bicycling in Oregon

[Marguerite53]

Thought those of you who bicycle so much might want to pack your bags and head out west for a trip. You're probably well read on your destinations, but I saw this from our glib, avid cyclist/society journalist in today's Oregonian and thought this might inform and inspire you.....

Marguerite

Can bicycling be Oregon's Maine event?
Friday, June 16, 2006
The Oregonian

Suddenly Oregon seems serious about branding itself as "the bicycle state."

State government is gearing up to hire a "bicycle concierge" to serve tourists on two wheels.

Crater Lake is considering a "car-free day" to lure pedalers to the national park.

More than 300 people are expected at Saturday's Portland Bike Summit (portlandonline.com/transportation) to hear policy wonks talk pedal power.

What's at stake in all this is more than bragging rights. What's at stake is economic development, the kind of economic development -- clean and green -- coveted by communities coast to coast.

The travel industry figures more than 5 million Americans head off on bicycling vacations each year. Hotly touted destinations include Provence, Tuscany, Napa and, yes, the Willamette Valley. Portland International Airport is busy making itself bike-friendly to welcome those flying in with their titanium steeds.

Oregon's lure includes a wide network of well-maintained country roads, a stunning diversity of spectacular landscapes and a full complement of berry cobbler communities that think the proper way to treat strangers is to try to talk them into staying over for a while.

Since 1988, Cycle Oregon, presented by this newspaper, has produced a weeklong tour each September designed to showcase this bounty. Lately, Cycle Oregon has been working with Oregon State Parks to develop a network of state scenic bikeways.

Last summer, more than 1,000 cyclists saddled up to christen the first such bikeway, from Portland to Eugene. Next month, we're at it again, extending the bikeway south from Eugene. The July 22-23 event, tailored for rookie riders who wonder what the heck this is all about, features all the traditional Cycle Oregon amenities, from bike mechanics and baggage porters to a beer garden.

Full ride details are available at www.cycleoregon.com.

Perhaps the best news is that, all around the state, communities now are pursuing a piece of this action. Cycle Oregon is already looking at scenic bikeways through the Columbia Gorge, in Central Oregon and linking the Willamette Valley to the coast.

Bart Eberwein, the Hoffman Construction exec spurring this drive to "re-brand" Oregon, has little doubt of the power in pedals. "Bicycles," he says, "can do for Oregon what lobsters did for Maine."

Jonathan Nicholas: 503-221-8533; [email protected]

 

[Adam T]

That sounds awesome! Isn't the Willamette valley where all of the wineries are? We may have to trade hometown destinations.

I forgot you asked me awhile back about things to do in Charleston. PM me if you still want a list. I wish this town/state was a little more bike friendly.

 

[Marguerite53]

Adam. Yes, we have many vineyards. Some are quite small....2 even, within a few miles of my home (one just a stone's throw) on the edge of suburbia. This appears to be a good site.... www.oregonwine.org

Remember, when you come.....it's Will-Am-Ette (almost like wool-lamb-ette) not Willa - mette.

And, Adam, I suspect that the city of Charleston would be happy if more than just my husband and I showed up as tourists. Please feel free to tell us about Charleston right here in this thread! Thanks!!!

Marguerite

 

[Der Biermeister]

Please feel free to tell us about Charleston right here in this thread!

Charleston?? This time of year??? WHEW, you are talking the three Hs.

Here's another plug for ................................... lobsters!

 

[Marguerite53]

Der Bier.... October, october, october....... Late August a slim maybe, but I grew up in Maryland....I know better! Thanks, tho.

I mean, why would I actually want to leave Oregon when we pay with rain all year and get blessed with perfection in August, September and October??

Marguerite

 

[Adam T]

You're absolutely right. It gets downright miserable here in the summer. (I should know, I work outside!) It's like breathing underwater sometimes.

Spring is definitely the best time to visit. The magnolias and and honeysuckle are in bloom and everything smells so good.

