#110 - time to bike

the weather is finally turning nice. this for me means time to bike! i will admit, i am not one who likes to ride in the rain, or cold. it's misery. i haven't ridden since the end of summer last year. i blamed it on a bum bike. my wheel was bent when i was going downhill at top speed and ran over a big stick in the road. i tried to see if i could ride it, but it was no good. so basically, i kept it in the garage until last week. i took it to the bike shop and asked if they could fix it. they couldn't. i had to buy a new wheel which set me back a few, even if it was a used one. but now it's fixed and i am happy. it's nice out and i can bike!

i usually go everywhere on the bus or MAX train, which works. it's slow and you have to be used to waiting, a lot. i decided for the month of june i wouldn't get a bus pass so that i will force myself to ride my bike everywhere. it's not that i don't like biking but sometimes i can be lazy. it's nice to sit on the bus/MAX and read or sleep or listen to music. i've only got two more days of going to school, one of which i will get a ride. the other is for my final which i can take at the testing center, about a 5 mile ride away. i usually get a ride to work but i will probably start biking there. it's about 3 miles, which is a pretty quick ride.

generally portland is a great place to ride bikes. everyone bikes here. i don't particularly like biking through the city, but it's not too bad. i try to stick to the wide streets that are less busy. there is a great bike trail that i love to ride that goes right along the willamette river. the section i've done quite a bit is probably 6 miles long and i double back. it's a part of a larger 40-mile loop that also goes east out to gresham, north through troutdale, west along the columbia river to north portland, then south through forest park. my goal is to do that loop this summer sometime. there is also a shorter loop that is probably 20 miles that goes along the 205 instead of out to gresham. 40 miles sounds like a lot but if i've got water and music and it's a nice day, i just keep going. i may hurt in the butt the next day but it's fun and quite worth it.