the calm before the storm

I was supposed to lead a ride on the Oregon Coast today.

A couple of things changed that. First, I am joining a ride in the Hood River/The Dalles area on Sunday with a group of tough riders. We will be riding 100 miles with almost 9000 ft of climbing, and upon scanning the attendance list I know I'll be struggling to keep up. With the price of gas currently I didn't think it made much sense to drive to Tillamook on Saturday, then turn around and be in The Dalles on Sunday.

Secondly, Tillamook gets 90 inches of rain annually, The Dalles gets 12. If you are a gambler you've got to look at those odds.

So, I drove to Hood River this morning and rode on the dry side of the Cascades today, am staying in Hood River tonight, and will ride from here again in the morning.

The gamble today paid off. My riding partner and I rode over 50 miles today, we had dry weather with a bit of scattered clouds. We had sunshine with shadows for a good deal of the ride, but also had a few dozen rain drops around mile 45. Not enough rain to make anything wet, and today those infamous Gorge winds were calm.


Much to the chagrin of my bike partner, I rode today's ride slow. I wanted to take in the view and save some energy for the hammerfest tomorrow. Today was the calm before the storm!



Today we rode 56 miles with 4788 ft of climbing. We rode the western half of the upcoming Cherry Ride route.


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........56..............0.............0..........0......... 56
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......269..............0.............0..........0.........269
YTD.......1283...............0............21..........7........1311

Raining in Oregon, you gotta have a rain bike!

I love my carbon bike, except that with that expensive to replace running gear and clearances too tight to accept "real" fenders I hate to ride it through all that grit during Oregon's winter road conditions. The option?

Well, a dedicated rain bike of course!



My local bike shop, Olson's Bicycles in Forest Grove, made me a deal I couldn't refuse. OK, so it's a 2009 model. OK, so it's described as an "entry level" cross bike. But it accepts full fenders, and has a Tiagra 9spd drivetrain so my wheels from my Marin (alternate) road bike will swap in perfectly, and the price was right!

I'll get the fenders on tonight, maybe even have time to install lights and speedometer. Add some reflectivity and buddy flaps and it should be ready to go for a ride!

Want to own a piece of history? The bike I rode as part of the record setting Race Across Oregon team Old Goats 4 will be for sale. Seriously, if you are interested in a decent 55cm road bike email me.

53 miles, 5.2k climbing, 3 hills, and a lake!

I posted a ride to our social bike club's calendar. I originally had 4 of us going but a last minute injury to one rider and illness to the other meant that only two of us pedaled off today.

It was raining as we began our journey. It wouldn't have taken much to not ride today. I've got this new riding mantra, I don't ride if it's not fun, and this was getting close to that line!

Mark however shamed me into riding!

We began in Tualatin and began by making our way to Council Crest. It was a nice route that kept us off the main roads.

We climbed our way to Council Crest rather easily today, but because of low clouds and rain we were robbed of any view. We descended carefully to Terwilliger Blvd. (the roads were a bit slick because of the rain) Along the way we noted fresh Lion of Flanders pavement markers. I came home to note that the De Ronde Van Oeste Portlandia is tomorrow! That ride is a "non event" that is quite challenging and a lot of fun that is beginning to draw a bit of attention. unfortunately I've got other plans so I'll miss it this year for the first time.

We turned back uphill and ascended through the OHSU campus. The weather was beginning to improve and we got a bit of a view as we climbed. It was still dripping a bit with some low clouds and fog so I left the camera packaged up.

Before long we summited again and began a descent to the downtown Portland area.
We stopped at Starbucks so Mark could get a warm drink then began our biggest climb of the day, Cornell Road to Skyline.


We had a bit of fun while up on that hill. Ever say "I'm going to make it up that hill even if it kills me"?


Our weather kept improving. The rain had stopped, the sky was brightening enough that we now had shadows. A bit of wind developed that would be in our faces the remainder of our trip, but hey, we can ride in headwind. ;-)

We made our way to Lake Oswego and made a lap of it. The lake doesn't look like much of a lake right now. It is drained while they do some work on sewer lines under the lake.


We finished up our ride today back in Tualatin. I noted that we finished today's ride at the same location that I begin my night route. The weather was nicer than when we began this morning, the route was flatter, a coincidence? I think not. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and took off again in search of 100 miles.

I finished up just as it was getting dark. It was a good day to be on the bike. Mark and I got to ride quite a few "new to us" roads on a course that we will likely ride again and I got my March century in the bag! I ended up with 106 miles with just over 8000 ft of climbing.

Next week I've got two good rides planned (here and here) so March is off to a good start.


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.......106..............0.............0..........0.........106
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......213..............0.............0..........0.........213
YTD.......1227...............0............21..........7........1255

loss of focus

I had planned to ride a birthday ride with a member of the social bike group, and about 20 others. A last minute issue came up and I wished the birthday boy a happy birthday and took my bike out to OMSI with a plan to re-ride yesterday's 79 mile hilly ride. As I pedaled out the Springwater Corridor my bike pansy took over. I just didn't have it mentally to ride that today. I rode out 14 miles to Linneman Station and turned around. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to ride, I just couldn't seem to get my head around doing it.

