Riding this weekend

I had only planned to do the Velo ride on Saturday. Honest. And Fitz and I did, after he had a flat in the garage (roofing staple, picked up on Friday's commute), and then another flat in the parking lot. So we really hoofed it to catch up. Fortunately (for us, anyway), another rider had a flat just before the Verboort roundabout. Whew! We skipped the climbs, stopped at Maggies for snacks, then back to Longbottom for Second Breakfast. Then, being good little doobies, we took a trailer full of yard debris to Best Buy (the yard supply place, not the electronics store), and dumped it out (itch, itch, itch), stopped at Costco in the way back (we dusted ourselves off outside, first), then rearranged the right side of the garage, so Fitz could get at the walls, to finish mudding the sheetrock (do not ask how long this project has been on hiatus). Moving all that wood around (including some heirloom pieces of black walnut) prompted me to suggest he NEVER comment on the size of my fabric stash or jersey collection again. I will enjoy a painted garage, with working electrical outlets, and places to put things. We then FINALLY got showers...

Cecil had missed the Saturday ride because her knee was annoyed from running. She wanted to ride Sunday. Fitz had a round of golf lined up, so it worked out. We negotiated a 10am meet-up time (I like to sleep in at least 1 day in a weekend), and she suggested one of the Velo routes that involved Iowa Hill, Unger, Clark Hill... in other words, a significant percentage of vertical.

She showed up at the house just before 10, and suggested we try stuff north of Hwy 26 instead, like Pumpkin Ridge and Jackson Quarry. I was up for that, not having ridden there for awhile.

We finally decided to get to Skyline via NW 119th and McDaniel, and head west from there, dropping down on Old Cornelius Pass. I suggested that rather than Pumpkin Ridge, how about Rock Creek/Elliott and Beck for climbs? As well as the one all the way up to Skyline, of course. She'd never done Beck, so it was a go. The weather was amazingly wonderful. The climb up to Skyline was uneventful. Then west on Skyline for miles and miles, rolling along with excellent views to the north and south.



We stopped briefly at Skyline School before crossing Cornelius Pass to Old Cornelius Pass, then descended and turned onto Rock Creek. Got past the potholed bumpy part, enjoyed the yard full of metal sculptures, did not see the very cute donkey at the start of the climb (darn), and headed up. Lots of new houses up there, now.



Then past the house with the extra motor vehicles, and left onto Elliot for the final push up. We headed west again for a short bit, then turned onto Beck - time for a snack stop. Then 1.5 miles down on perfect pavement with no (zip. zero. nada.) traffic and 1.5 miles UP on the same pavement, with the same lack of traffic. This dropped us out onto Johnston, which turns into Logie Trail. We turned left and descended to Helvetia Rd, turned left, and did Jackson Quarry, with the associated hill. Then down Mason Hill, around on Jackson School and Shadybrook, and into North Plains for more Gatorade.

The North Plains Market has remodeled. We both walked in and went "WOW!" Large, clean, well lit, modern... Be sure to stop by and admire it (and buy Gatorade, of course).

We thought some lunch would be nice, so turned back east, working our way to the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse.



The headwind was fierce - the Beaufort scale says around 15-20mph. Slowed us down a bit. Lunch at CPR was yummy, with 2 pitchers of ice water, lots of ice tea, a big order of tater tots, and I FINALLY got that cheeseburger I'd been jonesing for since last Saturday.

Now, moving a bit more slowly, we continued east another 10 miles to finish, for me, anyway. Cecil still had to ride over the hill into Portland and the east side.

Today's route