Puts a fine edge to the mower blade. When it’s pissing down rain.
40 Grit
LBS
Local Bike Shop
I was only going to get one but she made a logical pitch and I was distracted by the aroma and dazzled by the display so I did what she said and ate a hearty 2 slice pizza root beer lunch thursday at Sizzle Pie because its across the street from the office and a helluva deal at $10 for the package and the pizza is top notch delicious with the correct chewy crust that isn’t too bready and the toppings are far beyond pepperoni. nothing against pepperoni but this place gets exotic to the point I don’t know what they’re talking about but if they put it on a pizza I will eat it because they are professionals after all.
Ate it all, whatever it was, every last crumb, wiped the grease off the pie hole and still had a half hour on the lunch timer so i took a gambol around downtown Hillsboro. Nice downtown, not too small, not too big, you can cross against the light and not get run down. Some drivers even stop on a green if they see you standing there.
Natural inclination pulled me towards the Washco Bikes Co-op, tiny two door storefront operation a block east and around the corner where you can find all sorts of gently used bicycle treasures. it’s where I found the Schwinn for the electric bike project. didn’t have anything specific in mind other than it feels good to be in a bike shop and especially this one where the atmosphere is friendly and they dont seem to mind if you spend or not. I have similar feelings about used book stores. they’re comfortable.
Pawing through the bin of handlebar stems in the Parts Room at the back of the shop looking for something with a steeper angle than whats currently on the bike for a bit more upright posture.
This is where I tend to gravitate, pedals in this bin, cranks hanging on the wall next to fenders and tires. Derailleurs, brakes, brake levers, handlebars…all the good stuff. And it smells nice. a hint of grease and rubber perfume hanging in the air. would make a nice candle.
i’m not finding anything that looks much different than whats on the bike but i keep at it anyway. why not, got the whole place to myself and time on the clock. no rush.
i hear the front door chime, in walks an old guy with a bike frame under his arm. He heads straight back to the Parts Room, running the gauntlet past the double decker rack of prepared bikes, and starts rattling through the array of forks stacked against the bin table i’m up against trying this one and that one into the head tube of his frame, gauging fit.
He’s butted right up against the personal space, not imposing, he knows boundaries. And i know he wants to get at what i’m standing in front of and I’m just killing time. slight creep of mental pressure and I am about ready to relinquish the zone because he has a true project and I’m just taking up space and should head back to work anyway.
He says Are you taking all the good ones?
A gentle hint, a nudge.
I wait, one thousand one, one thousand two, slowly turn, look him in the eye over the top of my readers with a hint of sinister squint, and count another couple thousands, and finally say in a measured slightly defiant tone.
That’s right, all of them.
He grins, I grin. I step back from the bin table and say, Have at it, good luck with the hunt. We’ll see, he says.
Four hours later i rode the bike home from work in the rain in the dark and it was nice because i have great rain gear, new brake pads, oversized and overextended fenders, excellent reflectivity, heightened situational awareness, a rear view mirror attached to the goggles, a route that is mostly residential, and lighting like a BNSF locomotive that stops most motorists in their tracks.
Stubs Shrooms
Mushroom season in the PNW. Back to Stubs for the Standard Maintenance Loop. Park at Buxton trailhead. Three mile warmup along the Banks Vernonia Rail Trail then off onto the forest trails and up to the lookout. Return via Caddywhomper and Shoofly trails and back onto the BV for the three mile return to the trailhead. No rain, cool temps, lots of mushroom varietals popping out of the duff and everywhere else.
Video source:
https://watch.opb.org/video/oregon-field-guide-mushrooms/
Stubs Bridges
Shoofly trail has three bridges. One collapsed from rot a couple winters ago. Stringers are native logs. Decking is 4×12 pressure treat. Sturdy. But…there’s not enough gap between the stringers or the decking so they got packed with needle duff and dirt. Not a good condition for untreated native log stringers. Hence the collapsed bridge at the bottom of the run. Me and The Corona went out and pitter patter got at ‘er this weekend. Cleaned out the two remaining bridges. Corona perfect tool. Slide it straight down through the duff then gently draw it out putting pressure towards the outside edge and it lifted that gunk out easy. Maybe get a couple more seasons. Good time in the woods on a beautiful day in October.
Pollinators and a Robbin
Back to Ecola
Another round of kite flying at Cannon Beach. Town was swarming with visitors. The last belch before school starts? Despite the hordes there is always room on the beach to find a roomy spot to work on the burn. Room 5 always a pleasure. Four is ok too. Eight at the end has the turret dining nook, haven’t been in there yet. Twenty-one is great if you don’t mind stairs. Crack the front door, plop on the couch, watch the surf. The beach really changed after last winter and we haven’t been able to get around the north point to visit the tide pools. But it has left an enormous expanse of tidal flats and at low tide the skim boarders can g l i i i i d e. Ran into a guy downtown while Teal was inspecting the inside of her eyelids he was curious about the fat tires and I was incredulous at his beach cruiser that looked to be 75% rust, 15% salt, 8% pot metal and a hint of paint. It was a beauty with a tri-plane fork crown.
