A good night for a ride

I've had a hankering for the last couple of weeks to sit by some water and watch the sun go down.  Tonight I finally did it.
A friend and I rode to Blue Lake Park in Fairview and had a picnic.

The ride out was aided by a tailwind and was quite quick. The cars trying to make progress on the freeway next to us during a late rush hour might have noticed us zipping pass them.



As we rode along Marine Drive we had a good view of Mt Hood.  I'm not sure why it looks so much closer from here than it does from Sandy, which is actually much closer, but it does.

The wind really gave us a push along Marine Drive, we kept the bikes moving in the 23-24 mph range.



We arrived in time to get our picnic set out just before the sun went down.  I love it when a plan comes together.

We nibbled on cheese and meat slices, and sipped Merlot.
All good things must come to an end and the park staff was quick to point out that the park closed at 9PM. After about 45 minutes there we gathered our stuff up and pedaled out.  It was beginning to cool off so jackets were donned.



Before long it was quite dark, but we both had lights along, thinking it might get dark before our little trip was done.  We rode a mix of dedicated bike paths and low traffic sharrowed streets.  It was a great evening for a bike ride.


...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today.................30...........0..............0..........0..............30 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
 July...............408................0...............0..........0..............408 Total...........3401.............0...............0..........0.............3401

Over the river and through the woods.

My mom, ("grandma" to many) had an appointment today and I drove her to it. I biked there then used her car to transport.  Maybe next Christmas I'll follow through on my jest to get her an adult tricycle, then she could bike around the neighborhood, and maybe even to her own appointments!  ;-)

I got there, as one would expect, by riding over the river (Tualatin) and through the woods (along Fanno Creek) to reach grandma's house.

Along Fanno Creek some ducks were out enjoying the day.

My route from Wilsonville to Hillsboro is mostly on paths.  It makes for a leisurely pedal without having to be concerned about vehicles. With my shortly after 8AM start, the ipodded masses had not ventured out yet either.

After reaching Beaverton I took Walker and Cornell out to Hillsboro.  Following mom's appointment a few of us went for lunch, then I reversed the route and returned to Wilsonville. 

By afternoon it had heated up a bit, and the wind had increased, but was tailwind for most of the way.  There were a lot more walkers, dogs, and kids on the trail too.  Most were attentive, but not all.

It was a good ride.


...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today.................53...........0..............0..........0..............53 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
 July...............378................0...............0..........0..............378 Total...........3831.............0...............0..........0.............3831

Just a hardware store run

Nothing spectacular, just hopped on the fixie and rode to Ace Hardware for some plumbing supplies. I brought my bike to my mother's house in hope of riding after the plumbing repairs, and before my evening meeting, but alas, the repairs took longer than anticipated, and the bike stayed in the pickup.

...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today..................3...........0..............0..........0...............3 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
 July...............325................0...............0..........0..............325 Total...........3775.............0...............0..........0.............3775

Dropped like a rock, Cary's 100k mile celebration ride

I'm just not in very good bike shape this year, spent too much of the winter not riding hard.... and that whole being lazy thing.

My college roommate's brother, and good friend of mine, Cary, has logged his 100,000th bike mile and celebrated with a hilly 61 mile ride today.  4 of us joined him in the celebratory ride.

The Hood River brothers, and their visiting brother-in-law from Utah came to ride.  Kent and I did the best we could to hang on.

I've biked over 600 miles since last Saturday, and my legs just lacked the snap necessary to keep up with the big boys.  That, and the head kept saying "you know the way, you don't need to knock yourself out".

The sky was cloud covered, and a bit cool.  Just perfect for the hills we would be climbing today. We started out from Edgefield near Troutdale and rode up the Sandy river (and crossing side canyons!) to near Sandy.  We then turned left and dropped into the Bull Run river canyon and climbed back out.  Cary likes hills and we rode our share of them today.  We followed Gordon Creek Rd to the Historic Columbia River Hwy and followed it out to Multnomah Falls.  The falls was very popular today, and the road was packed as we approached.  We didn't dally long, as soon as Kent and I arrived (well, mostly me!) we turned around and got out of that mess. Even on an overcast day the Gorge is beautiful.

