Big bike ride today. Longest since 2021.

  

I decided to ride the full distance from home to where Coffee Outside was scheduled to happen this week, and tack on a short errand to Revival Drum Shop nearby. I filled a bag with some old practice pads I wanted to sell and carried that in my front basket. From my house to the chosen park was a total of six miles. On a cool but humid morning, I took my time and stopped when I needed to catch my breath. The air was lovely, if a little muggy. The sun peeked through swirling clouds. For the first couple of miles, I had a few moments of not being able to hold my line, but eventually I settled down and found a nice pace and things got easier.

When I got to Ladd’s Circle, I noticed three young men hanging out and admiring each other’s bicycles, including a vintage Fisher mountain bike. I walked over and admired it, too. Greetings were exchanged all around and we had a short conversation about fixing up and retro-fitting classic bikes. They were about to go on a coffee ride of their own, telling me that they were running out of new coffee places to try out. I suggested a food pod near my house that has a great coffee cart, and they said they’d check it out soon. Then I excused myself and headed to our meetup at Abernathy Park. 

The park adjoins an elementary school of the same name, and is chosen periodically when rain threatens for its rustic covered wooden deck and generous allotment of bike racks. We enjoyed coffee, shared baked goods — a regular attendee brought a fresh, scratch-baked cake that tasted delicious — and there was the delight of running into friends and meeting new people. I’ve been to enough of these that I’m now one of the “regulars” and it’s nice to run into bike-minded people each time.

Most people bring camp stoves, hand-grinders and their own beans, and prepare their coffee on-site — it’s a fun way to test new camping gear — but I prefer to make up a thermos at home and bring it along. (Hand-grinding beans is tough on arthritic hands!)

After enjoying a lovely gathering at the park, I rode a short distance to the drum shop, where I traded in my old pads and took a spin around the vintage drum offerings. Its always nice to chat with the gang at Revival, but I was feeling tired and didn’t stay very long. I knew I didn’t have enough spoons to manage the distance home, so I rode to the nearest MAX stop and rode the light rail through downtown and back over to North Portland, where I got off, rode to the store for a few things and then rode home. My total was a little over 8.1 miles, the longest distance I’ve ridden since before I got sick with Long Covid; and I was wiped out. I enjoyed a lovely afternoon nap and felt very glad I’d ridden.

We’re due for a gradual warming up again this next week. It won’t get quite as hot as last weekend’s high 90s F — we’re two months past summer solstice and the sun goes down earlier now — so I’ll enjoy these remaining August days and hope for more rides when I can manage them.

Since shutting down my Instagram account I’ve resorted to checking the web site each week to find out where the next Coffee Outside gathering will be. There’s also a Flickr group where photos of previous meetups are sometimes shared. It’s a very congenial group and has become my favorite way to stay connected to bike-minded folks.

(Photo by Shawn Granton: from a previous Coffee Outside at Laurelhurst Park.)