30 Days of April: April 25

I am tired of the rain!

It rained for our entire 38 mile ride and was so consistent that at one point I forgot that it was raining.

We drove to a park to begin our ride today. The bike ride to Sauvie Island was ... ummm... awful. It was on a highway that had huge trucks and lots of cars speeding by and spraying us with gritty rain water. The shoulder was fine in most places, but some parts had heavy grit or mud or gravel one had to maneuver around.

We finally got to the bridge that took us to Sauvie Island.

 

 

Most of my photos seemed to be blurry on this day. An indication of how I was feeling.

 

Our route was around the 13 mile loop on the right of this photo.

 

Some history

Any place that has the word "island" in it always draws me to it, and I had, for a long time, wanted to bike on Sauvie Island just outside of Portland.

Vickie and I both ended up feeling that the loop ride on Sauvie was bland and boring. The season has not opened yet, so all the farm fields are empty and all the produce stands are closed. It is a totally flat island so there are no views to climb up to see, and no picnic areas or shelters to stop at for a rest or snack stop. We finally came to one porta potty about halfway around the loop which also had a trail heading "up" to something. We took the short trail up to the view of a pond and sat on a bench there to eat our lunch under the rain.

Not too much to take photos of but I did find a couple of mailboxes of interest, and flowers in truck beds.

 

 

I think there is a lot of beauty in the fields and at the produce stands once the season opens, but that would bring a lot more traffic to the island and with no shoulder on the road, biking may not be too fun.

 

We took a stand up snack stop here.

 

 

Once off the island we faced that traffic highway again for the return trip. Several miles along this highway the route map took us onto the Rte. 30 bypass. Sounded great to get off that Rte. 30.

Up a climbing hill, we came to St. John's bridge which by passed the highway, to get us across the river (the Willamette I think).

The bridge was high and long, and the two lanes carried fast and crowded traffic. With the sidewalk narrow and the bridge rail close, we walked over the (long) bridge. Still raining, still getting sprayed with grit.

Finally arrived at a quiet neighborhood to ride through, and to our tea stop. As we enjoyed our tea and crumpet in nice a little coffee shop the rain poured in earnest. We were in the right spot at the right time.

Back in the saddle we did enjoy some nice back streets of quiet neighborhoods and were surprised to ride through the University of Portland, and even more surprised that it is a Jesuit school.

 

With more time and less rain, it would be nice to ride through campus. We just rode past it.

Dreading crossing another bridge to get to "our" side, we were so pleasantly surprised by yet more bicycle infrastructure of Portland.

 

Cars and trains roll above us as we cross on the bike and pedestrian level of the bridge.

We are each proud to have done this challenging ride, and both say -- we will never do it again, even withiout the rain!

 

You know what they say ... April "showers" bring May flowers.

 

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