Playing Tourist Part Deux

I had so much fun yesterday, and saw even more country I needed to explore.

I started off by returning to the Folsom Handcar Derby where I watched some of the finals action.

I had seen an overpass just down the road a short distance that appeared to be a multi-use path.  I had no idea where it went, but from time to time I'd see an apparently abandoned railway that I assumed was the same railway that the handcar derby was held on.

I eventually saw signs that informed me that I was following Willow and Humbug Creeks.

After a few miles I spilled out to a street. Before too long I saw another trail.  This on was shorter, but had an interesting story. It seems that Thomas Rhoads managed to pick up 100 lbs of gold nuggets near here.

I eventually saw a road name that I recognized, and rode it back to where my pickup was waiting.  I crabbed some lunch, then drove down to old town Folsom, in search of exploring the historic powerhouse.

When I got to old town I sent a Facebook message to friend who lives somewhere near Folsom to see if he wanted to join me for an adult beverage.  While I was waiting for him to get there, I biked around the town a bit.

It seems that a railroad turntable was found by accident when some construction work was being done.

lock up your bike, or tether your horse!

Jeff arrived and we set about talking ultra bike racing, and having that adult beverage we had planned  on.   After we finished that duty I hopped on the fixed gear bike again and set off to the historic hydro plant as the sun began to dip low in the sky.

Where the canal ended and the power generation began.

You can click on any photo to view it full size, and be able to more easily read it.

The buildings, transformers, and some transmission wires are still in place.  The buildings were all locked up by the time I got there, but I believe the generators are still in place as well.  The light was dimming, and the buildings didn't provide a good angle to get many photos.

I had the Garmin on the bike, and the map of today's ride should prove to be interesting, but my cable for downloading is buried deep in my race gear box.  I'll unload that later and add the map here.

Well, I got the cable out.  I was expecting a much more interesting route. I thought I was riding a big circle shape.  The most interesting part of this route was a neighborhood where all the streets were named after rock stars.  Clapton, Isely, Knopfler, Starkey, and some I had to look up.

The second ride of the day was just a short ride to find the Fat Rabbit Public House, where I'd be meeting Jeff, followed by a ride down to the historic powerhouse.

It was a good day.  Not many miles, but interesting miles on a sunny day that reached into the mid 80's.

............Road Bike........Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........15................0....................0........................0...........15
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...............82................0....................0........................0.............82

Playing Tourist

I'm in Sacramento for a few days before continuing on south for the Southern California RAAM Challenge. This morning I was busy tweaking navigation files based on a moving target of team members' expectations.  In the early afternoon I became aware of a railroad hand car contest being held in nearby Folsom. I was off!

I drove up near town, then pedaled the fixie the rest of the way. I figured if traffic and parking were going to be of concern that traveling by bike was the best option.

I've biked the American River path a number of times, but have never been to the town of Folsom. I was putting my cell phone into camera duty, and it was failing today.  I got a few pictures in, but more often than not the screen was black.

I rode around historic old town Folsom.  I was trying to find where the hand car races were being held.  I found the sponsoring agency and was handed a flyer that explained the whole thing.  I was off again!

I found the activity.

After I watched a few hours of competition I pedaled back across a bridge in Folsom to the north side of the American River, the side that the American River trail is on.

I pedaled up to Folsom Dam.

The last time I was up this way the reservoir behind the dam was nearly dry.  Today they were spilling water after a very wet spring.  I continued beyond the main dam and followed trails that took me across 3 more wing dams.  I just tootled around, making my way back down across the truss bridge, then back up the canal that fed the old powerhouse, up to 50 years ago.  Now that canal has large trees growing in it.

I turned around when I reached signs saying that I was entering Folsom Prison land and would be prosecuted.

I finished up the ride riding around the streets of old town Folsom.

It was a nice ride!

............Road Bike........Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........24................0....................0........................0...........24
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...............67................0....................0........................0.............67

May

I closed out April with a week long trip to Arizona to provide kayak support for a SCAR swimmer. (Saguaro, Canyon, Apache, and Roosevelt Lakes).  This month might not be much better.  At least I got on the bike today.  A good friend inquired about a ride.  I only have 1 day this month available, and it was today.  Lucky for us, after rain yesterday, today it cleared up and reached into the low 80's.  It would be a nice day for a ride, with nice company to ride it with.  In the past we rode together often, but in the last couple of years life has taken its toll. She got married, and I began doing a lot of bike race crewing.

