May 22, 2021
Westside/Springhill loop
With a week of wet weather ahead, Rachael and I grab the last fine cycling day we expect to see before leaving town to return to Fanno Creek and the roller coaster Westside Regional Trail that we explored a few weeks ago. We’ve been talking about returning and extending the loop by riding the WSRT all the way north to its end at Springhill Road and then climbing up and over the ridge before dropping back to downtown.
Matters get off to a slow start as we wait around for about five minutes while Rachael gets her new Garmin Edge set up for the day. Ever since we got them we’ve been planning to try out the live tracking feature that supposedly will let us track each other’s position on the road. Assuming this really works, it could be great. We’ve had a few tense times in the past when we’ve gotten badly separated in some remote spot overseas, unsure of whether we were in front of or behind our partner.
Not today though - after five minutes standing around in a cold breeze, we finally give it up for the day until Rachael can go back and reread the manual.
Finally we’re off biking north through town toward Terwilliger Boulevard past the rows of tents and junk lining I-405 and then passing through the PSU campus. Biking through the north park blocks it’s startling to see the crowds at the Farmers Market. It feels almost normal, and heart-warming - a hint that the Portland we love might really spring back to life again someday soon.
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Then we’re climbing up Terwilliger for the first modest climb of the day and crossing west through Multnomah Village to the north end of the Fanno Creek Trail. This is our third or fourth time down this trail this spring, and I enjoy it more each time. Nothing dramatic here, but very pleasant.
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Video sound track: A Taste of Honey, by Vince Guaraldi and Bolo Sete
The WSRT is a real roller coaster - especially at the south end, where there are a pair of significant climbs in close succession. Both of them register as climbs on our new Garmins, and we’re both really appreciating this new feature. It helps to be able to get an accurate countdown of the remaining elevation gain, and gratifying to see from the grade percentage that it really is as steep in spots as it feels.
And, the trail as a whole is great fun. The pain has its reward as you crest the top and sashay down the other side. Like a samba.
Video sound track: E Luxo So, by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd.
Further north though, the quality of the ride drops off a bit. North of the Sunset Highway the trail becomes more of a walking than cycling route, with frequent street crossings without curb cuts. It gets tedious after the fourth or fifth iteration to bike a ways and then have to stop, dismount, and walk across some quiet residential street because there’s no damn curb cut.
And then, there’s the two mile climb back up Springhill Road to Skyline. It’s not a bad climb really, but it’s of course not the joy ride that we saw last month when going the other direction. And then, there is the tension of dropping down Cornell through those two tunnels, which feels too busy for comfort this late in the afternoon. I suspect in the future we’ll cut the ride short and come through the gap at Cedar Hills and down through Washington Park instead.
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