This is the bike ride we went on today. Too tired to write more right now…
…now able to write:
So yesterday we went on a pretty amazing ride. When I really think about it I think it’s one of the longest bike rides I’ve been on in my life, at least that I’ve recorded. We were planning on going for a long ride but were thinking the route we chose would me more like 30 miles. Turns out the round trip came out to close to 40.
There’s a route that goes around Portland called the 40 Mile Loop. Based on the map it looks more like a series of trails that surround Portland, so you could do the 40 mile loop a number of different ways, and I’m pretty sure that there are a few loops that would be far more than 40 miles (considering what we did yesterday).
With the Loop in mind, it seemed like a good general destination was SE Portland (the opposite corner from where we live). There seemed to be a few good parks in that are so we chose one (Powell Butte Nature Park) and decided to go for it. We didn’t really know anything about the part, just wanted a goal. Turned out on our ride out we noticed signs for the Leach Botanical Gardens and decided to go there instead (about half a mile shy of Powell Butte). As it turned out the Botanical Gardens weren’t quite as awesome as we were expecting. I guess by the description of Botanical and Garden we were expecting clusters of flowers. I don’t think we saw a single flower in the whole place. It really just a forest with a stream running through it and trails running all around. However, there were a few really cool buildings along the trails that were entirely made of stone. Laura’s first response was that they looked Hansel-and-Gretal-ish, which was very true. It was interesting to think about when and why someone would have built them in the first place and if anyone ever lived there.
We’d packed a nice lunch with some fruit and sandwiches. Once refueled we were on our way again after our short stroll through the “Gardens” and some quick stretches. The next 12 miles or so were pretty brutal.
It seems that the second half of any journey is always harder. Like climbing into a tall tree and then realizing, “how the hell am I going to get down from here?” I think it’s partially the physical exhaustion but I also think a lot of it is mental. Once you’ve accomplished the goal you were working for you just want to be done and that makes you feel even more exhausted. So how do you rectify such a thing? Make another goal. We decided to set our sites on a place to have dinner and a few drinks to help relax after our haul. We ended up at the Tin Shed, a place just outside of our hood that we’ve frequented a bit. And after are tummies were full once again, and we had a slight buzz for the remaining 5-6 mile ride home, we were off.
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View Portland, Sunday, May 17, 2009 in a larger map
Once home, we were both incredibly exhausted. We each wanted to other to massage us for a good hour or two, but neither of us had the energy. We’re still feeling sore and a bit cranky because of it. My ass still hurts as I’m sitting on our comfy couch. But it felt great to have the ride that we did. I hope we start doing rides like that every weekend.