Blasts from the Past: Touring Travelogues over the years

On a recent post, Prairie Voyageur asked if I there was an easy way to access my writings of bike tours past.  And I realized there wasn't, so spent a few hours poking around the back-end of the blorg cleaning and organizing, and adding some photos where appropriate.

To be bluntly honest, I was a pretty lazy blogger before a few months ago.  I didn't do a good job of writing posts, and if I started to document something like an tour, I would "fall off" after a while.  So reading these partial travelogues may not be that satisfying.  But it's all I got right now.  I'd love to say that someday I will finish up these writings, but with the new adventures that I intend to document extensively, I wouldn't expect much addition and refinement to these old posts.

The bike tour that I blogged about most extensively was my first, the Minneapolis-Madison-Milwaukee jaunt of September 2005.  And it ain't even on this blog! Check out one of my other blogs, Temporary Relocation Project for the scoop.  The entries from the TRP blog was the basis for the Temporary Relocation Project #1 zine that I published in summer of 2006 .  That right now is out of print.  I'm on the fence whether I'll reprint it, as I don't think it was executed that well (and wasn't received that well by some people, as evidenced by the comment here.)  But maybe I will reprint?  In any case, it won't happen until after the Cross-Continent Bike Tour if it does.

As for other posts, I created a Touring Travelogues that pulls together all my writings about bike touring on this blog.

You can check out my defunct flickr page for photos from my Pacific Coast Bike Tour of 2006.

I've also written about tours in some of the comics I've made over the years.  Unfortunately they are also out of print at the moment.  I don't have too much of it online yet, but due to this whole push of cataloging the old stuff, I've added a couple new comic posts on old tours here:
Wheely Fun Bike Tour, Summer 2008
New Haven-Montreal Bike Tour, Sept-Oct 2007
Route Verte Fall Tour 2007

And check out my art website for more comics goodness!

But don't worry, there's more to come!  Besides the inevitable blogging about the Big Trip, I do have a half-done Temporary Relocation Project #2 in the wings. It's all about my Trans-Oregon trip from last year.  Just need to rewrite some stuff.  I was hoping to have it done last summer, but you know how things go at the UAL HQ.  Soon, my friends, soon.

Route Verte: Fall Tour 2007

A comic originally for Momentum Magazine detailing my experiences with Quebec's La Route Verte bicycle route system.  Click to embiggen.

Wheely Fun Bike Tour, Summer 2008

Here's an account of my week-long bike tour with the Vancouver BC all-female bicycle dance troupe the B:C:Clettes that occurred in July of 2008.  This was originally published in Momentum Magazine.  Click images to "embiggen".

New Haven-Montreal Bike Tour, Sept-Oct 2007

These journal comics originally appeared in my mini-comic Trains, Bikes, and Automobiles which is currently out of print.  This happened during the Fall Tour of 2007.  Click on the images to "embiggen".

Big Trip Preparations: Health and Beauty Aids

Why yes, a post about toiletries!

As a man without health problems* and an aversion to colognes and hair products, my personal grooming needs are minimal.  As someone who's traveled extensively over the past decade, I've had a bit of practice in figuring out what I need and works.  I've whittled down my toiletry needs to a few basic items.  I pretty much use the same items whether it's at home or on the road.  So what do I use, and why?

Soap:

If at all possible I bring things that can be used for multiple things.  That's why I am an enthusiastic fan of Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps in liquid form. They're organic and not tested on animals. Dr. Bronners comes in many different "flavors", but the one I usually use is Peppermint.  While the basic use is body soap, the greatest thing about Bronners is its almost infinite versatility.  I've found at least five uses for it while traveling: body soap, shampoo, shaving cream, laundry soap, and dish soap. (Use for birth control not recommended anymore.)  All in one! All one!  And of course the second greatest thing about Bronners is all the crazy writing all over the bottle!

As an aside, I've also become a convert to Grandpa's Pine Tar Soap.  Yeah, it's got that "manly" musky tar scent, but I like it.  Blame Grant Peterson for this new find.  I'm going to leave this one home, however, just because Dr. Bronners is more versatile and portable.

