January 21, 2025
Kennedy Lake
After our recent departure fiascos Rachael has the good suggestion that we should post a checklist on the door to remind us of items we might be forgetting. An excellent suggestion, and I get to work putting together a list on the iPad. A few minutes later I asked her if she thought there was a printer at the nearby CVS, which she chuckled at, thinking it funnier than most of my attempts at humor. When I told her I wasn’t joking though she tactfully suggested that we might go all old fashioned and try paper and a pen, both of which we have at hand. Two brilliancies in the same morning from that half of the team! We are so much stronger together.
And, we have tape! In no time at all the initial list goes up and we’re in business.
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The plan for today was a ride together up Treat Street and east along the Rillito Wash. When we look at this morning’s weather though and see it is freezing again and won’t be warm enough to start until late morning, and also that today is the windiest of the days in the week ahead, we change our minds. This is the natural day for her to make a second attempt at climbing Sentinel Peak, so I decide I’ll take the short ride southwest to Kennedy Park, another good inner-city birding spot.
She bundles up and leaves shortly after for a walk to CVS to restock us on a few items, and while she’s out I’m ready to leave myself. I want to get an earlier start when the park might be quieter and before the wind builds up. I’m all set to go but can’t find my Ray-Bans, an essential item on a bright day. I look everywhere, knowing that they’re here somewhere because I wore them home last night.
Finally I give up and call Rachael, asking her to look inside her pack in case they got slipped in there somehow. They’re not there, but she says that if she missed seeing them and finds them later she’ll give a call. So I start the search anew, beginning with the drawer where we keep the cameras and miscellaneous other items. They’re not there, but I’m startled to see that the camera’s charger is there, with the battery inside of it. I was about to leave with a dead camera again, so camera and battery get added to the list.
And then I look again in the place I thought I’d put them - inside my helmet so I wouldn’t leave them behind. I’ve looked twice there already, but the third time is a charm. They’re black, the inner liner of the helmet is also, they just blend in. I’ll learn.
I call Rachael to give her the good news, and then finally I’m off. And the list is a big success! I end up on the right side of the door with every essential item for a day ride: phone, wallet, Ray-Bans, Rachael’s distance glasses, blue outer shirt, camera with battery loaded, and the house keys!
Fifteen or so minutes later I’m biking south up the Santa Cruz toward Kennedy Park when I hear a sound I recognize - the strong, raspy call of a cactus wren. I immediately stop, lean the bike against a rock, and pull out the camera and Rachael’s distance glasses which I carry along because her prescription is so good for me - better than that crap pair that I’m pleased now to have lost. It doesn’t take long to spot him. Cactus wrens like to perch in prominent spots and patiently sing away as long as you don’t approach too closely.
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Its not far to Kennedy Park - six miles, including a gentle climb away from the river to the park that sits roughly a hundred feet above it - which doesn’t sound like much but is enough to give some nice views. I make my usual circuit of the small lake, admiring the views while watching for birdlife - both in the surrounding mesquite for warblers and such and on the water for the waders and divers. And today I find the bird I’m hoping to see, a bird that for some reason always seems to hang out here: redheads. Today there must be a dozen of them mixed in with the coots and mallards and others. Also though I’m delighted to see a pair of killdeer and get probably my best shot of this attractive and familiar bird ever, brought in closer with the new camera.
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Also on the lake are a flock of perhaps two hundred rock pigeons that entertain me by periodically taking to the air as one, circling the sky above for a time or three, and then realighting at exactly the same patch of the lake they just lifted off from.
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And finally as I’m about to leave the lake and drop back down to the loop I see this bird with its gorgeous emerald wings.
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1 week ago
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Back on the loop, I decide to extend my short ride by continuing south up the Santa Cruz to the end of this spur of the Loop where it terminates at Valencia Road. From there I bike the sidewalk east across the river to the other side and then turn north and back toward town along the river on another spur of the Loop. And this one might be even nicer - quieter, and with arguably the better views. I make a note to tell Rachael about this loop, a perfect one when all you’ve got time for is a pleasant, easy twenty miles.
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Sometime on my way back north to town I’m saddened by a call from Rachael. She’s not making it up to Sentinel Peak today either. She was preparing to leave for her walk when she realized that her Garmin was nearly dead so she’s been stuck at home for the last several hours trying to get it charged, a problem she’s had that worries her and makes her think she may need a new device already. Today though she finally figures out that it’s a problem with the charger. After some research she read that the device can also be charged through an Apple charger, so in an experiment she tried using the iPad charger, which worked and is super fast.
That’s really good news of course and an item drops off the worry list but it’s too late now for Sentinel Peak. She’s still got three hours though before we plan to arrive at Perche No at 5:00 for our dinner reservation. Perche No is one of our downtown favorites, a place I’m sure we’ll make it back to a time or two before returning to Portland. We agree to meet at the door, and then she sets off on a ramble to the south.
I walk over to the nearest streetcar stop soon after four, once again escaping with all the items for this type of outing: phone, wallet, Rachael’s glasses, keys, and both my Pendleton and coat because I nearly froze walking home after dinner at El Charro two nights back when I hadn’t thought to bring a coat.
We’re standing at the door at 5:02, and about an hour later are walking south to Broadway and the westbound tram stop. The temperature drops like a rock here once the sun goes down, so we’re relieved that it’s only a cold five minute wait until the next car arrives.
At the other end though it’s still five blocks to our apartment and I’m half frozen when we finally get there. One of the first things I do after settling in is to add long pants to the list on the door.
Today's ride: 20 miles (32 km)
Total: 149 miles (240 km)
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For my Garmin, I’d just plug it in and run the cable to the power bank stashed in my handlebar bag.
1 week ago
This would be on my list, too. 😁
1 week ago
Oh..this was a pre-list, right?
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1 week ago
1 week ago