Portland Bridge Pedal
Got moving earlier than usual made it to the start line of the Bridge Pedal event in downtown Portland. Vast stretches of roadway are closed to autos so us pedalers can enjoy a relatively car-free tour of bridges.
Happy crowd, fairly well organized, lots of doughnuts cookies and bananas. Perfect weather. We opted for the 20 mile Main Ride. Easily got us and the bikes back and forth from Hillsboro on the MAX train.
sign up at 7 AM on SW Naito Parkway downtown Portland 
start your engines! 
herd of turtles 
eastbound Morrison Bridge 
SE Water Ave. 
east side of Willamette River at OMSI 
Springwater Corridor trail 
Springwater Corridor trail art 
Marquam Bridge 
Marquam Bridge 
Marquam Bridge rest stop 
usually 
northbound on southbound 405 
climbing up to Fremont Bridge on the 405 freeway. 
on the 405 freeway. looking SW. 
performance 
aid station on the middle of the Fremont Bridge. Cookies and doughnuts! 
and bananas 
smell the barn 
FINISH 
headed home, waiting on a train
Cannon Beach Scenes
Stub Stewart S24O
A bicycle trip to Stub Stewart State Park
Ess-two-four-Oh. Sub 24 hour Overnighter. This guy Grant Petersen, https://www.adventurecycling.org/blog/s24os/, made it sound like a reasonable approach to spending nights outside though his capacity for WIND & RAIN is much deeper than mine but I digress. Basically it’s the idea that a short adventure is worth the effort but doesn’t require a lot of it and if you forget something or take too much, oh well. So I took some inspiration, true to form packed too much, and pedaled to our nearby state park for a sleepover.
Got all hepped up for this last summer and it fizzled. Not sure why, how. Maybe from prior camping trauma. This time it worked out. No reservations. Semi sort-of spontaneous. Told myself even though the bike was packed I could still bail out and slug my way through the weekend if necessary.
Sunday mid morning after a couple cups of coffee I thought What The Hell and hit the road encouraging myself I would have the run of the place being Sunday and not a holiday weekend. And the weather was in a goldilocks pattern so why not.
Left the house at the crack of 11.
Out Grant Street, Garibaldi, Padgett Road, beyond city limits across the McKay Creek dip and up onto the mostly level plains of the Tualatin Valley. Settled into the rest of the 15 mile meander amidst the U-Picks, commercial nurseries and grass ranches to Roy and then Banks where I picked up the Banks-Vernonia Rail Trail for the final 10 miles up to the park.
Stub Stewart is the newest gem in the Oregon State Park system. Lots of camping, hike & horse trails, mountain bike trails, disc golf. Surrounded by private property in rural Oregon so there is the occasional gunshot, chainsaw, blood curdling scream, but never incessantly annoying. This place and the mountain bike trails specifically have come in real handy these last few years.
Settled into #10 at the Brooke Creek hiker/biker campground. Half mile from the main visitor center, down then up a gravel two track. No vehicles allowed.
Figured out the tent, read a book, fiddled with the device, gathered thoughts, went for a walk, cooked food, made tea, communed with nature, made fire, etc etc. Packed a disc but the climb to the golf course did not appeal so it stayed in the bag.
They got these real nice gravel pads to park yer tent. Gravel’s thin but noticeable, might want to double up the sleep mat and definitely put a tarp down first. Tent stakes pierced the thin gravel top layer easy and sank into the terra firma and did not feel like they would let go easy if that unanticipated tornado passed by. Which reminds me, natural hammers are hard to come by here and I was lucky to find a loose piece of fire ring.
Two other camps occupied when I arrived and someone else showed up after me which made for a lightly populated neighborhood. Everyone kept to themselves and were very well behaved. No barking, crying, shouting, undue exuberance or other forms of nuisance. Think I heard a breakfast pot gonk in the morning. Other than that not a peep except from the army of robins and that owl hooting deep in the night who never got an answer.
Had a nice night of semi-sleep. I have never slept well on an air mattress, outside, in a tent, on the ground. Up and at ’em well past dawn for a leisurely morning and finally got the melange shuffled together and going around ten. Took a trail out the back of the campground to meet up with the paved rail trail and coasted on down to the trailhead in Banks.
Couple guys wearing safety vests carrying long handle pruners walking the trail near the trailhead clipping back berry vines asked if I was on a cross country ride which made me think I could probably could have done this with fewer panniers. But I like having capacity and not trying to cram stuff away. Might change my mind about this method but for now, it stands. Next trip, when the stars align, I might try no bags and use the trailer. Then I can bring the kitchen sink.