Shave:

I could just forgo shaving on the trip, as some guys who've biked cross-country have done.  While not worrying about shaving is tempting, I follow the template of Dad and only grow beards during the winter months.  As for razors, I've used basic disposables in the past while traveling since they're easy to find.  This time I'll bring my Preserve safety razor instead.  As for "cream", I've used Bronners in the past, but I just discovered shaving oil. It lubricates the skin instead of foaming like a cream. The particular kind I got is from Pacific Shaving.  The idea is 5-7 drops will be enough to cover the shaving area.  And the bottle is tiny so it won't take up much space, while lasting a long time!  I've tried it a couple times, and it works just fine.  I wouldn't necessarily say it's better than cream, but it does the job.

Deodorant:

I've used Tom's of Maine typed hippie deodorants in the past, but just switched to Crystal, which is basically a big lump of mineral salt.  The basic idea is these salts neutralize the bacteria that causes stink. After a few weeks of usage, I conclude that it works, though I can't say if it's better than the other hippie deos I've used.  What I will say is better is that it lasts a long time.  I haven't noticed any depreciation in "the rock", whereas normal deodorant would be a third to half gone by now.  It's supposed to last up to a year, so this bar should last throughout the tour.  One less thing to worry about.

Dental:

Nothing too special here: Toothbrush of the travel variety for tour, a Tom's or knockoff for the toothpaste, and some floss.

And that's it for the basics.  Other add-ons will be:

Sunblock

Handi-wipes (very useful for cleaning oneself between showers)

Hand sanitizer

Bug spray (even though we'd rather not, we'll be using Deet based insect repellents, since the hippie ones do  jack shit.)

What do you folks use out there?  Any tips and tricks?

*that I know of

Gifts from Blogging Friends

I feel like such a jerk for not acknowledging this sooner, my apologies.

Recently I've gotten some gifts from fellow bicycle bloggers.  The first one is these awesome photos from Dave at Portlandize.com  He's been shooting photos of local bicyclists as part of a series, and he caught April and myself before the Three Speed Ride.

More photos can be found over here.

And from the other side of the country, New York City to be exact, came a couple gifts from Justine of Mid-Life Cycling.  First up is this awesome vintage bottle generator/headlight combo:

I don't have a bike to put this on...yet, but I will at some point!

The other thing Justine sent, an item I wasn't expecting, was this awesome bag!  It's a small military bag, possibly Swedish.  

I'm a bit of a bag hound* so I never really need another one, but still want and appreciate them.  I really like this bag because it's small. I already have decent sized panniers, classic saddle bags, and an enormous messenger bag.  But it's nice to have a small one for just the essentials.  The size can hold my camera, iPod, small sketchbook/notebook, tool bag, and other small items.  Yes, a man purse if you will. I can wear it, and the stabilizer strap means it'll stay in place.  I can also put it in my handlebar bag or saddle bag.

And for an oldie-but-goodie, here's my "Man-Purse" comic from 2005:

Thanks Dave! Thanks Justine!

*I just purged six panniers.  Six.  And sold a messenger bag.  And am still selling another one!

Big Trip Stresses, Part 1: Snowy Mountain Passes

Clearing snow on Washington Route 20, North Cascades Hwy, 4/18/11

I'm feeling a bad case of deja vu.  I'm feeling an unwelcome case of deja vu.

If you've been reading this blog long enough (or pretend to), you may remember what happened to my spring 2009 tour.  (Go here to read about it.)  I originally planned to ride eastward into Eastern Oregon along the Transamerica route.  But my timing was off--it was too early in the season, so a lot of the mountain passes (well really, all of the mountain passes) were still getting snowed on.  I didn't relish the idea of crossing snowy mountain passes so I headed north to Vancouver instead.

Fast forward to now.  We're finishing up a particularly snowy winter, and I'm worrying about the status of some of the passes we'll cross, even though it's still a month and a half until we even hit them.  The Northern Tier route crosses two key ones: Washington and Rainy Pass on SR20 in the North Cascades and Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park.  Both of these passes are closed in winter, but in spring they start clearing them for opening in late spring.  Usually the road is open by the first week of May as evidenced by this link to the WSDOT site, and the graph below.

Q-Q plot for Washington State Route 20 (North Cascades Highway) first opening/final closing dates. Data are from fall 1972 through 2008. From Wikipedia.

