ABBN02: St. Helens to Welches, Or

Today was pretty uneventful. As opposed to yesterday’s no turns, we had over 30 turns today, mostly getting through the outskirts of Portland.

Portland is recognized as the most bike-friendly city in the U.S. Dallas is recognized as one of the worst.

Today’s ride was three distinct rides. We started as we finished yesterday, going East on highway 30 with lots of traffic. However it seemed mostly downhill and with a slight tail wind so we made good time to the first rest stop (photo top right) at mile 28. The next leg was on bikeways through Portland, much of which was on the banks of the Columbia. The last third was more scenic, especially when we could see Mt. Hood, although highway 26 also had traffic. Many of us stopped at mile 57 for a great hamburger at Calamity Jane’s in the town of Sandy.

Like others I arrived at the resort hotel (really posh) at 1:45 but had to wait 45 minutes for our luggage because of congestion at the loading dock. (We finally gave up, unloaded it in the parking lot and carried it to the baggage room.)