Good restaurants are everywhere. Seafood and lowcountry cuisine are the best. Try Locklears or Gilligans for seafood, Chops for steak, and Poogan's Porch for lowcountry.

There is a lot of history as well. Ft. Sumpter, Ft. Moultrie, the Battery, etc. A horse & carraige ride will show you most of the historical sights. If you like to shop there is the open air market (Market St.)

The Dock Street Theater has all kinds of plays and musicals in an old antebellum building.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Oh yeah, don't forget the beach! Sand, sun, and surf!, not to mention lots of great fishing. You can rent tackle.

Here's a link: http://www.charlestonsfinest.com/sc/places.htm

 

[Marguerite53]

Thanks, Adam. Springtime does look and sound wonderful. I honestly think I might start planning something for next year.......Charleston in the spring......to celebrate my first anniversary with my new heart! April 18th. Perfect!! That is also a great list and a very comprehensive link!!! Thank you so much!!

My husband and I are having so much trouble deciding where to go that I am going to start a notebook to save all of our good ideas.

Marguerite

 

[Marguerite53]

And back to bicycling......

And back to bicycling......

Back to bicycling..... the Oregonian is beginning a week long series .....Front Page stuff. Here's today's installment. Bug me on the PM if I forget a day......


Racing in Mt. Hood's shadow
Oregon's passion for all things bicycle sends riders hurtling downhill
Monday, June 19, 2006
ABBY HAIGHT
The Oregonian
MOUNT HOOD -- For the best view of downhill mountain bike racing, climb past the Mt. Hood Skibowl chairlift, over a snow-fed creek and through bunchberry, flowering wild strawberry and the first blooms of paintbrush.

Follow the bike trail into fragrant woods. Then listen.

A bike chain hisses. Thump. Clatter. The unmistakable cough of someone getting the wind knocked from his lungs.

"Get up, man! C'mon, you can do it!" The voice belongs to Alex Hansen, a 23-year-old home builder from Astoria who would be racing, too, if it weren't for the injuries from a spill that sent him to the emergency room Saturday.

Hansen and others are gathered in the middle of a steep glade, on a stretch of logs and rocks called the Woods Trail because it's the best place to view great riding -- and massive wipeouts -- in the Shiloh Cyclery Super Sunday downhill mountain bike race.

Perhaps no other state embraces cycling as Oregon does. About 10 percent of the total number of cyclists registered to race in the United States are registered with the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association. Most of the association's members are citizen racers, cyclists who race for the fun and physical challenge. Last week, the racing association sanctioned 15 race events.

"We've made it easier for people to jump in the pool, at all levels," said Mike Murray, a racing association official.

This week, The Oregonian will explore Oregon's cycling culture by covering a different event or activity each day. And perhaps no single cycling event reflects the state's ethos as well as a downhill race in the shadow of Mount Hood.

The downhill was just one event staged Sunday by Hurricane Racing and Mt. Hood Skibowl. A cross-country mountain bike race cut across the downhill course in the early afternoon and, over at the Multipor ski area, mountain bikers pedaled through short-track races. About 250 racers in all -- from novices to pros -- competed.

It is a hectic day for Petr Kakes, the former Olympic speed skier who coordinates Skibowl's summertime mountain bike program.

"We've got the terrain for everything," Kakes said. "It's my personal challenge to put on three races in one day."

After giving race instructions -- reminding riders to get off the trail if they stop -- Kakes shouts, "Keep the rubber side down."

Trails out almost any door

Skibowl started its race series in 1989 and rode the wave of mountain bike popularity into the mid-1990s. During that time, about 60 percent of new bikes sold in the United States were mountain bikes, according to the National Bicycle Dealers Association.

In a $5.6 billion cycling industry that includes increasingly popular hybrid and comfort bicycles, mountain bikes account for about 37.4 percent of new bike sales, according to the association.

Mountain biking got its start in the mid-1970s, when a group of riders retrofitted some old Schwinns with fat tires and sturdy brakes and bombed down Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, Calif.