I was glad she contacted me.  We took off on Portland's 40 Mile Loop.  It was a beautiful day.

Early in the ride, along the East Bank Esplanade

We left the shores of the Willamette River and made our way along Interstate Ave and Going Street then around the bluff at the University of Portland.  We were having a great ride until we turned onto the Peninsula Crossing Trail.  It seems that they were working on repaving the approaches to the Columbia Slough Bridge, and failed to put up any signage until right at the closure.

We backtracked to Columbia Blvd then detoured nearly 6 miles out and back to Interstate Ave to get an alternate crossing of the Columbia Slough.

My friend had a morning appointment that precluded getting started before 10 AM, and she needed to be finished up by 1:30 PM.  The added miles were going to put us in a time crunch.  I kept the pressure on the pedals of my fixie, trying to at least get her to the half way point, where there would only be two turns on bike paths left,  before cutting her loose.

We pedaled along Marine Drive taking in the sights.

At 39th Ave we exited the road and got on the Marine Drive Path. I was holding a good 17 mph on my fixie, but I knew that wasn't good enough to get her back by 1:30.  I told her to just take off.  It didn't take long for her to agree, and within minutes she was out of sight.

I slowed down a bit and took in the view.

I was getting hungry, so stopped for tacos as I made my way southward along the Interstate 205 path.
From there on I just pedaled.  With our little detour around the Columbia Slough Bridge I got 42 miles.  It was a nice ride on a day that would reach 83 degrees.  It was quite a change from the rain of yesterday.


............Road Bike........Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........43................0....................0........................0...........43
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...............43................0....................0........................0.............43

Another Hardware Store Ride

Another nice day, into the 70's and sunny. (a day of rain has transpired since the last nice day) Today I made another trip to the hardware store. Today's trip was for glazing points, window glaze, and a putty knife. Today I'm replacing windows in a sun porch.

............Road Bike........Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........2................0....................0........................0...........2
Jan..............304...............15...................0......................31..........350
Feb................0..................0....................0.......................0..............0
March..........18.................0....................0........................0............18
April...........113.................0....................0........................0...........113

A Hardware Store Ride

The weather was nice, I should have gone for a long ride, but was busy doing projects.  I rode to the hardware store and picked up some paint, a roller, and roller pan.

............Road Bike........Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........2................0....................0........................0...........2
Jan..............304...............15...................0......................31..........350
Feb................0..................0....................0.......................0..............0
March..........18.................0....................0........................0............18
April...........111.................0....................0........................0...........111

Ladd's 500

Not as scary as it sounds!

The Ladd's 500 is the brainchild of David Barstow Robinson, a guy I've met through the Thursday Night Ride.  Today's event was billed as the "Second First Annual".  Yes, they did this last year too!
Portland's bike culture showed up en masse today, as did a few of us old fogeys.

My ability to grab videos seems to be not working tonight.  If you are on Facebook you may see the video I wanted to put here.... here.

It was a beautiful day, perfectly blue skies, perfect temperature to race bikes, only the slightest of breeze.

Dave, Doak, and Alan joined me as a 4 man team to ride the 500 laps of Ladd's Circle.

We set up a table and chairs under a canopy, just because.

Alan picked our team name. Roughly translated into "the slow bunnies of Ladd's Circle"  ;-)


 Each lap  is 0.2 miles in length.  It was a crazy day.  Tall bikes, fixed gears, swing bikes, cargo bikes, miniature bikes, unicycles, even skate boards.  All going round and round.

Despite the look of the peloton, the field was moving ~19 mph.  A few faster, and a few slower, but if you were out there at 17 mph, you were in somebody's way!

Vest and Kathleen each stopped by and we talked them into taking a few "guest pulls".

Vest tearing the course up, Kathleen was too fast to get a photo of!

There were plenty of things to keep us amused.  This couple were grilling hamburgers as they moved down the route at 20 mph, even passing out the finished product as they pedaled along.

There was no shortage of food, another bike was preparing burgers too, but there big claim to fame was the big propane blast that they'd set off from time to time.

It was one of those days where smiles were everywhere.

Even if T-Rex was hot on your tail!

We ended up finishing the 500 laps (100 mi) with a 21 mph average.  Not bad for a bunch of slow rabbits!

