker for the event so those who dally can find where we are.
TNR is about socializing and not miles or speed. We had two store stops to stock up on "supplies". I used the first stop to get new batteries for my headlight which was struggling with batteries that were several years old. Good move, light was mucho más brillante with new batteries.
As usual, there were a lot of fixed gear bikes. I'd normally ride mine, but came prepared for rain today. TNR is all about bike culture. One can spend a good deal of time just reading stickers!
 |
| Yup, the bike is a fixed gear |
We stopped at Laurelhurst Park. In 1919 this park was named the most beautiful park on the west coast. Tonight it was ...........dark. It did however make a perfect location to use up some of the consumables that had been acquired at the last store stop as we milled around the lake shore.
The group pedaled to a beach under the Fremont Bridge to burn a little wood and consume the remainder of the party supplies. Being an old guy, I decided to forego the late night socializing and call it a night. I would get home after midnight as it was.
I pedaled south on Interstate Ave making my way to the Steel Bridge and accessing the Eastbank Esplanade which would take me to the Springwater Trail and my pickup at Sellwood Riverside Park.
It was a nice night for a ride, and was successful in getting me within easy striking distance of my 508 mile for the month goal tomorrow. It was also my longest ride this year, by far!
........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .....59.................0..................0....................0............59
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.......474................0................0......................0...............474
YTD........580...............0...............154.....................0.............734
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