Thursday!

I had a full day of meetings but arrived home just in time to take in TNR! (Thursday Night Ride).  I grabbed the mountain bike and drove to Sellwood to save some miles driving and add to the usually short miles of TNR.

I was thinking that TNR started at 7PM and it looked like I was going to be late. I was hoping that it would start less than punctually.  It was a nice night for a preride.

As I neared the Salmon Street Springs fountain, I noted that the crowd was still there!  I was ten minutes late by my estimation and was hoping that I might be able to see them crossing a bridge over the Willamette and be able to catch them.  As it was, the ride was supposed to start at 7:30, so I was 20 minutes early!  Perfect!  I wandered around and visited with those I knew, it had been many months since I had attended.

Mariana was there, but on crutches, but we still had a nice talk. She speaks Spanish and English fluently and works at a law office and is familiar with immigration issues.  We had a good conversation!

It is the Thursday NIGHT Ride, but since the daylight changes, and the ride time does not, this time of year the sun is still up for a couple of hours after we start.  In the winter the sun is already down for a couple of hours before we start!

We started off about 10 minutes "late". Nothing like summer weather to bring everyone out.  We had nearly 200 riders.

Our first stop was at Safeway, where we spent about 45 minutes as folks stocked up on supplies, and the security guard cut us some slack citing the influx of business we brought.

After making the purchases, we rode a short distance to a park where frisbees were tossed and drinks were consumed. We had only pedaled about 6 miles at this point and I was wondering if we were ever going to do the "ride" part of the Thursday Night Ride.

Finally the cats were all herded together and we pedaled out. I couldn't safely get any photos as we were moving.  With this many people on bikes we were in tight quarters, and like many groups, there are varying bike skills and varying experience of riding in tight formation. More than once the night air was filled with the smell of burning brakes and skidding tires. :-O

We stopped at another store to replenish supplies (this ride is nothing if not social!)

The group was led to another park to socialize.

This time the neighbors joined in the celebration by launching some fireworks.  The slow "shutter" of the phone and the even slower action of the photographer, coupled with not knowing when one would be launched made me feel lucky to even get this much of some pretty decent fireworks.

We shoved off again and this time covered a bit of distance to get back toward the usual area.
We stopped at the traditional final stop, at a convenience store.  It was getting late, and I'm a little bit outside the demographic of this group, so I pedaled on this time rather than wait around another half hour or more.

The Tilicum Crossing changes color depending on the temperature of the river and air.  This time of year the yellows predominate.

I had two bright back lights on, but the front light was a safety blinky.  Not the best for navigating the dark Springwater Corridor.  For those keeping score, even traveling 10-12 mph, I had to take quick evasive maneuvers to avoid hitting 8 different walkes/standers.  All wearing dark colors with no lights.  I also had a buck deer jump over the 4 ft fence just 10 feet in front of me.  Later I heard something hitting the chain link fence and as I neared the sound, I could see that a small fawn was trying to get over the fence but could not clear it.  It ended up running down the paved path for perhaps 75 ft, before changing direction and going back toward the river.  I made it back to my pickup without any collisions.

It surprised me to find that the route had just over 800 ft of climbing.

It was midnight!  Time for this old guy to go home.

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

Today ......0.................0................28.....................0............28

Jan.........0.................. 0..................0.....................0..............0

Feb.........0..................0..................0.....................0...............0

March.......0.................0................0.....................0...............0

April.......0.................0..................0......................0...............0

May.........0..................0................80....................0..............80

June........63..................0................59....................0..............122

July........86...................0................78....................0..............206

YTD.........175...............0................218.....................0.............393