But this year...nah.  They started to clear the snow on April 11, and have no estimated opening date yet.  I heard rumors it could take six weeks.  The latest opening in history was in 1974 when the pass didn't open until June 14th.  I really hope it doesn't take that long, as I estimate to be crossing that pass around June 8th.  This could cause a serious crimp in our plans if it's not open by then.  For one, we don't have the luxury of waiting. And re-routing is difficult, as there are not a lot of choices for crossing the Cascades. It would either mean heading far south to Stevens Pass/US2, or heading east through BC for a bit.  Either choice wouldn't be horrible (though I heard traffic on 2 is meh), but I really want to cross Rainy and Washington Pass.  Guess I just have to cross my fingers.

No problem!  I'll just get a Pugsley to ride this section.

As for Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier NP, well, that's also going to take a while.  They just started to plow, and I heard that snow removal can take up to ten weeks.  Yeesh.  We don't plan on hitting Logan Pass on the road until later June, but it would be a major bummer if we had to detour this one as well.

Mother Nature, can you help a brother out?

National Train Day Ride: Saturday May 7

Okay, so I'm technically not leading this one as I intended.  The work load and stress of preparing for The Big Trip has taken its toll, so rather than throw a half-assed event together, I now have Mr. Dan Haneckow, local historian and man behind the awesome Cafe Unknown blog leading this thing!  So...you can shoot me questions but they'll be directed to him.  I should be around for the beginning of the ride, though. 

National Train Day Ride

Saturday May 7

11 am

meet at Union Station

See how Portland history was shaped by rails! This ride traces the evolution of railroads in the Rose City.

Union Station, Albina, a trip through an old industrial district, remnants of the first Steel Bridge, and the first electric line in Portland, stories of Ben Holladay, horse car lines and the Red Electrics, a streetcar off a bridge, Brooklyn yard and vestiges of the nations first interurban line.  The tour ends, time allowing, with an optional cable car climb up Montgomery street. 

Official Train Day events start at Union Station at 10am.  Get there early to enjoy the exhibits, including the famed 4449 Steam Engine.

Things from My Sweetie's Blog

I don't normally do these things, but...

April has written up an excellent li'l primer for those folks pulling bikes out of their garages and getting out into the spring loveliness, or now looking for a bike to ride.  It can be found over here at her blog aprillikesbikes:

New to Cycling?

Also worth checking out are these pieces about bike touring:

Why you should start bike touring

How to start (bike) touring

So go check 'em out when you get a chance.

As for what I'm going to check out: right now, the weather.  It's going to be the first near-70 degree here!  April and I are going to enjoy Earth Day festivities for a bit.

The Light Hack

After getting dyno lighting on the Raleigh, I can definitely see the appeal.  Besides not having to worry about charging batteries, a dyno lighting system is more theft-resistant* than the typical mount-on-bars battery systems. And about those battery lights: In the past few months, I managed to either get stolen or lose not one, not two, but THREE lights (two front and one rear.) I don't think I've ever lost that many lights in TEN YEARS of bike commuting!

Needless to say, I need to get some new lights.  But I'm planning on getting dyno lighting for the Long Haul Trucker before I take the Big Trip.  So I don't want to get anything fancy in the interim.  So enter...The Light Hack.

I got another Wald "flashlight bracket" and mounted it to the bars.  And I got an inexpensive "water-resistant" flashlight from the local discount outdoor supplier.  It's got LEDs!  It's not the most powerful thing, but in tandem with my much much brighter Princeton Tec helmet light, it'll do for now.

And a Roadmaster "10 Speed" has been locked up in front of the Hawthorne New Seasons over the last few weeks** with this interesting Rear Light Hack:

I find it quite fascinating that even though a Knog light can pretty much mount anywhere on a bike, he or she felt the need to use a special bracket.

*Nothing is theft-proof, per se.

Bike Camping: Columbia Gorge/Ainsworth State Park, Sat April 30-Sun May 1

Hey, kids!

Just to let you know, our friends over at Cycle Wild* are going to have a fun Overnight Bicycle Camping Expedition** next weekend, Saturday April 30.  And this expedition will be led by me!

