Sauvie Island

February 22, 2020

Two confessions

I have an embarrassing confession to make. In looking back over the map and our calendar I realize I have made two errors in what I’ve told you about the tour so far:

First, I gave you the wrong starting date. We begin the tour on March 24th, not the 23rd. I’m not sure where this error slipped in, but I think we originally planned to begin on the 23rd but changed our minds when we considered our flight options. A small point, but still.
Second, I was slightly off about the dimensions I gave you for the giant breadbox the tour would fit inside of. It’s not 500 x 200 x 2 miles. It’s more like 1,200 miles x 200 x 2; and even then we’ll slop over the edges just a bit. Oops.

How could we have been so far off, you’ll be wondering. Simple, really. You’ll remember that the trip includes an embedded flight. In fact, it’s really two separate but consecutive tours. When I drew my theoretical box on the map, I only included one of the two segments. Mea maxima culpa.

Twenty Questions, continued

Question #9: Will you be taking the Bike Fridays on this tour? Pah! What a wasted question. Obviously we’re taking the Bike Fridays. The tour includes an embedded flight, remember? That’s the whole point to having Bike Fridays. Next!

Question #10: Will it begin in Austin and end in Albuquerque? Cheater! You peeked! Yes, of course it will. You obviously looked at the link for the website and saw its name, AustintoAlbuquerque. That was a blunder on my part when I named this journal, since it can’t be modified once created and I didn’t anticipate this slow reveal at the time. It’s a mistake I won’t make in the future. So, there’s a very big hint. Visualize a 1,200 mile by 200 mile box two miles deep, oriented WNW/ESE, that contains both Austin and Albuquerque.

Today’s ride

It’s another fine day today; and since it’s the weekend we decide to dash out to Sauvie Island. Weekends are by far the best time for this ride because there’s much less traffic on Highway 30. I’ve been wanting to bike out to Sauvie specifically because I know there are sheep out there, and I’m still on the hunt for some shady sheep tor Tony from Tasmania to post over on the Cycle365 channel.

It’s twelve miles from our current home to the Sauvie Island Bridge. It’s all urban or highway travel with no big reason to stop, so we bike through save for one stop to photograph a freighter reflecting nicely on the Willamette.

Northbound on Highway 30, approaching the Saint John’s Bridge. The shoulder is in much better shape than it often is in the winter, when it typically is pretty trashy.

The Summer Sky, a bulk carrier sailing under Panama’s flag.

Crossing the Sauvie Island Bridge, we come up with a ride plan that works for both of us. I’ll ride up the west side to the end of the pavement, which is where the sheep typically hang out. Rachael will add a few miles by detouring out Oak Harbor Road, giving me some time to stop here and there. We’ll meet up somewhere along the way and then bike home together.