Oregon fat-tire enthusiasts can find trails outside almost any door, wherever they live. Portland riders have the fire lanes of Forest Park and a single track on Powell Butte. Trails lace through forests around Mounts Hood, Adams and St. Helens. Hansen swears by Norm's Trails, just outside of Astoria.

But downhill mountain biking isn't everywhere -- some racers drove from Seattle for Sunday's event because there isn't a similar series there -- and it isn't for everyone. The sport owes its chutzpah to BMX racing and those pioneer mountain bikers who pointed their bikes down the hill and pushed off.

Downhill mountain bikes are heavy because of their full suspension system with 7 inches of give, which allows the bike to flow over dips, bumps and obstacles. A chain guide keeps the chain in place, and a bash guard protects the crank. The bikes have powerful disc brakes and are stripped of gears except for the highest ones.

"What Advil is for"

Riders wear protective gear -- full face helmets, shin and knee guards. Some add shoulder and chest protectors.

Crashes are inevitable.

"If you don't crash once in awhile, you're probably not pushing it," says Nathan Baldwin, a 30-year-old sport division racer from Hillsboro. "That's what Advil is for."

Baldwin has been racing two years and is so hooked on the sport that he and two friends formed a company, Goldtooth Design, and have been manufacturing lightweight bash guards.

The draw is an adrenaline rush, Baldwin says.

It is that rush that calls to Leana Gerrard, a 20-year-old pro racer from Seattle. Gerrard made the transition from BMX racing to downhill. Despite numerous crashes, she loves to dance the line between speed and disaster.

"People don't believe me because I don't look like the typical downhill racer," says Gerrard, whose white-blonde hair flows from underneath her helmet. "Then they come out and watch, and they say, 'That's a death sentence.'

"But it's the thrill of riding your bike down something you can't walk down."

Hansen won't be doing any riding for a few weeks. He was on a practice run Saturday, flying down the trail where it dips through a rock bed. He saw the two riders stopped in the trail too late.

He pulls up a pant leg to show the 10 stitches on his knee, making a cross of the scar from the kneecap he busted riding BMX. He also fractured his left wrist.

"I thought I'd get into mountain biking because it would be more mellow," Hansen says. "Instead, it's faster; it's bigger.

"And if you go fast, you go down hard."

As if making a human exclamation point, a rider bursts around a corner, tries to correct and somersaults into the bushes, his legs tangled in his bike frame.

"Hey, you can do it, man!" Hansen waves his good arm. "Get up!"

Abby Haight: 503-221-8198; [email protected]

 

[Marguerite53]

Tuesday's

Rookie racers welcome at PIR
Pedal power replaces horsepower as cyclists at all levels get to compete
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
ABBY HAIGHT
The Oregonian
Kathleen Manseau decided at 3:30 p.m. Monday to enter her first bicycle race.

Four hours later, Manseau -- still breathing hard, sweat trickling down her jaw -- had the first-timer's awe of racing at Portland International Raceway. The other novice riders were so fast, she said. Riding so close to others was scary at times. Manseau, 33, an emergency room nurse who goes everywhere on her bike, wasn't sure she'd race again, but she was thrilled by the experience.

"I love that it exists," she said.

A day after A.J. Allmendinger drove to victory at PIR in the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland, averaging 113.989 mph, Manseau joined about 150 other cyclists to spin around the North Portland track -- at speeds averaging 20 to 35 mph -- in races against the field or against themselves.

Hundreds of Portland and Southwest Washington cyclists start their week here, either in the Monday night series for masters novices, men's masters over 30 and elite women or in the Tuesday night series for racers of all levels up to elite.

The Monday series is about 15 years old. Tuesday night racing has been a regular for more than 30 years.

The PIR races kick off a week full of racing for any cyclist with strong lungs and legs and a competitive streak. Road racing moves to Mount Tabor on Wednesdays. Alpenrose Velodrome has racing Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights. Weekends find a calendar full of road and mountain biking competitions.

But for first-time and novice riders, Monday at PIR is a safe, supportive entry into a sport that can seem intimidating and overwhelming in its technical requirements -- let alone the physical demands.

