The Monday Ride: Finding the Obscure and Out-Of-The-Way (20 April 2020)

It’s Week Whatever of Pandemic! I’ve been staying at home, but still getting out on walks and rides, to get my exercise and to keep up my mental well-being. The weather has been beautiful for the last few weeks, a “Summer Preview” if you will. I’d love nothing else to go on an epic ride to the Columbia Gorge, or at least bike camp. But I know that would be impractical and not right. So, I’ve been keeping my adventures close to home.

And with a city like Portland, there’s lots to do “close to home”. You just have to be creative. Avoid the “usual”, pull out the map (or whatever), look at places that you haven’t been before, or not in awhile. Even for me, a person who feels like they “know everything” about this town.

For Monday’s Bike Adventure, I decided to head for a place I hadn’t been in a long time: Salish Ponds, about 10 miles due east in the city of Fairview. I’ve passed by Salish Ponds several times, and had stopped there once or twice, but it’s been awhile. I was hoping for a decent ride and a destination that I could maybe chill at for a bit and not worry about other folks.

I decided to ride the Raleigh Crested Butte. While the Bantam would have been the better choice (the relaxed angles and not-great fit of the Crested Butte means that 20 miles is pushing it), I tweaked my left shoulder last week. I wanted something with upright bars so I wouldn’t put that much weight on the bars. (The Raleigh Superbe is another candidate, but I’ve been riding that pretty much all the time the past few months, and I wanted something with wider ties.) I loaded up the bike with necessities: tools, water, snacks, coffee outside kit, small radio, and headed east.

I decided to stick to the “Big Roads”, since there’s not a lot of “side street” connectivity heading east from the house, and also since streets like Burnside and Glisan have bike lanes. (The NE Glisan bike lanes between 122nd and 162nd are pretty new, too.) And I don’t regularly ride Glisan out this way. And this “riding an area that I don’t usually” does something for me–it almost feels like I’m riding into uncharted territory, like I’m really travelling. This is a good feeling to have in times like this.

I passed through a few other parks that I hadn’t been to. Columbia View in Gresham was a fairly undeveloped parcel of trees and grass that had a vague view of the valley. Nadaka Park was once a Camp Fire Girls property. I stopped by this mostly-wooded 10 acre parcel years ago, since then the grassy lot on the south side has gotten a playground and a covered picnic structure. The wooded north side still remains like it was, so I had a great little cruise through the woods.

I eventually got to Salish Ponds. Alas, it was a bit more peopled than I hoped. No, not overrun, but there were folks hanging out at pretty much any obvious spot by the water, many of them fishing. I cruised the trails for a bit, then turned around. I had passed by Kirk Park on the way in, and decided to stop there instead. It was pretty big, with very few people, and most importantly, it had a picnic table. So this is where I had my coffee outside, with the Trangia 27 stove and a pour-over “sock” over camping mug.

It was pretty much a straight-shot westward back the way I came. I could have picked a more rambling route, but it was getting late and I wanted dinner.

Hope you are all hanging in out there, and getting on some adventures. A wee adventure is good right now, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.