We'll be heading out to the sight-packed Columbia River Gorge!  We'll travel down the historic Columbia River Highway and see such spots as Women's Forum/Chanticleer Point, Crown Point/Vista House, Latourell Falls, Wahkeena Falls, Multnomah Falls, and Horsetail Falls!  After the approximately 30 mile ride we'll camp at Ainsworth State Park.  Camping fees should be $5-10 per person.  And we'll return the next day.

We'll meet at the Cleveland Ave MAX Station (east end of the line for the Blue Line) at 9am Saturday April 30th.  Not many food buying options, so you should stock up before. And you are required to bring everything needed: tent/sleeping bag/pad, food, stove, bike tools, etc etc.  

Are you interested?  Feel free to "rsvp" through the comments, though there is absolutely no need to rsvp.  And feel free to direct any questions to me.

*And I am a Board Member of said organization, so does that mean I'm a friend of myself?

**Or if you are a member of "The Cult of Grant", a "s24o".

OPB: Part 2, the Robin Hood Edition, plus a visit from the Ghost of Zines Past

(This post will not mention the fact that it has not rained in Portland for the past 24 hours.  Nope.)

After a long work day Saturday, I stopped at the Belmont Branch of Multnomah County Library to pick up some holds.  Locked up to the bike rack was this beauty:

A red Robin Hood 3 Speed!  

If you don't know, Robin Hood was one of the many badges made by Raleigh.  It was intended to be more an "entry level" bike line, the Chevrolet to Raleigh's Buick.*  

It was a well preserved specimen, as noted by the pristine headbadge and rear fender sticker:

And logo on the seat tube:

And of course it's Made In England!

And purchased in Kansas!

But upon closer inspection, I noticed the peculiarities that make this particular bike unique.  The hub is a more modern Sturmey-Archer hub, a SRC3 coaster brake model!

Which means the wheels are newer, hand-built wheels.  I ran into the guy who owned the bike.  Not only are the wheels rebuilt, he rebuilt them on 650B rims vs the standard 650A size (a.k.a. 26" x 1 3/8") that came standard on Raleigh 3 speeds.  I found that interesting and a bit odd.  While both sizes are rare in the US, the 650A is more common, and you can buy tires and tubes in places like Fred Meyer and Walmart.  650B?  Not many bike shops carry that size, and the tires tend to be higher end.

*****

Anyways, whilst ogling the Robin Hood, I also thought about the selection of "hold" items I had just picked up.  Besides a Fugazi CD**, I had checked out a few Adrian Tomine graphic novels.  I recently re-read his earliest collection 32 Stories, and wanted to re-read his other stuff.  The great thing about the "modern era", besides cartoonists getting respect*** and the availability of comics in libraries is the whole graphic novel/collection trend.  "Back in the Day" you'd have to search for the scattered issues.  Now you can go to the library or bookstore, pick up a volume or two, and Bam! You have (-artist name here-)'s total oeuvre, which you can read in one sitting.  20 years reduced to a few hours.  Amazing.

What made me ponder this was that I realized this weekend was the Stumptown Comics Fest.  And I had no plans or interest in attending.  Why this is significant is comics and zines were such a big part of my life (and still are to some extent).  Up until a few years ago it was a no brainer.  It would be automatic that I would go to Stumptown and also the Portland Zine Symposium.  But now...

I think what's the weirdest thing about it is it doesn't really matter to me.  I maybe had a fleeting moment where I thought  "I should go," mostly to see people I wouldn't see anywhere else.  Now I would just rather go home.  But the thing is, I still like comics and zines.  They are still a part of my life.  But the importance has diminished.  Part of it is due to the increased importance of all things bicycle in my life.  But part of it is...I don't know?  Moving on?  Loss of interest?  Personal shit?

To make it even weirder, as I left the New Seasons on Hawthorne, R. Seth Friedman passed me by.****  Was it an omen?  The Ghost of Zines Past?

The Robin Hood was sure pretty, wasn't she?

*Would this make Rudge the Cadillac? Wait, what about Humber?  Would that be Cadillac?  Then I guess Rudge would be Buick.  But then Raleigh would be the Oldsmobile.  And I can't get behind that.

**End Hits.

***Debatable.

****He also stopped into my work on Sunday. Weird.

Why We're Going Where We're Going: Part 2

Okay, here I'm going to break down my list of where I'm going and why.  It's an expansion of the basic list seen on my first post, so I apologize for redundancies.

