Surprise 32 miles

This morning I woke up to late cancellations from both of the clients I had scheduled this morning. This meant I had more time to ride than I expected, so I quickly dressed, made a picnic lunch and hopped on my bike. At first, I thought about doing the Two Volcanoes Ride, but since I actually had more time today to ride than tomorrow I thought I ride down to the Springwater via the I-205 bike path and ride out the Gresham and back. To my surprise, upon reaching the Springwater, a sign said that it is closed. So, I figured, I'll just continue south.
Riding along the I-205 isn't really all that pleasant because of the constant noise of the cars, and before I knew it I was most decidedly lost. I had followed the signs to turn left up 92nd, past Johnson Creek Blvd and over a big hill that actually had a pretty view. I could see the freeway to the right so I just kept riding. Eventually, the road I was on came to an end (at a mall) and I asked for directions. A very nice lady told me how to get back to the bike path and I kept riding south. At 82nd, the bike path ends for a while and as I was riding away from the freeway I was thinking, "Oh man, this is not good. This is just the kind of thing that gets me turned around."

I eventually found the bike path again and even found a beautiful park on the Clackamas river to stop and eat my sandwich. I called Peter to warn him that I might need help getting home. And, predictably, I got lost trying to find that same stretch of 82nd. There are no signs and I went way out of my way trying to find it. In tears, partly because I was so lost and partly because I had gotten cut off by three separate cars coming back towards I-205, I called Peter and he helped me find my way back to the bike path. Thank you, Peter.



It was at this point that three young, fit road bikers passed me. We did a little "Where ya headed?" chat at the light and I tailed them all the way back to Division. They were faster than me on the flats, but I kept catching them on the hills. I saw exactly where I got lost as we came back and it seemed like a pretty easy mistake.

Riding back in the neighborhood I passed a little girl at a lemonade stand. I was out of water so I figured I'd buy a couple of bucks worth of lemonade from her, but when I opened my wallet I remembered that I'd given all my cash to Peter. Darn. I'll have to catch her next time. Since I now had a hankering for lemonade, when I got home I made myself a quick citron presse. Mmm...French recovery drink.