We pressed on over Chanticleer Point then rolled back down to Troutdale.  As luck would have it, McMenamin's is celebrating their birthday today, and pints were $3 and the sun had just broken out.   That sounded like a perfect chance for a post ride debriefing. Kent bailed out quickly and didn't hang around.

L to R, John, Terry, Cary

 The rest of us sat around for a bit enjoying the afternoon.

61 miles, almost 5700 ft elevation gain, 15.3 mph in a lanterne rouge performance. It was a good day.



...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today.................61...........0..............0..........0..............61 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
 July...............322................0...............0..........0..............322 Total...........3772.............0...............0..........0.............3772

RAHOO

Joe Turner has organized a ride around Mt Hood for 5 years running now.  It has always been just a boat load of fun.  Today 10 of us made the 137 mile circuit. We started out just past 6AM from Sam Barlow High School.

We took note of the wind direction (always an important consideration when biking in the gorge!) and chose a clockwise ride. All we had to do was keep Mt Hood on our right today!  The sky was a bit cloud covered to start with.

We rode to the Sandy River then took the Historic Columbia River Scenic Highway east.  We stopped briefly to take the obligatory photo.

We continued on past Multnomah Falls.

And continued east of Multnomah Falls.

After a few more miles east  the powers that be are working at connecting the "orphaned" segments of the old highway. While officially closed yet, as a group we decided that the closed sign only applied to the rock patio work at the trail head. We pedaled on.  The new segment is gorgeous.

We did have one section that had not been paved yet, but with hard packed gravel it was very ridable with our skinny tires.

We eventually got to where there was significant work being done on a connection to the old highway.  We practiced our cyclocross skills and got through it.

Once on the old highway again we rode on into Cascade Locks.

Dean had a flat in this section.  We stood around and cheered him on as he changed the tube.

We rode the last mile or so into Cascade Locks



At Cascade Locks we stopped for a quick snack.

Beacon Rock in the distance over the locks

A few miles beyond Cascade Locks we had to get on the shoulder of I-84 for the last 14 miles to Hood River.  We had a brisk tail wind so the discomfort was short lived.

We stopped in Hood River for food.

We started out of Hood River with a turn south, and up the Dee Hwy.



We started getting views of Mt Hood.

Not to be outdone, Mt Adams also was vying for attention.

We were all having a good time.

Well, except for maybe Dean, who had another flat.

The orchards provided a great foreground for photos of Mt Hood.

We stopped again in Parkdale for our last chance to grab snacks and top off water before making the climb up Bennett Pass.

  It was a warm climb today. Even at a more relaxed pace sweating profusely was the order of the day. Here Paula used a small stream to cool off a bit.

 
 We reached Government Camp and stopped for water and restrooms. Our big descent was about to begin.
  As I rolled in the others said that "Thrasher" was there.  Furnace Creek 508 veterans know each other by their "totems".  Mine is Desert Coyote, Eric Troili's is Thrasher, I knew who they were talking about immediately. Thrasher supplied the mantra "focus on finishing, nothing else matters" that I memorized and lived by for my Furnace Creek 508.  Today Thrasher lives in Everett and still rides bike enough, to as he said, stay fit.  He also flys, and was in Oregon to stretch his wings.  It was nice to see him and his wife Desiree.

We then began the fun descent of Hwy 26 toward Sandy.  There was a headwind, enough to scrub about 10 mph from our speed, but 50 mph or 40 mph, it's still a fun ride!

I didn't think to turn the camera on until I was well down the mountain.  By this time I was down to 30 mph and pedaling.



We stopped at the Barlow Inn and had a piece of berry cobbler. Always worth the stop!

We horsed around a bit taking photos of people taking photos.  ;-)

We jumped off Hwy 26 and rode along the Zig Zag River for a few miles.  It was a very enjoyable reprieve.
After a few miles we were back on Hwy 26 until we reached Sandy, then turned on Bluff Rd.  Before too long we arrived at Jonsrud Viewpoint.  It was hard to not be somewhat in awe of just how far away that mountain that we had just biked around was.

Mt Hood with the benefit of telephoto

Mt Hood is really there, just behind a fence rail. :-(

We continued the last few miles back to Sam Barlow.

After the ride we all were invited to Joe's home for a pasta dinner!

Joe Turner photo

It was a taxing, but rewarding day.  All but one of the riders made the full distance, a record.

Fun on bikes!