Pacific Northwest (Coast to Rockies):  The first segment takes April and I from our (soon to be former) apartment and head straight northward to Vancouver, BC.  We'll make it in time for the first few days of Velopalooza, a bike festival that started last year and one I've wanted to experience.  After Vancouver, we dip back south across the border and shoot eastward on Washington Route 20, the beautiful North Cascades Highway, which is part of the Northern Tier. This area is a region I've wanted to bike in for a long time!  It'll carry us over the Cascades into eastern Washington, where we'll hit Spokane, a town I've also wanted to checck out.  Then through the Idaho panhandle and onto Missoula, Montana, yet another town "on the list" and home to Adventure Cycling.  Now we'll head north to Glacier National Park, a place I can never spend "too much" time in, and then our second crossing into Canada.

Canadian Praries and Rockies: This can be termed our "crazy" segment.  Rather than head east across Montana and North Dakota to Minnesota (the shorter, logical route), we'll go north hundreds and hundreds of miles, THEN head east. Why?  Well, I wanted to bike the beautiful Icefields Parkway for years.  This road straddles the Rockies between Banff and Jasper national parks. Also, I wanted to check out the major cities of the Canadian Prairies where some of my friends live.  If we simply took the Northern Tier, we would hit no real cities until Minneapolis.  So now we can check out Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg.  Yes, this will add on probably several weeks.  But we have the time.

The Midwest: After Regina, we'll dip southward back into the lower 48.  First Fargo, then Duluth (a town I've wanted to check out for a long time), then of course Minneapolis, America's #1 bicycle city!*  Then south along the Mississippi, the area where I took my first bike tour six years ago.  We'll take the valley route all the way to Iowa City (home to 30th Century Bicycle), then east to Chicago while stopping to visit Brad along the way.  Then a meandering path across Indiana (possibly hitting Fort Wayne) to Columbus and then onto Pittsburgh!  I've only visited Pittsburgh a couple times way too many years ago, and really dug it.  Plus a good friend from way back is living there.  Columbus is actually a suprisingly cool town as well.

Appalachia and Mid-Atlantica: Between Pittsburgh and Washington DC, the 300 mile distance will be traveled almost exclusively on multi-use paths: The Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal.  These are canal/rail paths, so we avoid the constant ups-and-downs of the Allegheny Mountains.  And DC!  Nation's capital and home to umpteen free cultural institutions and museums.  From the nation's capitol we'll aim northward with a slight eastery lean.  Baltimore, Philly, and NYC are on the list for obvious reasons, though maybe we'll route through central Pennsylvania to get to Philadelphia?

New England: The return to the homeland!  Obviously I'll be returning to Connecticut, and I'll want to cover a lot of it.  The irony: taking the longest possible route across one of the smallest states!  After hitting up my folk's houses, New Haven and probably Hartford, it's north to Massachusetts, where depending on time/desire we may stop in Northampton/Holyoke or just head straight onto Boston.  From Boston we want to take a general northwesterly track to Montreal via New Hampshire and Vermont.  Don't know exactly where and how yet.  (Tips? Advice?)

Quebec and Atlantic Canada:  This is the tricky part. I hope to get to Montreal by the latest the beginning of October, as I don't want to be biking through this part of the continent in November.  If the cards all align right, we'll cruise down the beautiful St-Laurent to Quebec City, then turn into New Brunswick (Fredericton, Moncton, Sackville) to get to Nova Scotia, and the ultimate end-point, Halifax.  If the trip runs too long and the weather doesn't cooperate, we may have to stop riding at Montreal or Quebec City and take Via Rail the rest of the way.

Ok!  That's our route!  Any advice or suggestions?

*Are ya happy now, Minneapolis?

The Trip: Why we're going to where we're going, Part 1

It's the question I sometimes dread when someone hears that I'll be doing a bike tour:

"So where are you going?"

I dread this question because people usually want a pat, easy soundbite.  Five words or less.  In some cases, five words or less can work, like "Down the Pacific Coast," or "Around the San Juan Islands," or "Up the Columbia Gorge".  And yeah, the upcoming tour can be tidily summed up as "Across the continent".  But that's too vague, so that answer will lead to the inevitable follow-up, "But where across the country are you going?"

And that is a very good question.

