Yes, my final #pedalpalooza ride!
Meet at P’s and Q’s (NE 13th Ave and NE Dekum St) at 6:30 PM tomorrow, Thursday June 29. We depart at 7. We ride approximately 5 miles to a mystery picnic destination.
Get supplies at P’s and Q’s (or elsewhere.) Keep it classy: Dress up a bit and think of fancy (but not necessarily spendy) things to eat and drink. Don’t forget your picnic blanket! (And layers and lights too!)
#pedalpalooza2017 #properpedalpicnic #bicyclepicnic
Tomorrow! Three #pedalpalooza events that blend into each other.
First, at 9 AM tomorrow, Sunday June 25, meet in Woodlawn Park (N of NE Dekum, W of NE 13) for Coffee Outside! Bring your own coffee to make via camp stove, or bring brewed coffee. Breakfast ain’t a bad idea, either.
Then, at 10:30 AM, the combined Three Speed Ride/Slough Country Ramble will depart! Bring any kind of bike, but Three Speed is of course preferred. We’ll ride about 15 miles around the lowlands of the Columbia Slough. Not a loop, will end near transit/food/beverage.
IT’S GOING TO BE HOT TOMORROW, so please be prepared! Extra water good. We WON’T have a brew up stop, but bring something like iced tea for a mid ride stop.
See you tomorrow!
#pedalpalooza2017 #woodlawnpark #coffeeoutside #sloughcountryramblers #columbiaslough #threespeed #threespeedride #societyofthreespeeds #threespeedmafia
One of my favorite area rides is the Historic Columbia River Highway through the Columbia Gorge. It can get choked with traffic on weekends, so that’s why it’s best to do it on a weekday. And you’re in luck, as I’ll be leading a ride out that way this Monday, June 26!
We’ll be meeting at 10 AM at a MAX station on the east side (full details will be revealed when you register.) You can choose to do it as a day ride to Multnomah Falls and back, which would be about 40 miles. The return trip will be “unguided”, but there will be maps!
And if you are willing, some of us will be camping at Ainsworth State Park, just four miles beyond Multnomah Falls. The hiker/biker site is $5 a person. There’s water and showers there too.
Are you interested in joining me? You are in luck, as there are still some spots left! This ride requires registration. And registration closes at noon Pacific Time this Saturday, June 24. Go register here: https://ualmdwkgorge2017.eventbrite.com
My Rough Stuff Ramble happens TOMORROW, Thursday June 22! Meet at Fillmore, 7201 NE Glisan at 5:30 PM. We depart at 6, so time to get food/drink at Fillmore! 15 mile mixed terrain and surfaces around I-205. Leisurely pace. Will end somewhere in NE near food and drink. Lights and layers recommended! Hope to see you there.
Tomorrow night is supposed to be decent, so why not spend it watching the sunset on the shortest night of the year atop Powell Butte?
Meet me at Taylor Court Grocery, 1135 SE 80th Ave. We will meet at 6:45 PM on Tuesday June 20. We depart from the market promptly at 7:15. Please don’t be a jerk to the business!
We’ll ride about seven miles, much of it will be fairly flat, with about a mile or so of dirt climbing at the end. And yep, we’ll be going up the Butte via the easiest route possible!
Hope you can join us!
Yes, my friend, the final two weeks of Pedalpalooza feature an explosion of rides from the Urban Adventure League! And tomorrow it’s going to be a history themed ride from me. Hope you can join us!
Meet at 11 AM on Sunday June 18 at Stark St Station, 6049 SE Stark St. We’ll depart from this cafe at around 11:30, so time to grab something to eat and/or drink!
Back in the day, there were stone markers laid out for every mile on SE Stark St. Miraculously, more than half survive! We’ll take an eastbound tour of the extant ones from MP 4 to 14. Ride will end out in Gresham. You can take transit home, though I’ll probably grab lunch at the end! Moderate pace, we’ll mostly be riding OFF Stark.
Okay, fine folks! Today (Sunday June 4) I am embarking on a week-long bike tour! If you’ve been following along on the Home Game you probably knew I would be taking a tour about now.
But the exact tour has changed a bit. Originally I had planned to take the train down to Klamath Falls and ride around that part of Eastern Oregon, ultimately ending up in Eugene.* But since I took the tour out to the coast a couple weeks ago, I had second thoughts with that plan. I just felt that it was a bit more daunting, a bit too much for me right now. I still want to do some touring down that way, just not at this moment.
