The Dry Between The Wet

Monday was actually a dry day 'round these parts. Last week was pretty much a rainfest, and it looks like this week will be more of the same. So I decided to use this dry window for a bike ride. It would give me a reason to ride the Rudge, since it is not a rain bike. And it would also help me procrastinate on some things while "doing stuff" for others. Nice, heh?

Of course by the time I managed to get out of the house there wasn't much daylight left. My more ambitious plan of riding eastward on the Springwater towards Gresham was nixed, so I aimed for a southerly neighborhood route towards Sellwood, Portland's furthest south neighborhood on the east side of the Willamette.

Riding to Sellwood has been something I've done for as long as I've owned a bike in this town. Pretty standard. Still, I managed to jazz it up a bit: I passed through the Reed College campus. Reed is Portland's infamous liberal arts college. It's rigorous curriculum has led to a lot of drug consumption, and its dropouts go on to think up things like iPhones. Anyways...Reed has a lourvely campus. And at the heart of it is Reed Canyon, which Crystal Springs Creek runs through.

Crystal Springs Creek is one of the very few remaining (meaning one of two, the other Johnson Creek) free-flowing streams in SE Portland. Crystal Springs Creek's source is near SE Cesar Chavez just north of Woodstock and a bit beyond the view of the shot above. It then flows through the Reed College campus and through a series of parks around Sellwood/Westmoreland/Eastmoreland area. It then feeds into Johnson Creek near the Milwaukie city line, just north of the Springwater Corridor at Johnson Creek Park. Where it runs through Reed College it is known as Reed Canyon and a small pond is created by an impoundment.

A couple bridges run over the canyon to connect the campus. A nice spot to stop and reflect.

Further down the course of Crystal Springs Creek is "Harry's Bridge". This bridge on SE 28th Ave had always been nondescript until it got remodeled last year.

Still makes me wonder: who is this Harry?

The rains of last week have created flooding in a lot of streams in this part of Oregon. Johnson Creek near Tideman Johnson Park was pretty swollen.

It was a nice ride. The only bum note was the way my front wheel was acting on the Rudge. I noticed later that it didn't seem to be seated properly in the fork, so I brought it by a local bike shop where they figured out that the dropout on the fork was a bit small for the axle, so they filed it out a bit. Now it works much better.