This is the point that I wish that I took the "easy" way out and decided on one Adventure Cycling Association route and purchased the required maps.  With ACA the route most of the thinking and hard work of planning is already done for you.  It's all mapped out and cue sheeted: where to turn, where you can camp, where the grocery stores are located.  I could opt for the "granddaddy" of cross-country bicycle routes, the Transamerica (formerly "Bikecentennial") route, which travels 4,200 miles from Astoria, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia.  There's nothing wrong with ACA routes (in fact, we'll be covering some of the Northern Tier route on our journey.  They are well thought out and go through some beautiful country.

But I had a few problems with strictly following an ACA route, at least for this time out.  For one, it's a prescribed route.  It's not necessarily where you (or in this case, I) want to go, it's a route laid out by someone else.  For some people who may have no other regard than just crossing the country from one coast to the next, that may be all they need.  And as I said above, they do a good job in their routes.  

My other problem is that ACA routes are all based around urban avoidance.  They only go through a city (like San Francisco on the Pacific Coast route) because they have to--there's no practical way to avoid or bypass it. Part of this urban avoidance policy is because Adventure Cycling wants to give folks as nice and bucolic ride as possible.  Cities don't usually fit into that equation.  And part of it can be traced back to the organization's inception in the mid-70's, when cities were scary, dangerous places.  Better to route around urban blight than route through a scary neighborhood.  I can understand the reasoning, but I'm a city person.  I ride around cities, and I definitely want to see many cities on this tour.

So no full Adventure Cycling Route.  I'm stitching together some routes, like the Northern Tier and probably parts of the Atlantic Coast, but a lot of it will be of my own making.  This means a lot of scouring the internets for information, ordering maps, asking people for advice.

So why are we going where we're going?

Well, wait to the next part for more details!

Adventuring in Gresham

Gresham somewhere in the distance...but before Mt. Hood

Gresham, Oregon* is Portland's suburb to the east.  It's no secret that this overgrown farm town (now the state's fourth largest city**) is looked down by us urban and urbane Portlandites***.  But it's great for a little adventure now and then.  It's on the way to the Columbia Gorge, Mt. Hood, and the Clackamas River Valley in the Mt. Hood National Forest.  It doesn't hurt that it's relatively easy to get to Gresham by bicycle: hop on the Springwater Corridor multi-use path and you're there!

And Tuesday was a nice spring day: partly sunny, high around 60F/16C. Another great day for a bike ride.  But so much stuff needs to be done for the impending big trip!  So a compromise: ride to Gresham and park my ass in a coffee shop for a few hours of laptop action.

The 10 mile (16 km) ride to Gresham was nice.  I headed south on the I-205 bike path to Lents, where I got onto surface streets for a mile.  I could've connected to the Springwater directly, but it would be a bit longer of a ride.  The trees were starting to bloom and there were plenty of happy people on the Springwater.  The only bum note was clouds obscuring distant Mt. Hood.

I spent a few hours at the busy coffee shop searching for info on the lappy, and then it was time to head home.  Initially I planned on going home a different way that would use side streets, but I opted for the Springwater because I wanted to ride fast.  I'm no roadie, and I wouldn't consider myself a fast rider, but every once in awhile I like to put some speed on the machine.  Granted, I basically kept an 18 m.p.h. (30 km/hr) pace--no scorcher me, but fast enough.

Good thing I decided to ride Tuesday--Wednesday's weather was crap, and it doesn't look that good for the future.

*World's most boring Wikipedia page?

**God bless urban sprawl and postwar development!

***At least it isn't Estacada, or as it is infamously known, Incesticada.

Paloozapalooza!

If you've read this blog long enough (or are from Portland), you are probably familiar with Pedalpalooza, our annual celebration of bike fun.  It's a continuation of the internationally travelling yearly Bikesummer festival (RIP), of which we hosted in 2002.  Pedalpalooza is simply a 17 day window jam packed with bicycle events of every shape and size.  Last year the event had almost 300 events in that timeframe!

And now Portland is not alone!  Other cities are getting in on the action!

First up is our sister city to the north, Vancouver.*  They debuted Velopalooza last year.  It was a smashing success so they are back again for another year of fun! This year the fest will happen June 2 through 19.  April and I are going to be up there for the first few days.  Should be fun!

