I rode out to my new job today. I'm 63, and still working--my new job is 12 miles away, which is not too far except for the Portland hills. I need to go over the Portland hills from the Beaverton area to 2 miles north of St. John's in North Portland. The only accessible road is Germantown road, and it is very narrow, with no room for two cars and a bike. Going down it is not much of a problem, except that I get going much faster than I'm comfortable with, especially with the winding roadway. With some cars on a Saturday, it's not too bad. But on a commute morning, it could get hairy.

So today, I decided to go both ways on a small, rock roadway called Springville Road. It goes through Forest Park. I saw one hiker, three runners, and one gal on horseback today. It was fun. But I still did not ride all the way. Mostly, I walked the bike down and up. I found more areas that could be ridden coming up, but it is still almost half an hour to go about two miles.

My total today was 24 miles and a bit. But it was a real workout, and a great ride. Downtown St. Johns had a Saturday Market going on, and going over the St. Johns Bridge I saw a carnival complete with pirates and tents under the bridge. I'm experimenting with the route, and it looks like this will be it. I'll be riding up, walking down, riding over the bridge to work, then repeating in reverse order going back. No traffic on Springville Road through Forest Park, and wonderful scenery. The ride from there back home is pretty good on rural roads, so I'll try this sometime next week. I'll do it only probably once a week for a while, as I will be getting home a bit later than normal.

I'm now riding a Rivendell Rambouillet, and it is performing very nicely. I put fenders on it last night (yellow!), and on the blue bike, they really look nice, at least to me. 'Good thing that I did too, as it was raining for the whole ride today.

John

John