No Breakdowns Today

8/23/2006: Day 4, 42.6 miles; Total 108.6 Miles

We start our day at Columbia City, OR, population 1157. I am now back on the Bianchi with a new front shifter and a new heavy-duty rear tube. The TB’s jobs for the day include doing the laundry and mailing home a large box of excess stuff. I start off and he follows closely for a couple of miles and all is a joy with no breakdowns. So he did his jobs and I pedaled through Portland for a total of 42.6 miles or 1% of the total trip in one day. This isn’t enough but it’s a lot more than we’ve been doing.

Today’s highlights include the lady at the Post Office asking the TB to bring the box into be measured so he left and went to Fed Ex instead. He got the package off and found a laundry that had machines that required him to hold the door to keep running. Then he met me along the route and I was glad to see him after about 20 miles. I ate some Little Debbie’s, Lance crackers, he made me a cup of Cappuccino and I went back to the saddle. It was nice to have a BOBB (a butt off bike break) and sit on the floor of the VAN. We planned to meet on the East of Portland and he would go to the Portland Post Office and pick up our mail of more maps for the Columbia Gorge. However, he couldn’t find the post office and got lost going north on I-5 toward Seattle and gave up the effort.

I wandered around downtown Portland myself unable to follow my maps to get across the Willamette River for about half an hour. Finally I carried the bike up 3 flights to the Burnside Bridge to luckily find it had been closed a week but was open now and across I went. I went the wrong way on the first street and had to circle back climbing a slight hill to a stop sign. I forgot to get my feet out of the cleats that fasten me to the pedals and as the bike came to a stop I fell over onto my left elbow, but suffering no injury. A homeless guy on the side of the road shouted out to see if I was okay. The city is beautiful, the riverfront loaded with sleeping homeless, and many yuppies with orange or blue hair coming out of coffee shops.

The biking was not strenuous, the machine performed beautifully, the zooming cars were not too close, and I cruised some 30 miles into town at an average of 14 miles per hour and through town some 12 more miles taking in some neighborhoods and the MAX (Metropolitan Area Express) a light rail system.

Tonight we are at the home of Dawn and Paul Galli in Portland. She is Belcher of Appalachian Trail fame from our thru-hike of the AT in 2000. Belcher was famous for hiking in a skirt. I can recall seeing her on top of Mt. Washington with her skirt flying in the wind and the temperature at 28 degrees. She did wear long johns. We met her husband Paul who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail with her and their roommate Heidi who is also a PCT Thru-Hiker and works at REI. Paul is a surveyor and Belcher a pre-school teacher.

We reviewed the maps and will head up the Columbia River Gorge after we finish about 6 more miles of Portland. It’s only about 320 more miles to finish Oregon, our first state.