Portland, Day 2

Riding up the ramp

Riding in a dedicated bike lane on the interstate.

Jennifer and I knew that to ride early was the only way we would be able to ride! We were on the road by 7 in the most bicycle friendly town I could ever imagine. There is actually a "Bicycle Authority" here and you can call it if there is a problem with the bike routes. The routes are printed on a large, waterproof map with color coded routes based on dedicated bike trail, multi-use trail, low traffic, medium traffic, and high traffic with dedicated bike lanes. We rode on ALL of these types of trails.

We rode out to the confluence of the Columbia River and the Willamette, which is the river that the city of Portland is on. Lewis and Clark, on their famous expedition, had information from the Indians that there was another river than the Columbia, however, they missed it both times they were in the area. This would have allowed them to explore South into Oregon.

Anyway, we had a great ride, in the heat, ate lunch and returned to the hotel by noon. Little did we know that Portland hit their record heat...106 on Wednesday, and we were out in it. Yes, it was hot, but as long as we were riding and creating wind for ourselves it was not that bad. I do not pass up opportunities to see things so we rode!

We crossed into Washington and rode on the Columbia and crossed back into Oregon later on an eight lane highway with a dedicated bicycle lane between, and completely separate from the highway. See photos below. The forethought that must have gone into the building of the roads here, with an eye for cycling is obvious. There are dedicated lanes everywhere and, needless to say, there are cyclists everywhere. It is definitely a commuter society!

Don't get caught in the rail tracks!

After riding in the heat, we decided to go back to the hotel. The TV pegged the temperature at 106°. We were well hydrated, had a great lunch and the ride back was fine. We talked for hours and then decided that we would ride the light rail downtown to eat and go to REI, our favorite store. The ticket machine would not produce a ticket for us and one of the machines was out of order. We figured that we should get on the rail and plead newbie to any conductor checking tickets. No one came through the rail car so downtown, we went to the tourist info center and the rail center was there. We told the clerk that we had just ridden from the airport without paying and that we were visiting and she said that it was fine, consider it a free ride and a welcome from the city of Portland! Then we bought a ticket back for later in the evening. Any street car in the city was free with the ticket so we were on our way after getting a city map.

We decided that lunch had been many hours before and when Habibi, a Lebanese restaurant appeared in front of us, we stopped. They were all so friendly, and we had a great meal, albeit with little air conditioning on that hot night. We then ventured over to Powell Books, an incredible, HUGE, bookstore with every title you can imagine arranged into colored rooms, orange, blue, etc, with a map of what was where! There was no trouble finding what you wanted, though I was not in the market for anything. REI was, of course, at the top of our list and we walked over there next. There were bicycles everywhere downtown, with bike racks common, and bike lanes on many of the main streets. No wonder this is the bicycle capitol of the USA. Several other shops caught our eyes and we had a great time window shopping.

Back on the light rail, we rode back to the station where we had parked the car (about 2 miles from our hotel but way too hot to walk!) and had a wonderful yogurt ice cream at the Cascade Station. It was really a great day, despite the heat. We finished off the day with another round of Jennifer’s wonderful Lambert cherries, which came from her family farm. Delicious!