Yesterday, 10 miles before we reached Salem, I saw a sign on the highway, alongside the road we were on, which read “Portland 56 miles”. Now then, you don’t need me to do the maths here, but I’m going to: by the time we got to Salem, you’d think it would only have been around 46 miles to get to our next destination. So, you may ask, how on earth did we end up riding 65 miles?
Herein lies one of the great mysteries of cycle touring: no matter how many miles you think you have to ride to get from starting point to destination, you’ve wildly underestimated. You will take a wrong turn (or seven), you will encounter a detour, a road you are meant to take will have disappeared completely and someone will tell you about a “shortcut” which will add half an hour to your journey. It’s equal parts exciting and frustrating! The ride today encompassed all these, um, ‘diversions’.
Today’s ride was much nicer than yesterday’s. We were on small backroads, through pretty villages. We passed vineyards and orchards and lush green fields.
Topiary tennis?
Halfway along the route, we stumbled upon a wonderful farm shop where they baked their own bread and made sandwiches from produce grown onsite. They had a huge bowl of samples which Tom and I ransacked while we waited for our order: cinnamon rolls and fresh zucchini bread – yum.
On the way into the suburbs of Portland we had a few good steep (unexpected) climbs which felt like they had been transplanted from the Ozarks in Missouri (they had to be around 14% grade). And we had some equally steep downhills to get the adrenalin flowing.
We were stopped by a chap in his car and advised to take ‘the bike path along the river’. We followed his directions, cycled seven blocks downhill, and were told by a resident that there was no such bike path. We rode straight back uphill, Tom vowing to never listen to another stranger who starts a sentence with “Oh, but there’s a much better/quicker/more scenic route…”
We had a break in a park in Selwood, on the banks of the river and we watched dogs swimming in the water, people out on boats and kids lounging about in the grass. Portland sure does look good in the sunshine.
Then we took a bike path up the East side of the river, swung a right (following directions on Google) and found ourselves in a maze of roadworks. We retraced our steps and tried another approach. More roadworks. So we decided to do a big loop, south then east then north again to try to skirt around the extensive construction zone. As we were riding, Tom’s phone rang and when he answered it, it was our buddy Jahil, from New York. He happened to be in Portland and he happened to see us cycle past! Wow! We immediately pointed our wheels in the direction of the cidery where he was enjoying a drink and we pedaled over to see him. What an unexpected and brilliant surprise. We had a quick drink and catch up and it was such a treat: last time we saw him, he was waving us off from the stoop of our apartment building in Brooklyn!
It was turning into a great afternoon and it got better and better. We found our way around the roadworks and, a few miles later, we reached the pretty neighborhood of Laurelhurst. We found the home of our friends, Margo and Joel and, as we wheeled our bikes into their garden, Joel appeared with drinks and snacks. We sat in the shade catching up and chomping on local berries, chocolate cake and fresh almonds. Margo arrived home a little later with her lovely friend, Nounou. Margo and Joel are dear friends who I have known since I was eight years old and Tom and I knew that we wanted to have a stop in Portland to visit them. As soon as we arrived, we just felt so at home.
Margo and Nounou in Margo's gorgeous garden
They took us out for a delicious meal in a really fun neighborhood nearby. There was an amazing ice cream shop on the street, a brewpub, plenty of bars and restaurants with outdoor seating and a great, vibrant atmosphere. So far, Portland is shaping up as an awesome place!