And I just found out about this one: Calgary wants to be part of the fun!  They are hosting Cyclepalooza from June 17 through 26.  We'd love to catch some of the action, but our schedule doesn't look like it will cooperate.  (Calgary, can you push back the bike fun another week?)

Do you notice anything...similar about these events? Besides the fact they are all -paloozas, they use the same calendar template!  This calendar was designed by Portland's very own (Tall) Steve Kirkendell, who was gracious to let other cities use his code.

So when is your town getting on the palooza action?

*If you thought I was going to say Seattle, you ain't from Portland!

REMINDER: Bicycle Touring Workshop Monday, April 11th

Don't forget Ian Stude and myself will be hosting our Bicycle Touring Workshop Monday!

Are you itching to hit the open road and explore nature in a way you haven't yet? Are you a regular bicycle rider but have never taken a bicycle tour? Then join us to learn more about Self-Supported Bicycle Touring. We'll be discussing equipment, planning, and cost as well as day-to-day life on the road. We'll also have a few loaded touring bikes to check out. Touring can be easy as an overnight camping expedition close to home, and can be as complicated as a cross-country or around-the-world expedition! But it will be fun!

FREE/Donations Accepted

Monday April 11

6:30-9pm

Portland Hawthorne Hostel

3031 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Only in bookstores, Only in Portland

My friend Lillian snapped this shot at Powell's Books, Portland's big-big bookstore/online retailer:

Zinester's Guide to Portland (#2) is the Portland guidebook I edit.*

Only in the book world can I outrank Bike Snob.

(Oh yeah, that Curious Gorge book is cool as well!)


*And will soon be working on the newest edition!

This was not the butte you wanted, but it'll do: My Saturday Ride

Hello, blogosphere!

Saturday in Portland was a nice spring day: partly cloudy with a high around 60F/16C. A good day for a bike ride, indeed. I didn't have any real obligations other than covering part of a work shift at the Hostel at 6pm. True, Saturday was the Pedal Nation Bike Show, but it's all weekend, and Sunday should have suckier weather. And true, there is a lot of work that I needed to do for the impending tour. But I want to ride my bicycle! So I lubed the chain and put some air into the tires on the Long Haul Trucker, and got out of the house!

Where to go?  By the time I got out of the house it was already 2:30pm, so I only had 3 1/2 hours to play with.  I couldn't do any grand adventure to far-flung corners of the metro area, it had to end at work on Hawthorne.  I thought about heading south on the I-205 bike path, then west on the Springwater Corridor bike path, then north on the OMSI-Springwater path to central SE.  It was doable, but...hills beckoned.  Namely Rocky Butte, an extinct volcanic cinder in NE Portland.  It's best feature is the almost 360 degree panorama from the 612 ft (187 m) summit.

This structure greeted me at the top of the bluff

But first, sustenance.  A quick fly-by by a local coffee shop for java* and a bagel, and then off to Rosemont Bluff Natural Area where I consumed the comestibles.  Rosemont Bluff is the site of my very first Pedal Potluck Picnic back in 2005.  (Jeez, I've been at it for six years?)  It's a primitive undeveloped natural area on a steep hillside, and the hillside was blooming with spring, including my favorite flower of this time of year, trilliums!

Trilliums!

Native Oregon Grape in bloom

And then northward to Rocky Butte. But along the way, possibly my favorite unofficial traffic control sign of the moment:

I approached Rocky Butte from the northside, going by the bible college**.  As I started to climb, a Portland Police cruiser was straddled across the road, blocking my path.  "Rocky Butte's closed", the cop said.  When I asked why, she said it was because of the search for the body of the (supposedly) murdered girl who was thought to be somewhere on the butte.  Dang. 

So I decided to head for Mt. Tabor.  Sure, I summit the "saddle" of Tabor at least once every day that I ride to work, but I don't go all the way to the true summit (636 ft/194 m) that often.  And it was a beautiful day to do so.  From the top I got these views of downtown and SE:

Then it was off to work.  I totaled a little under 18 miles (29km), nothing that major (especially to those who do 50 miles before breakfast!) but not bad.  Sometime soon I'll take a longer ride.  Soon...

*Does anyone call coffee java anymore?

**There's a belt of bible colleges between 60th Ave and the 205 freeway.