Day 68, Friday, June 27



We woke up to cool rainy weather on the west side of the Cascades, but there was not enough rain to force us into rain jackets. We just wore our long-sleeved shirts and got on with it.

After a day of rest, and with the cool weather, both of us remarked about how great we felt. There were a couple of small climbs early in the ride, but at this point our legs were conditioned for them and we hardly noticed. It was a fast 17 miles to Sandy, Oregon.

We planned to have breakfast in Sandy and stop by the hardware store for some Loctite. I needed it to secure the bolts connecting my front bags to the fork. We hoped the local bike shop would be open by then, but we made such good time we were still 45 minutes too early. We were about to press on to Portland when I noticed a light in the bicycle shop. John  rode over and peeked in the window and the owner opened the door. John told him what he needed and he agreed to go ahead and fix his brakes. That gave us a chance to have another cup of coffee at a nearby shop, and by the time we were done the bike was ready.

With a working front brake on John's bike, we finally left Sandy. It was just a few short miles to Boring, Oregon, where we got onto the Springwater Corridor, a 21-mile rail trail in metropolitan Portland.

There were a number of people using the Springwater. We saw many people walking, and a few cyclists out for a bicycle ride. As we approached Portland and the housing along the trail became more dense, John asked if it felt like we were in Portland yet. I told him it did not, but a couple of miles later we started seeing unhoused people camping along the trail. "Now it feels like Portland." Oregon's homeless crisis continues.

Forty miles or so into the ride it was time to leave the trail. We could have continued all the way to the Willamette River, but we were going to stay the night with my friend Hai, the man who had driven out to eastern Oregon to meet us in Brogan. He lives a couple of miles north of the trail on the east side of Portland. We departed the trail and wound through the Reed College campus before getting to his house in time for lunch.

Hai asked us what we wanted for lunch and mentioned that a new Thai place opened near his house. Anything that was not diner or pub fare sounded great to us, so we went there. After lunch Hai had to work some more (he works from home). John took a long nap in the basement guest room, and I sat on Hai's swanky reclining couch, pretending to watch From Dusk to Dawn but really napping myself. We went out for happy hour to Holy Ghost, an east side cocktail bar, where we met another friend, Darren.

It was a very easy day, in good weather and great terrain, the perfect beginning of that last stage of our tour. I'm glad we could spend it with friends.


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