My riding buddy and I met at Baker & Spice and I got my Friday Mocha. Despite that it’s in a SB stainless mug, it did come from the bakery’s espresso machine. My bike is locked outside in the parking lot. I also picked up a loaf of the bread my wife enjoys to take back home, that’s it in front of the handlebar bag. Total (for the whole day) mileage was 22.2 miles with an elevation gain of 1,899 feet.
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| The mocha, handlebar bag, and Hillsdale Loaf |
We delivered the goods to her and then took a longer ride down to the Willamette River through the cemetery. It’s amazing how fast going down the same route is compared to climbing the 450 feet.
Then across the river on the 2 year old Sellwood Bridge, with bike lanes in both directions as well as 10ft sidewalks on both sides of the bridge. It replaced a two lane with one 3 ft sidewalk on the north side, so passing pedestrians and other cyclists was quite the challenge. The cars, of course, are always in a hurry to get somewhere else, so only the hearty would dare taking a traffic lane.
Then we connected to the Springwater Corrridor, an early rail to trail in this area that now goes from downtown some 22 paved miles to a town called Boring. We went toward downtown and made the nearly seamless connection to the Vera Katz East Side Esplanade, Another great piece os cycling/ pedestrian infrastructure. Crossing the river on the Steel Bridge, the only double lift bridge in a large area. The train level can rise independently of the traffic deck, when tall ships come by.
Then my buddy needed to pick up fixings for his dinner at New Seasons market at NW Raleigh and 21st Avenue. From there we decided to climb to the Pittock Mansion. An early lumber Barron had this mansion built with lots of new features for a house built at the turn of the last century. It has a rather commanding view over our fair city.
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| Pittock Mansion grounds |
Just a few steps away, through the crowd, this is the view from there. Even Mt Hood makes an appearance.
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| View over downtown Portland and Mt Hood |
Here’s the “proof” that both of our bikes made it up there. You have to trust that we rode them. The last quarter mile is for the smallest chainring on the triple that our Surly Disk Truckers have. The forward motion is about as fast walking up as it is riding in that gear. But it’s definitely a huffer/puffer of a hill.
From here we lost a couple hundred feet of gain only to need to make it up again and get to Skyline and descend onto the Sylvan gap, where US 26 freeway crests, and there’s a Starbucks up there. My riding buddy lives to the west, so we parted and I went south before a screaming descent to get back to where I started.