............Road Bike........Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........21................0....................0........................0...........21
Jan..............304...............15...................0......................31..........350
Feb................0..................0....................0.......................0..............0
March..........18.................0....................0........................0............18
April...........109.................0....................0........................0...........109

Unprepared

I took off late this morning for a short ride.  I thought maybe I'd ride into town for a burger, or maybe teriyaki. I put on a helmet, but was wearing a sweater and blue jeans.

The weather was gorgeous, despite a 30% chance of rain, rising to 90% by late afternoon.

I rode to the other side of the freeway via the path under the Boone Bridge.

 I got across the little wood bridge in the above photo, and found an abandoned road that looked interesting.  I rode around the gate (hey, who was going to mind?) and went exploring.  The place obviously hadn't seen traffic for quite some time.

I'm not sure what it was in the past. I didn't see any foundations, so suspect it might have been a mobile home park. There were some metal anchor points around, but no power poles left.  Just paved roads covered in moss, some leveled out areas that looked like driveways, or side streets, and a lot of non native ornamental plants.

I continued on, with no real destination in mind.  Lunch could wait! I rode some paths and fringe streets and eventually made my way to Graham Oaks Park again.  The through trail open to bikes, the Tonquin Trail, is part of a larger planned network of trails that will connect several parks.  This sign talked about the ice age floods that scoured the landscape northwest of here.

More recent landscape changes were caused when small rivers were piped and diverted, and wetlands drained.  Now some of that process is being reversed as Graham Oaks Park is being developed to return the area to an Oak Prairie.

From there I pedaled northward to pickup a burger.  I noted that a hawk was also looking for lunch.

Having negated the health benefits of the morning ride, I headed back south.  The weather was still quite pleasant. I made my way along Boone's Ferry Rd, and noted these historical markers. Bill Flynn thought he'd cash in those waiting for passage on the ferry, and on the increase of business brought in by the railroad being built, and barged his mahogany bar from Butteville downstream to Boone's Ferry and up the river bank to this location. The building stood until April 1971, when it succumbed to a wind storm.

(you can click on any of these photos to see full sized versions....which are easier to read!)

The era of community baseball was not just a city thing.  My dad told of baseball being a big deal in his young adulthood.  Even the tiny farming community of Verboort had a team. A member of the Verboort team, and dad to my elementary and high school classmate as well as cousin, went on to do quite well in the major leagues.

I rode back into Graham Oaks Park, this time from a different access point, and saw these two signs.
The first describes again the huge ice age floods that created this landscape.

This one describes the glacial erratics that are found around here.

I continued riding around neighborhoods and fringes.  I came to a sign that puzzled me.  It was on a gate that accessed a Oregon Department of Transportation storage yard near the freeway.  It talked about how they would remove any personal property within 1500 ft of the sign, despite that it would mean  removing personal property that was outside their perimeter, within a church parking lot, residential driveways, and a car dealership.  I'm sure it must have been instigated by some issue, but I doubt that this would be enforceable.

I rode back along Boone's Ferry Rd.  The train that was to bring customers to Mr Flynn's bar, today was carrying freight as it passed by. I waved, the engineer waved back.  ;-)

As I made by way back under the Boone Bridge, I noted a bike in the brambles.  It has obviously been there for some time.  I suspect it had been stolen.  I did my best to ride two bikes. Not the easiest thing to do when riding a fixed gear.  I found it hardest to stop, with one hand on the other bike, and only one hand left to provide leverage to exert back pressure on my cranks.

As I neared downtown Wilsonville, it began to rain.  I ducked into a picnic shelter in Memorial Park to wait for the shower to pass.

After some time, the rain tapered off and I continued my trip northward, with two bikes!
I ended up bringing the bike to the police station.  They said they didn't have facilities to store it.  As we were talking, another woman who appeared as if she worked there, said that they donate bikes to a non profit nearby, where kids work on bikes and sell them.  I said that sounded good to me.  The bike didn't need much, probably a new chain and a few cables. The tires looked good, and held air when I pumped them up.

It was a good ride, not many miles, but nice to get out. I was unprepared for the possibility of rain, and my jeans got soaked from the water rolling off the front tire and splashing against the down tube, my sweater got wet and heavy, but at least I was warm!

............Road Bike........Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........27................0....................0........................0...........27
Jan..............304...............15...................0......................31..........350
Feb................0..................0....................0.......................0..............0
March..........18.................0....................0........................0............18
April............88.................0....................0........................0............88