We are almost at the end of the first month of Pedalpalooza. There’s been at least one hundred rides and events that have happened since the Kickoff Ride on Wednesday June 1st. But how many rides have I been on? Not many. Many of the rides boil down into the pop culture reference, dance party, and/or “big ride for the sake of a big ride” categories that don’t have much of a draw for me. (For others these are big draws.) I try to find the more weird, esoteric, small rides. These ones get crowded out on the calendar, but they are there. Unfortunately sometimes life (or more importantly work) gets in the way and I missed a few rides I wanted to go on.
So the first ride I went on since the Kickoff was Tom Howe’s Know Your Greenways Ride in North Portland on June 8th. Tom is leading these rides every Wednesday through Pedalpalooza, each one concentrating on a greenways (known as bike boulevards elsewhere) loop all over town. This particular one started at Overlook Park and made an eight mile loop via N Concord Ave, the N Columbia Blvd side path, N Hamlin/Wabash, and N Greeley Ave. There was about 25 folks for the ride. It was fun, and I may catch another one in the series at some point.
And the next two Pedalpalooza events were mine! The month had been a cool and damp one so far, so I was lucky when my Sunset/Moonrise Ride came up on Tuesday June 14th: the day stayed dry, though on the cool side. And while the sunset was ok, we were actually treated to a great moonrise as the orange orb rose over Rocky Butte at about 10:20 PM. This was a long time (almost 1 1/2 hours!) after sunset, and the cool night meant that many folks left before moonrise. Hopefully the next ones will be on warmer nights with less of a wait.
And the next day was my Midweek Gorge Ride (and camp). There was fifteen of us at the Cleveland Ave. MAX station in Gresham at 9:30 AM. Everyone in the crew rode the 19 miles to Multnomah Falls. It was warm (low 70s) and a bit cloudy, a fine day for a ride. The traffic was pretty light, too, only getting thick at the Falls. Three people turned back at Multnomah Falls, the rest of us camped at Ainsworth, where the mosquitoes were pretty thick. (Thank that damp spring for that.)
There was a bit of drizzle/light rain overnight into the morning, but things did clear up. Emee and I headed east to ride the 11 miles into Cascade Locks, most of it on the Historic Columbia River Highway Trail. After lunch at Thunder Island Brewing, we took the bus home.
Taylor Griggs of BikePortland came along for the ride and wrote a report, you can read that here.
Okay, two more months and many more Pedalpalooza rides to go…
Urban Adventure League 