But I still wanted to do a tour, and I still had the hankering to see the “dry side” of Oregon. I just wanted to do something a little closer to home. What about heading through the Gorge and doing stuff east of The Dalles? It’s been awhile since I had been out that way, and there’s still a bunch of stuff I want to explore. But…aren’t I going into the Gorge at the end of the month as part of Pedalpalooza? Well, yes, but I’m only going as far east as Ainsworth, which is not really far. I’d blow past there pretty fast, then off to Hood River and The Dalles.
At The Dalles I’m getting out of the Gorge and doing a loop up the Columbia Plateau, something I had thought about four years ago but never acted upon. This loop would take me southeast through Cottonwood Canyon on the John Day River, a very new state park, then through Condon and Fossil. I’d cross the John Day again at the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. I’ve seen the Painted Hills and Sheep Rock, but not this part of the Fossil Beds! From there, west to Shaniko then north back to the Columbia, mostly following the last segment of the Oregon Outback.
That brings me to Friday night. On Saturday I meet up with a group tour of a few friends who are doing a Hood River-The Dalles-Dufur loop. We’ll end up in Hood River on Sunday afternoon, and I’ll catch a ride with someone back to Portland.
I may blog once or twice along the way, but the best way to keep track of me on the road is either via my flickr or Instagram photostreams.
Okay, off for adventure!
*I even booked the train tickets.
I don’t usually do “blow-by-blow” reports anymore about Pedalpalooza, Portland’s (now) month long festival of bike fun. Not because it isn’t report-worthy, but there’s just so much going on and so much I participate in during the fest. So I typically do a few bigger review reports. (That is, if I remember to do them at all!)
But Thursday June 1st was a big day, in all senses of the word, and so I’m doing a report.
The day started out damn early, as my alarm went off at 3:45 AM so I can get to Mount Tabor at 5 AM for Sunrise Coffee. As much as my body protested being up that early, I’m the leader, so I can’t bail! The ride was okay: it was slightly drizzly, but remarkably warm, around 60F/16C. The drizzle stopped by the time I got to Tabor. There were eight other people who showed up, and we got to work making (or drinking made) coffee and eating treats. Unfortunately, the cloud cover never broke, so no sunrise. (While the last three Sunrise Coffees for Pedalpalooza were pretty cloudy, there was at least a glimpse of sun.)
People cleared out around 6 AM. I still had two (two!) hours before work, and it was close by, so I rode up to the top of Tabor (where I encountered a mess left behind by what I am assuming are Wednesday night revelers) and then got some more coffee, since I was going to need more if I would make it to the Kickoff Ride some twelve hours distant.
The seven hours of work were tough, to say the least, but I survived. I fought the urge to just go home after work (since I knew I wouldn’t go to the Kickoff Ride if I did) and instead did some errands and got some food. I met at the meet up spot, Salmon Street Fountain, at 7 PM. There was already a good amount of people, most I don’t know, but plenty I did in the mix, so we caught up until the ride departed around 8 PM. The mass took to the streets downtown and did a five mile loop crossing the Willamette River and back. And man, there were people! The estimate was 1,100! It is indeed something else to be in a group of so many other cyclists like this.* And it’s been awhile since I had been in this massive of a ride, as my rides are pretty low key.**
We got back to Salmon Street Fountain around 9 PM. The group splintered: most went home or do something else, a group went for a bonfire south. I elected to stay with the Thursday Night Ride crew and head north for a bonfire up by Heron Lakes. If anything, it was on the way to my house so I could bail easily if I felt. But I stuck it out to the very end and enjoyed company at the bonfire.
It wasn’t too long of a jaunt home, but it was still late. I got into bed around 1:30 AM. Yep, I had been up for nearly 22 hours straight! I don’t remember the last time I had done something like that. I used to do things like that more “in my youth” but now pushing 42 I’m surprise I lasted.
But next time? I either push back the morning coffee to something reasonable like 7 AM or take a nap during the day. Or preferably both!
*I know that some charity rides are this big or bigger, but we didn’t pay anything and moved pretty slow.
**I have had a few bigger rides. Last year’s Sunset/Moonrise ride got nearly 100 people.
