springtime in january: rocky butte

I needed a bigger ride today. I am still sleeping badly, waking up at 2 or 3 each morning and taking a couple of hours to go back to sleep. Last night I nticed my mood plunging after my bike ride. Today I wanted to see if a longer ride would be any different. So I rode up to Rocky Butte. If had been foggy all morning, and the fog was breaking just as I left the house at 12:30. The sun got warmer as I pedaled east, and I stripped off my top layer within a few miles of leaving the house. By the time I got up to the base of Rocky Butte, I was almost warm.

At 615 feet it's hardly a real mountain. But the climb is steep enough and long enough to be challenging for me now that I'm out of shape. I got off and pushed a few stretches of the climb, and took the "back door" route through Portland Bible College's campus to shorten my climb a little. It was sunny and unusually warm for January, with a high of 61F. I was glad to ride up there, but didn't stay very long as I had scheduled a coffee meeting with my sister down in the Beaumont neighborhood.

The sun stayed bright while I enjoyed coffee, but lost its warmth quickly as it sank lower in the sky. I had to end our meeting before it got dark and too cold. Even so, the brisk ride home wasn't quite brisk enough to really warm me up, and I was glad to get home when I did. By 5 pm, when I pulled into the driveway, the fog had returned along my street. A good ride, and a much-needed one.