I guess I'll have to ride in the rain later this month to get my century for March. :-(

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........28..............0.............0..........0..........28
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......107..............0.............0..........0.........107
YTD.......1121...............0............21..........7........1149

Chilly Hilly x2.................

.........except that it wasn't chilly at all!

It was raining hard last evening, but predicted to morph into showers by today. We were pleasantly surprised to ride 79 miles today with no real rain. We did have just a few drips at our 60 mile mark but not enough to make the road wet, or require us to put on our rain gear. Temperatures were comfortable and there was no wind, not even at Crown Point in the Gorge!

7 of us took off from OMSI on the Willamette River in Portland today with plans to ride out to Multnomah Falls and back.



We started off a bit weakly, Steve had a flat just a few miles into our ride today. He repaired it and we pedaled on, only for him to have another flat in another 7 miles!


Once we got that out of the way we pedaled along on our quest to reach Multnomah Falls. It was a beautiful day to be on a bike.


We eventually reached Multnomah Falls and took a break to eat and drink a bit. Mark was the center of attention with his bamboo bike. Folks were wondering if it was real wood or just painted to look like wood. It is indeed real wood, though technically bamboo is a grass.
I guess I should have taken a photo of his bike, but didn't think I'd be writing about it today as we were riding! ;-)



I missed the turn onto Mershon Rd, thinking it was a side loop we had taken earlier, and instead followed the Sandy River to Troutdale. It saved us just a small amount of planned climbing but added 2 miles to our ride today.

We had a few personal records today, it was Tom's longest ride ever. It was Mark's longest ride since Cycle Oregon last summer, and Kay too found herself riding her longest ride since Cycle Oregon, and just over twice the distance as well as over twice the climbing she did last week at Chilly Hilly. Congratulations to all of them!

My Garmin 305 is in for repairs so I was riding with my Garmin 205, which is not as accurate when it comes to measuring elevation gains. The 205 measured todays cumulative elevation at 7221 ft, the mapping program reports the ride at just under 6200 ft. With total climbing anywhere in that range it means we had a lot of "up" today.

Couldn't have a better group of folks to ride with!


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........79..............0.............0..........0..........79
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March........79..............0.............0..........0..........79
YTD.......1093...............0............21..........7........1121

ipadio: Following the Desert Coyote - 77th phonecast

Chilly Hilly

5 of us from my social bike group made the trip up to Bainbridge Island near Seattle for today's Chilly Hilly.
(Mark H. photo)

Two other members of our group came across on the ferry in the morning but weren't there yet when the photo was taken.
Chilly Hilly is the season opener for Cascade Bicycle Club.
It's a short but fun ride. It is a 33 mile route with 2675 ft of climbing. Since it's winter you get to see a few expensive bikes being walked up hills, and also more than a few more common bikes being walked too.

(Kay S photo)

On my drive up on Saturday evening I saw sub freezing temperatures the whole way up with snow falling from Castle Rock to Bainbridge Island. The forecast called for freezing temperatures in the morning that would give way to 40 degrees and rain by noon.

With a forecast like that we figured we'd have a short window between icy roads and a cold rain. We were pleasantly surprised to see that clouds had come in over night and the temperature climbed a bit. It was 36 at 7AM. The wind had picked up out of the south at about 15-20 mph. A south wind in these parts often means rain.
Our little group decided to get on the course and get as many miles before that cold rain started to fall as was comfortable.




We weren't racing, it was after all supposed to be a fun and relaxed bike ride, but we didn't tarry too long either. I ran into a friend who lives up that way, is a member of West Sound Bicycle Club as well as a fellow member of Cascade Bicycle Club. Leo is quite a character!
(Mark H photo)



We finished the ride up, milled around the finish line festivities for a very brief time, and then the rain started in. We decided to go for lunch rather than stand around the finish and get wet.

We left the finish area at noon, and rode back up the hill to our rooms.
By the time we changed clothes it was raining hard, and was 37 degrees. We had two of our group still on the road. I drove back to see if they wanted to get a ride back while Mark and Sandy went to the restaurant to get a table for us.

I did sag in one of our group, the other pedaled it on out. I can report that there were a lot of people still on the course at 1:30, and few if any had smiles on their faces.

It was nearly 3:30 by the time I began driving back toward home, and I can tell you that there weren't any smiles at that time either from the wet and cold people still on bikes.

Counting the commute to and from the ride from our room I got 35 miles today. Not many miles, but enough to put me over 500 for the month.


