I don’t think I’ll be taking that shortcut again
I went out for another early morning ride today (slightly later than yesterday, so I ended up missing the brief bit of morning sunlight and instead got to ride the entire trip under cold damp cloudy skies) and managed to mispack (“mispack” is a polite way to say “didn’t pack”) my map packet. As a result, I had to make my best guess about where to turn back, and, remembering the wierd tangle of roads up by downtown Troutdale and the Sandy river, cut across to the Portland Traction trail on Fairview Ave/233rd. I knew that the Portland Traction line had climbed quite a bit by the time it reached Gresham, but what I didn’t realize was that 233rd climbed up to that level by the simple expedient of going vertically up the side of a bluff.
That’s quite a surprise for halfway in on a loop, and it was even more surprising to get home and realize that I’d managed to shortcut my way to less than 60km for the morning trip. I’d like to go out tomorrow morning and correct that deficiency, but, alas, tomorrow is not a school day and the bears are going to be at home, and I get the sneaky suspicion that, like Calvin, they won’t be at all keen on the idea of bundling up and doing the Petite Tour of East Portland.
At least this means I’ll be able to go out to a LBS and see how much a new wheel for the Free Radical will cost. I’ll just have to do a longer ride on Saturday.