I arrived Wednesday night and the bike arrived Thursday afternoon. Upon its arrival on Thursday I reassembled it then went for a little ride on Mt. Tabor which is a few blocks from my sisters house. Not really any singletrack, but there is a paved road which goes all the way to the top, and a groomed trail system which winds all around. I ended up doing several repeats on different trails to the top. For my first ride on the full suspension bike in nearly 2 years, it felt pretty good, but I still think gears are just a nuiscence.
On Friday I had the day to myself so I decided to head into downtown Portland and then figure out what to do from there. I got a bike map of Portland from my sisters husband and he also gave me some suggestions of places to ride. I left their house around 11am wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and headed downtown and rode around down there for a while, then through the Pearl District, then I decided I was going to go up to Forest Park for some offroad action. I stopped at a local bike shop Fat Tire Farm on the way for a trail map and some CO2 cartridges since my inadvertant attempt to bring a couple of cartridges with me in my carry on luggage was foiled by airport security... doh!
Upon leaving the bike shop I immediately headed uphill (well continued heading uphill really) for a mile or so to the entrance of Forest Park at which time I decided it was time to lose the jeans and sweatshirt and get into some riding gear. Forest Park offers a 24 mile out and back two track trail, the first 6 miles all gradually uphill to the midway point, with the second half more rolling terrain to the end at Germantown Road. Surprisingly all that was there at the end was a parking lot, so I immediately turned around and headed back. On the way back I decided I hadn't gone uphill enough so I took another trail option up to Skyline Blvd and then turned around and headed back. It was a great day and I felt really good the entire ride, except apparently my shifter cable housing broke during the shipping process to Portland so shifting was a mess on the return trip. Fortunately Fat Tire Farm was on the way home so after a quick shifter cable and housing replacement I was on my way. A little more sightseeing on the way back and I finished the ride with the 4 miles back uphill to my sisters. Now Im really looking forward to getting in some real singletrack!
50.24 miles
4:11 ride time
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