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........35..............0.............0..........0..........35
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530

YTD.......1014...............0............21..........7........1042

ipadio: Following the Desert Coyote - 74th phonecast

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........60..............0.............0..........0..........60
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........495..............0.............0..........0.........495

YTD........979...............0............21..........7........1008

February's century

Ken and I rode the northern 50 miles of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway today. Okay, so technically we rode about 9 miles to get to the route then rode the balance of our intended 50 mile out and back on the route itself. Our turnaround point was just prior to the bridge over the Willamette River near Independence.

We chose to stay low on the valley floor to avoid issues with snow and ice that plague the hills surrounding us this week. That part worked well, the roads were dry and ice free. Ken is just coming back from a brief illness and his bike fitness is suffering a bit. He normally works me pretty hard on our rides, today he was struggling to keep the pace.

He reported a heart rate in the low 160's as I was pedaling along in the low 120's. He had thought about turning around and bagging today's ride at about our 25 mile mark today. After some thought he gutted it out and made it to our 50 mile mark and today's turn around point. We were just short of the bridge at Independence.
We had been riding into a slight headwind and now would be enjoying a tailwind....that was increasing as the day wore on.

We got back to Salem, about 65 miles into our ride, and stopped for some food. I was a bit concerned with our time. At the very end of our ride today we would have to cross the Boone Bridge on I-5. A bit scary at best, it is worse now because interchange construction has narrowed the lanes and eliminated the shoulder. I wanted to be across that bridge well before dark. I talked about riding on at my own pace and coming back with a vehicle to sag Ken in. We decided to ride and see how it went.

With the tailwind I was pedaling along at 20 mph with just under a 120 bpm heart rate. Ken was following along........ until we climbed a few small hills. He just couldn't keep the power flowing today. It's not often that I can out ride Ken, I made sure to make a mental notation of today's event! ;-)

I held up a few times, and finally, looking at the time, decided I best ride on and get across that bridge then come back to see if Ken needed a ride back in.

I pedaled well, kept up a brisk and sustainable pace.

I crossed the Boone Bridge at 4:05pm well before sunset. I rode back to my pickup than began to backtrack the route to see where Ken was and offer him any assistance he might need.

I found him within 4 miles of the end. He said he felt strong enough and confident that he could ride to the finish. I offered to transport him over the bridge and suggested that he could make up the balance of the 100 miles on the other side of the river along residential streets. He'd have none of that... he was going to finish this ride! (that's the spirit needed for this Race Across Oregon hopeful!)

I turned on the 4 way flashers and played follow car for him, providing protection for him as he pedaled along.

He did finish the 100 miles, exactly 40 minutes after I had arrived. I was a bit amazed that I had put 40 minutes on him in less than 35 miles, but that's what happens when you aren't back 100% yet. Been there.

It was good that he finished today. Centuries should not always be easy, if they are you aren't gaining a lot by riding them. He pushed hard today to overcome his issues. I am happy for him and salute his accomplishment.

My on bike average today for the combined out and back was 16.4 mph.

I rode to and from the ride today so I garnered an additional 3 miles.


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.......103..............0.............0..........0.........103
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........435..............0.............0..........0.........435

YTD........919...............0............21..........7.........948

Beautiful day on the bike.

Beautiful day on the bike. 4 of us rode a Skyline route that gave us 43 miles with 4121 ft of climbing. More details to come. (posted via my cell phone)

interim update:
It had been raining hard all day yesterday and changed to rain mixed with snow after dark. Somewhere between 8PM last night and daylight this morning it cleared up and got cold. We had ice all over this AM.... but the sun was shining brightly. A few of us decided we just HAD to get out and ride.

One of today's group, a recent transplant from the east coast, had never been riding on Skyline Road, and wanted to give it a go. We mapped out a 42 mile route that would take in 12 miles of Skyline and give us 4400 ft of climbing.

We began pedaling from Rock Creek Tavern at 10:45, and the temperature was 41 degrees.
We thought a bit about snow in the higher elevations, our high point today would be 1400 ft. The roads were mostly dry as we began our ride in the sunshine with a bit of wind to help dry things out. As we climbed up we were sheltered more by trees and lost the wind, and picked up shade.... and beginning at about 1000 ft started getting ice on the road.

By the time we got to just past the intersection of Skyline and Rock Creek Road it became apparent that we were not likely to get to Rocky Point and it's 1400 ft of elevation.
(Thanks to Mark H for the photos of today's ride)

We carefully picked our way along for another half mile or so and finally decided to turn around and find an alternate, lower elevation, ride today.



For those familiar with the area, we climbed Germantown Rd, Jackson Quarry Rd, and Logie Trail Rd.

We stayed off the north side of the hill (Columbia River side) because of ice concerns on the shady side. We picked our descents and climbs based on exposure to the sun.

It was 41 as we started, and 49 when we finished, but in the shaded areas we had snow and ice all day.

It was a good ride however, the glorious blue sky just sparkled!

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........43..............0.............0..........0..........43
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........332..............0.............0..........0.........332

YTD........816...............0............21..........7.........845