Portlander Laura Cary remembered her first race at PIR this spring.

"Thrilling and scary and really fun," she said.

Novices are tutored by experienced racers who ride with them during the race. They learn the etiquette of drafting -- don't overlap wheels -- and how to pay attention to everything around them.

"You have to live outside your comfort zone," said David Hart, a race mentor. "You can't be bothered by someone brushing your wrist. They have to be aware of their surroundings. If you pass someone, you have to remember that they are still there."

The mentors urge riders to relax, which can be challenging in the close speed of the pack.

"A lot of it is pointing the little things out that make it easier for someone to follow a wheel, that they can get a little closer," said Peter Drake, 41, a "late bloomer" who was schooled early in his racing career by masters-aged cyclists.

"I tell people, 'Attack when it's hard,' " Drake said. "New riders want to go when it's easy, when there's a tail wind. I tell them to wait until there's a head wind, then go."

Learning racing technique is easier at PIR because it is flat and riders don't have to contend with traffic. Cyclists occasionally crash when they bump wheels or get tangled in the heat of a sprint, but injuries -- beyond road rash and bruises -- are rare.

Last July, Charles Christensen, 29, of Milwaukie was killed in a freak accident during the Tuesday night series when he swung to the outside of the pack in a finishing sprint and collided with a concrete-filled post. It was the first death in a cycling race in Oregon in decades.

Jim Anderson, who began running the Monday night series 10 years ago as an 18-year-old, said he has seen participation grow.

"The first few years, if we got 60 riders -- 60 would be a lot," he said. "And that would mean about no women. If we had three women back then, it was a good deal."

By 2000, Anderson was averaging 100 racers, who pay $12 to race and must be licensed with the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association. This spring, the number is up to 150 -- 30 more per night than last year.

Much of the growth is among the novice masters men and women, Anderson said.

In her third race at PIR, Cary, 33, riding with four members of her Bicycleattorney.com team, finished second.

"I don't consider myself a sprinter, but I just decided to go," she said. "It was a great race."

Abby Haight: 503-221-8198; [email protected]

 

[Marguerite53]

Wednesday's

A ride beautiful and beastly
Cyclists can marvel at the Columbia River Highway's wonders, but they need care on its descents and turns
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
ABBY HAIGHT
The Oregonian
TROUTDALE -- The Historic Columbia River Highway is one of the premier cycling rides near Portland. A route mostly free of traffic on weekdays, it takes riders through silent forests where moss drips from trees and past views so spectacular as to seem almost unreal.

The Historic Columbia River Highway also is one of toughest cycling rides near Portland, a near-continuous climb that can leave thigh muscles quivering. Yeah, the views are great, if you can see them through the sting of sweat.

Twice a month, members of the Portland Velo bicycling club meet at Glenn Otto Community Park and wheel across the Sandy River for a 30-mile spin to scenic wonderment and oxygen depravation.

On Tuesday, I invited myself along.

As the top-rated cycling city in the United States, Portland has a wealth of bike clubs and teams. Most teams focus on racing. While some clubs have a racing component, most are oriented toward recreational riding, pedaling for fitness and social fun.

"Recreational, but serious," Jude Russell corrected. "Not just toddling along."

Russell is the ride leader, a whippet-fit woman with a perpetual smile and ginger-colored hair. Like most of the 20 or so riders, Russell is graying a bit and has crinkles around her eyes. Most of the riders who were able to escape for a two-hour ride on a workday morning are retired, although Russell's husband, David, joked that cycling was their job, now.

Portland Velo, which was founded last November, counts a range of ages and experiences among its more than 250 members. Their common ground: a love of cycling.

The region's cycling clubs -- the Portland Wheelmen might be the granddaddy, founded in 1971 -- give structure and sociability to an individual pursuit. Doug Rennie, a Portland Velo ride leader, noted that it's always easier to exercise hard when there's someone beside you.

