GPHQ 6: Springville Road

April 19, 2021

My thoughtful dentist heard that I was having trouble sticking with my “Spring Break” discipline and decided to help me out. He summoned me to his chair for an interesting dental procedure last Wednesday that you’d rather not hear the details of, and prescribed a change of pace: several days of light duty, replacing bike rides and the foods I like best with rest, antibiotics, applesauce and cottage cheese.

The weather for all four days was splendid, which didn’t make sitting around the apartment and coffee shops more bearable. Finally though my spell in purgatory was up, and yesterday I joined Rachael for a brisk ride out to Sauvie Island. Just a ride, and not much news to report.

Image not found :( — Caught in the act! Roddy and the Straggler slipped away for a tryst at Raccoon Point.

Those 47 flat miles went down well, so today I’m ready to resume the quest. Happily the weather is still cooperating for a few days more, so I want to make each one count. Today I went back up Skyline Road again, with two descents in mind: after the 1,100’ climb to Skyline along the usual route up Cornell and Thompson, I turned north and followed the ridge for a couple of miles before dropping west on Springville Road into Washington County.

Springhill Road is one of my favorites in the vicinity, dropping 800 feet in four miles in almost a pure descent - just point the bike in the right direction and hold on for the next three miles, before it eases off toward the bottom as it crosses Rock Creek.

Soul, a newish work by Mexican muralist Paola Delfin. It’s been around since 2017, so I was surprised not to notice it before. But then, we haven’t been around town much since then ourselves.

Video sound track: O Pato, by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd

Finally bottoming out, I turned north again on Kaiser Road and started working my way back up to the ridge again. I’d forgotten what a delight Kaiser is - a lumpy country road that passes small farms and wood lots. No wildlife today, but I remember being startled by a small herd of elk along this road years ago. It’s a pretty challenging ride going this direction and harder than it sounds, gaining a net of only about 600 feet in four miles. It’s deceptive though because a few small descents are embedded in there and nearly all of the climbing seems to come in short, steep lifts.

Lots to see though.

Not long before Kaiser intersects with Cornelius Pass I turn uphill on Brooks Road for another short but steepish climb back up to the top of the ridge, finally intersecting Skyline again by the elementary school.

From there I turned south and dropped off to the east side of the ridge on Newberry Road for another fast, delightful swoosh down to the river. I captured some video too, but you don’t get to see it because it’s so cluttered - I forgot to tilt back my GPS before the drop, so it protrudes into the frame. It’s bad enough to have that bit of shifter cable in the corner that I can’t do anything about, without this big thumb sticking in and looking ridiculous.

So, I’ll just leave you this one still image that I bothered stopping for, and report back later for a longer look.

Down Newberry Road. Another nice descent that deserves a video some day.

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Ride stats today: 27.2 miles, 2,720’. Perfect!

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