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-Keith Pelczarski
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Days 5-7: Long Weekend in Portland
Saturday morning I slept in a bit after my long ride on Friday and late-night arrival. I was actually sore after riding almost 90 miles, something to keep in mind for future rides. Here's where the bike and I spent the night:
I got a call from Eric Burnette, a Portland pal who let me crash on his couch for the rest of the weekend. He came and picked me up and we threw all my gear into his little Toyota pickup (which has 231,000 miles on it!). We had brunch at Bijou, then drove over to River City Bicycles for some fenders (got some nice SKS Chromoplastics). I asked the guy at River City about getting a triple crankset with a granny gear, and since I have a road-style setup, I'd only go down 4 teeth by making the switch. (My current compact crankset is a 50/34, and the triple that they had that fit my bike was 50/39/30.) Basically he talked me out of buying stuff, which is always a good sign in a bike shop. Following River City Bicycles, we hit REI for a few more supplies. I napped for a bit then had dinner with Eric's girlfriend Jill and her friend Deb. It was a nice, mellow evening with great conversation.On Sunday, I slept in again, and still had some residual soreness, but nothing too bad. I put the fenders on the bike, during which process one of the rear spokes revealed itself to be broken. It snapped right in the middle of the threads, and I think it stayed seated in there just enough to avoid detection. If I had to guess when it broke I'd say it was the bone-jarring railroad track just as I got into Portland. In any case, it was broken, but by the time I was done fussing with the fenders and such, it was time for us to get going. We had to stop by Jill's so I could bring my maps and get some advice on my route to the coast. At Jill's we pored over the maps and found a few good candidates for rides, mostly centered on going through Eugene and then cutting over to the coast. Luckily I was able to talk on the phone with one of their friends who had done the Portland to Eugene ride a bunch of times. He had some good advice on how to avoid both traffic and hills while maximizing scenery, so that was a really helpful conversation.
With the next leg of the route planned out, it was time to meet our old friend Kurt Morris at Deschutes Brewery. I had an elk burger, which was tasty, and we talked for hours. Kurt grew up around Eugene and the Oregon central coast, so he was supportive of my newly-decided route through the Willamette River Valley before hitting the coast.
After we bid adieu to Kurt, we headed back to Eric's place, where he and his 17-year-old son Kevin helped me cull gear from my bags. They were really helpful for making the decisions on what to keep and what to mail home. Basically, what I learned is that I had packed for backpacking, which isn't quite the same as bike touring. With the bike, you're always on the road, and there's usually some kind of food at pretty regular intervals. After much hemming and hawing, I decided that the stove and accompanying mess kit were not only slowing me down weight-wise, their actual use and cleaning in camp were taking up a lot of time there, too. Plus, the weather isn't that cold even on the coast, so there's never any real need for a hot meal in camp.
Also cut from the bag were some extra clothes, one of the three spare tubes I was carrying, the Camelbak reservoir that I didn't really use, the crappy spray guard that I thought would make a decent replacement for fenders, and a whole bunch of extra bungee cords and carabiners and stuff that I brought in case of any MacGyver moments. We'll see how much it all weighs when we mail it off, but I'd say that we cut over 10 pounds, maybe 15.
Today I brought my bike in to River City, where after talking with them it was decided that it would be best for me to replace the rear wheel. Unfortunately, they didn't have any road hubs on heavy-duty rims pre-built. They were nice enough to shift around their maintenance schedule and hand-build a new rear wheel for me. As it turns out, the hand-built wheel (heavy-duty Mavic rim, Shimano Ultegra hub, heavy-duty spokes) took until after closing time to be finished, but Evan at River City was a champ and worked late to finish it.While waiting, I was able to grab lunch with Kurt Morris, and spent a little time with his wife Amanda, their daughter Isabella, and new dog Kipper. It was great to see them, and they provided a lot of encouragement.
Since the wheel-building took so long, I was lucky that I was also able to get in touch with my friend Rachel who had just returned from a trip to Chicago. She and her husband Jason met me for dinner and we had a great time catching up while I waited for the wheel to be done. No picture, unfortunately, but they look great, too.After dinner I picked up the bike and toted it away with Eric's pickup, then rejoined Rachel and Jason to enjoy a sour beer at Puckerfest. The truck, bike, and I then headed back to Beaverton for a little more quality time with Eric, and then I spent a while cleaning up the past blog entries on Eric's MacBook since the iPhone is a bit limited on the publishing front.
Tomorrow I'll mount up and ride down the Willamette Valley. Yeehaw!
:: Keith 14:13 [link] :: ::