"I was a competitive runner for 13 or 14 years and going out and doing solitary runs was such a drag," he said. "With a club, you have maps, routes, a variety of rides. You get in there, you make new friends, you meet new people.

"And you end up riding harder than you would on your own."

Portland Velo's biggest ride is on Saturdays. Then, riders are broken into different groups based on expected speed and intensity. The fastest riders are the Hammers and Nails -- "Sometimes you're the hammer, sometimes you're the nail," Velo rider Rick Smith said. Feeling ambitious and strong? Jump in with a faster group. Can't keep up? Drift back and join the next group.

"You can challenge yourself," Rennie said.

The group that rode Tuesday moved out briskly. After a few miles, I was riding on my own, but the morning was cool and lovely, there were interesting birds to take my mind off burning muscles, and, besides, half of the 30-mile ride was going to be downhill.

Then Smith joined me, and the ascent toward Larch Mountain slipped by in conversations about bikes and gears and different rides.

"The hills never seem like hills when you're talking," said Smith, who leads rides for the club on the west side.

The riders regrouped at the Portland Women's Forum State Park. To the east, sun had burned off the morning mist. The Columbia River Gorge was at its picture-postcard best.

"It's one of the most beautiful rides in the country," Jude Russell said. "We've been all over the country and Europe. You come back home and go up to the Women's Forum and it could be France or Italy."

The return down was a quick but an accident-marred ride. Rider David Faulk hit a deep pothole at about 35 mph and was flung from his bike. Several riders, including one who was a doctor, stayed with Faulk until an ambulance transported him to Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center, where he was expected to spend the night for treatment of a broken rib, a punctured lung, facial lacerations and a possible broken bone in his shoulder.

Accidents are rare on club rides, but they occur -- even when cyclists are experienced and riding safely, as Faulk was. Jude Russell, the reigning U.S. time trial champion in the 60-65 age group, broke 12 bones in a crash last year.

Cycling is risky, Russell acknowledged. But it also is rewarding -- for the physical effort it demands and the gifts of health, well-being and beauty it provides in return.

Abby Haight: 503-221-8198; [email protected]

 

[Marguerite53]

Thursday's

Cyclists take on the mountain
Wednesday nights at southeast's Mount Tabor include races for veterans and novices alike
Thursday, June 22, 2006
ABBY HAIGHT
The Oregonian
Clark Ritchie loves the family atmosphere of the Mount Tabor bicycle racing series.

The family keeps growing.

Portland is a city of cyclists and a lot of those bikers -- the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association registers about 2,800 racers -- like to test themselves in competition. On Wednesdays, they ride from work or home to the southeast Portland city park.

Ritchie organizes the races that swoosh through an anything-but-flat, 1.2-mile loop. Like other weekly series -- road racing at Portland International Raceway early in the week and track racing at the Alpenrose Velodrome on Thursdays and Fridays -- the Mount Tabor series has seen a surge in women and novice racers.

About 250 riders competed Wednesday in different divisions with different lap requirements. Many had raced earlier in the week at PIR. David Hart, a rider-mentor at PIR, was the race starter -- as well as racing -- and warned cyclists to be aware of pedestrians, cyclists and dog-walkers.

Where PIR is wide and flat, the Mount Tabor course is what you'd expect from a race that starts and ends at the crater of an extinct volcano. The first stretch is a climb, then a descent that rockets around a long turn, then back into a climb.

"This is a course that has no place to hide," said Ritchie, a bike racer who took over organizing the series five years ago.

The racing is intense. The atmosphere is laid back. Friends cheer along the narrow course. Park neighbors spread picnic blankets and eat their dinner, as 75 riders rush by at 35 mph, pushing a wave of air ahead of them.

"My vision for this race is not to turn it into a giant thing," Ritchie said. "I want it to be local."

Racers can get up to $3 off their entry fee if they bring three cans of food for the Oregon Food Bank. Ritchie hopes to raise more than 500 pounds of food by the time the series concludes in mid-July.

Abby Haight: 503-221-8198; [email protected]