there’s plenty of water involved.
(Photo © J. Maus)
It’s the big Fourth of July Weekend… what type of bike adventures do you have planned?
Saturday is the start of the Tour de France with the much-anticipated comeback of a guy named Lance Armstrong (perhaps you’ve heard of him?).
For those of you not in Monaco for Stage 1, check out the TV coverage for the next three weeks on Versus . If you don’t have cable (or can’t stand the reportedly all-Lance-all-the-time Versus coverage), other ways to follow the action are via Twitter from @TDFblog or BikeHugger’s TDF “Hub” also looks like a great bet for full (and interactive) coverage.
I know about 20 people who are joining the Cycle Wild bike camping trip to Big Bottom. My three ladies and I are headed for some bike camping of our own. We’ll join two other familes (that’s six adults and seven kids!) for a ride from Portland to Champoeg State Park.
Out at the velodrome, the Alpenrose Sixday wraps up tomorrow.
I also know many folks will grab the bikes and roll down to the Waterfront for the Blues Festival. If you go, remember that they’ve closed and/or re-routed many bikeways (including, to the ire of some readers, Hawthorne Bridge access in some places).
Enjoy the weekend, and share your bike fun adventures below.
Thanks for reading.
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Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Davis CA to participate in the Gold Rush Randonnée, a 1200 kilometer ride with a 90-hour time limit. Should be fun, or at least an adventure.
Cecil, you’re nuts. 🙂 I hope you have a blast!
Tomorrow:
An almost decadent French breakfast w/friends while we watch the start of the Tour and then a sweaty ride to atone for the pastries. And more and longer riding the rest of the weekend. Have a safe holiday, all!
Big Bottom is now a designated wilderness, which means that the maximum legal group size is 12. I hope Cycle Wild’s commitment to low-impact recreation includes and following all public land regulations. Camping with 20 people is hard on the land no matter how you get there.
jonathan, what’s your route to Champoeg? just curious…
Where can I watch the tour?
Rolled the Xtracycles with kids on board to listen to music festival on the waterfront.
I rode into the Blues Festival today, it was great! Plenty of bike parking at the North end, a good opportunity to support a great cause (Oregon Food Bank) and hear some good music. I even found lots of shade to hide in, as long as I shared!
Stay cool and drink lots of H2O.
Nature’s air conditioner: NW Thompson downhill!
Four of us just did an interesting ride up the Sandy River canyon. A mile past the Stark Street bridge Multnomah County officers closed the highway to Corbett. Seems a bike rider was hit by a car during last year’s parade so they closed the road to cars this year…and bikes! Both bikes and cars headed up a side street but were soon stopped again by another patrol. As cars waited in single file on a steep hill one car at a time scissored back and forth at the top to turn around. The road closure would have been way more effective back at the Stark Bridge, or for that matter, the Troutdale Bridge. And why bikes weren’t let through I can’t imagine. I think they would have contributed to the parade. In any case all turned around and wandered the back roads of east county to enjoy the views, eat berries, and look for shade.
I’ve been biking in to the blues festival the last couple of days. Great music! Great fun! Don’t forget to tip the bike parking attendants!
(re: tommer #6)
http://www.steephill.tv/ has links for different streams. don’t know what is legal in your country, but i’m sure you can figure it out. i think these are all live streams as well, so you’d have to get up early.
Lowlight: my wife’s saddle got stolen from her bike while parked at the PSU farmer’s market.
Highlight: biking back from downtown, I found myself inadvertently participating in the Hosford-Abernethy kids bike parade around Ladd’s circle.
We’re having a great time at Champoeg State Park (writing this from our campsite.)
13 of us (6 adults and 7 kids ranging from 3 months to 7 yrs.) had an awesome ride down from Portland. It was really hot and we pushed up several tough hills, but it wa well worth it.
Today? Wineries in Newberg? museums? explore the river? Adventures await.
