Day 1 of #ridingeverydayinNovember

Last year with just a couple of days to go before November I came up with a crazy idea to challenge folks on Facebook to join me and ride every day in November.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think so many people, from so many locations, would take up the challenge.  Riding every day in one of Oregon's traditionally wettest months ended up being way more fun than anyone would dream possible.

This year I again presented the challenge, this time with a bit more notice.  This time there are 48 people accepting the challenge!   The number of folks participating in the challenge has made itself known by the deluge of Facebook notifications I had in my email inbox tonight telling me that people had posted to https://www.facebook.com/groups/ridingeverydayinNovember.

It looks to be an exciting month!

I too got out for day 1 of #ridingeverydayinNovember.

I had an afternoon of driving ahead of me, so I'd have to ride in the morning.  Luckily, the rain of yesterday (2 inches in Portland!) had tapered off.

My friend Julie was in town, but was in a bit of a funk and not feeling at all social.  That, and with the long drive ahead, meant that we pedaled early in the day.  As it was, I felt I was lucky that I had company and wasn't riding this alone.

We waited for one rain shower to pass over then started at Sellwood Riverfront Park and rode toward downtown Portland.

Despite the lingering shower or two, the weather was pretty decent.

Julie is from Seattle, and not fond of travel.  She had never seen or bike across the Tilikum Crossing.  She was in for a treat!

Whether she thought so was still the subject of discussion.

It's too bad that the view from the new bridge is less than one might hope for. The Marquam Bridge (Interstate 5) is hardly an architectural wonder.

We crossed the Tilikum Bridge then turned north and rode along the Waterfront Trail.  We stopped at the Salmon Street Springs and noted that for some reason "the tide was out". (no water emanating from it)

We continued to the Steel Bridge where we made our way back to the east side of the Willamette River.  At that point I weighed the option of riding north to the Columbia River via Williams Ave, but given the brisk south wind, I figured that 4 miles of headwind was going to be about all that Julie would ride without major grumbling.  We turned south and began the headwind ride back to Sellwood. A quick stop was made to get the mandatory bike photo to post to the #ridingeverydayinNovember Facebook group.

#ridingeverydayinNovember

And another quick stop to take a photo of the crews out racing in the river.

As the sky began looking ominous to the south, threatening a good soaking, we finished up.  It was good to get a ride in on the first day of November and not get wet.

..........Road Bike.....Rollers.....MTB.....Lifecycle..Total
Today ....11...............0...............0.............0..............11
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
Aug.........502.............0...............0..............0.............502
Sept.........974.............0,,,,,,,,,,,,,,44.............0............1018
Oct.......... 962.............0..............45.............0............1007
Nov............11..............0................0.............0...............11
_________________________________________
total.......4518.............0.............115............0...........4633