...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today................137...........0..............0..........0.............137 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
 July...............261................0...............0..........0..............261 Total...........3711.............0...............0..........0.............3711

A not so laid back ride

A Seattleite posted to a Facebook group that he would be in the South Portland metro area this weekend and looking for about a 50 mile ride on Friday or Saturday.  I'm already planning on joining Joe's  ride around Mt Hood on Saturday, and that's way longer than 50 miles.  I tossed out that I'd be willing to join him on 50ish miles and was hoping for an easier pace to better sandwich between two days of harder riding.

He thought that sounded perfect.

We met in Sherwood this morning and headed south to Wilsonville and across the Boone Bridge (I-5).
It was just a little cooler this morning than it has been for the last week or so, but still very comfortable.
We were outside the urban growth boundary and riding through an agricultural area. Low traffic was the order of the day.

I was expecting a slower pace, but as always, one person's relaxed pace is another's hammer fest.  We weren't at race pace, but were holding a 17-19 mph flat ground pace.  That's probably about 4mph faster than I had planned.  No complaints from me however, and none from Michael were verbalized.  We did stop for a bit at the Champoeg Park Visitor Center to rest legs and top off water. We remounted our bikes and took French Prairie Rd.

After about 26 miles of generally southbound riding we turned east and began a series of north and east turns, stairstepping ourselves back toward the Boone Bridge.

We still had a few good miles before crossing the Willamette River and getting back on urban roads.

From time to time, the City of Wilsonville solicits input on how to better attract cyclists to the area.  The business community recognizes the economic benefit of getting folks to ride here.  The City is pretty good about installing bike paths and bike lanes in town but they could do so much more if they would put pressure on ODOT to fix this crossing of the Willamette.  A good percentage of people on bikes won't ride the shoulder of I-5, and even those that might consider it face considerable issues.

A good sweeping would certainly help

We made it across the bridge and took the first exit, spending less than a mile on I-5.  We rolled along the last few miles of today's route without issues, not that we expected any.  Michael took his leave with a few miles to go, as he was staying very near Cipole Rd and had no need to ride completely into the center of Sherwood. I drove to the ride this morning, so I continued all the way back to our starting point.

It was a good ride, and over early enough to get some chores done and prepared for tomorrows early start.



...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today.................52...........0..............0..........0..............52 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
 July...............124................0...............0..........0..............124 Total...........3574.............0...............0..........0.............3574

July 4th

What a beautiful day for a bike ride!

6 of us were going to ride from Sellwood Park today, but with holiday plans in flux, some ended up doing other things.  Kent, Paula, and I rode from Sellwood Park out to Rocky Point.

 It was an absolutely perfect day for riding.  Most of the day there was zero wind, and temperature never got about 72. We made our way northward on the Eastbank Esplanade then crossed the Steel Bridge and began climbing. In seemingly no time we were out of town.

We took Cornell to Thompson and continued to climb to Skyline.

Kent had never ridden with Paula or I.  He mentioned at one point, "That girl can climb".  Indeed she can!  It was a good group to ride with.  We kept a pretty decent pace most of the day.

After reaching the end of Skyline at Rocky Point Road we regrouped for a few minutes and visited with some other cyclists who were there.  One of the SUV ensconced  locals took the time to tell us that if we kept riding those roads we were going to get hit.  I thanked him for his concern, and wished him a nice day.

........ idiot...........

We backtracked a bit on Skyline then dropped down the south side via Moreland and Solberger Rds.  It was a fun run.

Before too long we were back into suburbia.  We were still having fun though.

While I filled water bottles from a drinking fountain Kent couldn't resist having some fun.

We crossed back over the West Hills at Sylvan the descended to the Metro Zoo then through the Hoyt Arboretum. We entered downtown Portland via Park Place and Salmon Streets then crossed the Hawthorne Bridge.  The bridge had raised to allow a sailboat to pass.   We had a front row seat to The Blues Festival that was happening right below us.

After crossing the Willamette River we rode back to Sellwood Park and closed out our trip.  It was early in the afternoon and Paula invited us to join her family's afternoon gathering. We rode to the party, but it was just short distance away.  It was fun.

It is a dog's life, but someone has to do it.

...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today.................64...........0..............0..........0..............64 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
 July................72................0...............0..........0...............72 Total...........3522.............0...............0..........0.............3522