Taking the fixie out for a spin!

After yesterday's hard ride, it was time for a "recovery ride".  I took the fixed gear bike, because I haven't been on it in quite some time.  After today's ride I realized that for the first time ever, I've been on all 4 of my bikes in 3 weeks time.  The mountain bike took me to the Issaquah Tunnel and back, the rain bike (because it is equipped to mount panniers) took me to Vancouver BC. The carbon bike took me on yesterday's century ride. Tonight the fixie would take me on a wandering of Portland's waterfront.

My friend Kay is fresh back from an extended trip to South America. I thought a ride in her "hood" would be a good chance to catch up with travel stories. I called as I was on my way, and as luck would have it, she was just heading home. 

We met at Sellwood Riverside Park and pedaled to the new Tilikum Crossing-Bridge of the People. As we pedaled along the Springwater Corridor I recognized Lisa from yesterday's ride going the other direction. I guess I wasn't the only one out for a recovery ride.  ;-)
Kay had been across the bridge since it opened in mid-September,  I had not.  She became the defacto tour guide. We rode along the Springwater Corridor, then Eastbank Esplanade, before looping around to access the bridge.  There were easier ways to get there, but cycling is rarely about the easy way.

When we got across the bridge we turned around and came back.  Kay didn't want to ride the roads on the west end of the bridge to make a loop. That was okay, the light would be better going the other way!

There was no discussion, but it seemed that Kay was happy with the out and back to the bridge. She was leading and turned back toward Sellwood.  Along the way, we again met Lisa going back the other way! We had a passing shout out, but did not stop.

When we got back to Sellwood, Kay turned back toward her home, I decided to go for bonus miles. I turned back toward downtown Portland. With the late start I didn't get back into Portland until the sun was getting low in the sky. I had lights along so I was not too concerned.

I rode the Eastbank Esplanade to the Steel Bridge, crossed over the Willamette River and rode back along the west bank.  I crossed the Hawthorne Bridge then looped back to Sellwood. I knew that if I got 25 miles I'd have 200 miles for the month, so I rode out east on the Springwater Corridor again just in search of some miles.  Mission accomplished.


.......Road bike........Rollers.......MTB.......Lifecycle....Total
Today.........26...............0..............0..............0..............26

Jan..........765.............0..............0..............0.............765
Feb..........248............0..............0..............0..............248
March......183...........0...............0.............0...............183
April........228...........0...............0.............0...............228
May.........200............0..............0.............0...............200
June.........199...........0...............26...........0...............225
July..........246...........0...............0.............0...............246
August.....502...........0...............0.............0...............502
Sept..........974...........0..............44............0..............1018
Oct.............201............0...............0.............0...............201
Total........3598.........0...............70............0..............3678