Tour will be shown at the Laurelwood Brewery restaurants, check their website. It will be available when it is available on versus, I am told that if it is not on when you go in and you want to see it, ask someone to put it on for you. And be sure to have some of their yummy food and drink!
Oops, I meant to say check Laurelwood website for their restaurant locations, Hollywood and NW.
Also check the Versus website for versus viewing times so you know when the start and finish are and you can time your arrival to work with one of the versus airings…
Have fun, see you there!
I am jealous of all you out on your bikes camping this weekend. I took a ride to the bike shop for some parts, did some yardwork, had coffee at the awesome new New Cascadia Traditionals Bakery and coffee shop at 6th and Market (all the baked goods are gluten free and YUMMY), watched the Wimbledon finals at 6 am on Saturday and Sunday, and now I am ready to sleep and start the week all over again.
Jonathan – enjoy your time this weekend, that is precious time with family!
I worked at the Blues Fest bike parking this weekend. Lots of riders, lots of sweet rides, some excellent people watching. Thanks for the tips folks – this was a fundraiser for my dragonboat team. We love non-motorized transport! 😀
Two friends and I rode out to Sauvies Island on Friday starting under the Broadway bridge and taking Front street. about 3 miles down the road, my friend’s back tire went flat and we had to pull over. I had a bike pump, but it only worked for my valves which were different than hers. LUCKILY, we asked these nice men who were working the docks if they had an air compressor, which they did, and I fixed her tube with a repair kit I brought. All was fixed, we made it to Sauvies before it got too hot thanks to some nice strangers.
Thanks Thomas!!
Zoobomb and Dead Baby Bike Club from Seattle culminated for a huge debauchery filled weekend in Che-HELL-yes, WA.
over 85 people in attendance! tents, Vanagons and lean-to were scattered all over our great host’s Riffe lakefront property.
Many fireworks, lots of grilling, a few intoxicants and water sports were enjoyed by all.
a few people even biked the 120 miles from PDX to Chehalis.
Amazing!
eljefe (#4) – Cycle Wild is absolutely committed to preserving the wilderness, and the area in which we camped was near but not inside the wilderness boundary.
Camping with 20 people is hard on the land if you stay in a small area and are not respectful of the land – when we left, there was no trace of our presence. There was no trace last year either. Our campsite was stretched out along a decommissioned forest service road for about 1/4 mile, and the campfire was built on the road with a ring from rocks from the road, which were scattered afterward. The fire was burnt until all the coals were consumed, and we had water, axes and shovels on-site to deal with any problems.
I think the wilderness was probably impacted much more by the large collection of RV’s down by the Clackamas River on FS155. There were at least 6 families down there blasting music and occasionally shooting firearms. A portion of that area is inside the new wilderness boundary.
Cycle Wild will be finding a new location next year, both for better access to water and because it’s a pain to carry all the camping stuff into the wilderness boundary (bikes are prohibited in wilderness areas).
Thanks everyone for coming out! It was a great trip, despite the heat on the way out.
Thank you, Matt and Tomas, for an outstanding adventure. CycleWild is awesome. You guys made it easy to get out, ride a beautiful route, and have a low-impact and organized weekend with a bunch of old and new friends.
I took some photos and videos and put them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregraisman/sets/72157621040920054/
That definitely will not be my last CycleWild adventure.
Cycle Wild was very mindful about how we impacted the camp area and we made sure to get every little scrap of trash before leaving.
Our group of 20 was far more respectful to the area than a group of 4 that were shooting pistols, using chainsaws, blaring music, running ATVs and leaving beer cans on the well used sites by the river.
All of our tents were careful not to trample any young pine trees that were growing in the road or on the side.
Matt and I had frequent conversations about minimizing our impact and will continue to strive for the highest awareness so that Cycle Wild is seen as a positive recreational group rather than a nuisance.
We hope next year’s trip is just as fun and epic.
See you in the forest!
-Tomas