With that I'll reminisce about some cool rides I've done lately. With many of my rides, they are often into areas and roads where I've never been before.
A Long Ride
Two Saturdays ago I had a long ride scheduled for me: 4.5 hours - the longest yet this season. Here is a link to the data from that ride so you can follow along. I decided to go exploring southwest of Beaverton and climb over Bald Mountain and then do an interval near Newberg/Yamhill. I started climbing up Holly Hill rd since on the map it looked more interesting and curvy than going straight up Bald Mountain road. The road was very low traffic which was nice, but then suddenly at maybe 2/3rds up the climb, I see a sign that says "Pavement Ends".
I think "aw crap, I'll just trudge through it, it's probably not that far to the top." It was gravel and slightly muddy gravel, but the bike was handling it very well considering I was riding my Kysrium Elites with Michelin 23c tires. It was maybe 3 miles of gravel, very steep at times until I finally got to Bald Mountain road which was paved.
After this, I bombed down to the Newberg area down some exciting twists and turns. At the bottom I chilled out a bit and started a 1 hr interval in z3 and was really flying towards the end where I had the wind on my back. At the end of this, I was going north on Dopp rd, but it too turned into gravel (at about mile 45). I had had enough gravel already this ride, so I turned around and headed back on a road I knew was paved.
After this I pretty much zoned out in a long journey back to civilization (aka the closest MAX station so I could take the train home). I ran out of food completely at 4hrs. I had 2 water bottles with HEED and 3 CLIF Bars. I stopped by a grocery store to pick up some Gatorade and then headed to the MAX station. Done and done.
Trail Ride in the Dark
Last week on Wednesday I decided to start my ride from the office. Here's the data. Today was an easy day for me, so I usually take this time to go explore some areas of Portland since I don't have to worry about keeping speed. Also, going on trails at night is also good since there isn't much traffic. This combination of riding slow and at night enables me to go on trails more often since I don't have to worry about nailing some kid at 20mph or being that creepy bicyclist who doesn't ring his bell or yell on your left when passing an attractive and vulnerable female just trying to go for a run while not being bothered by the world.
Anyways, I decided to go explore this trail or series of paths from Beaverton along this creek towards Tigard. I got lost or rather didn't know where the next turn was numerous times on this ride so I was checking my handy dandy phone to see where I was and where the trail began again - it wasn't obvious -- especially in the dark. The trail was actually quite long and fun when I got to it. It went through a bunch of wetlands. At one point the trail was flooded about a foot deep, but I decided to go through it since going around would've entailed crossing a delightful 5 lane arterial. I made my way all the way to Tigard and then to Lake Oswego where I picked up the Terwilliger Trail and then Blvd. All in all a pretty fun ride.
Mt Tabor
And finally, this past Sunday, I rode up Mount Tabor for the first time. Like a lot of things in Portland, it is just so cool how special places like this mountain are sort of randomly located in an otherwise flat city and so close together. Portland's terrain and how it was all built upon makes me all happy inside. I had to use someone else's picture for this since my camera had some problems.
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