Magical Mystery Tour of the PNW 4th of July week 2019
Something awful, just terrible happened near the end of last year. My company announced a shutdown for the 4th of July week, so I am not allowed to go in to work that week. I decided to make lemonade out of this lemon and plan a bike trip.
A trip I'd done a few years ago seemed like a good starting point, the last day of that one wasn't a terribly fun route, and a gravel mountain pass lay parallel to the penultimate section, so I modified it, an improvement, I think. Day one starts at the Portland Union train station for a 4 hour trip to Seattle, then six days of riding back to Portland. Here's a map of the route:
A really good trip involves friends, so I wanted to drag some others along. I'd met @scozim and @northbend on that trip, but both were unavailable that week. Feelers were sent out, gradually replies were made. I realized that this was a holiday week, with the 4th a Thursday this year, so a few months ago I booked enough rooms and beds for 6 people, one of the riders realized there are only 10 bike hooks on the train and booked six of those as well.
Here's the lineup:
@nlerner has been spending a lot of time out west recently riding bikes in the spring, even has a ride named after him, and participated in the Last Winter Tour of the Willamette Valley. He has reciprocated the last two autumns, hosting me for FFD 2017 and 2018. So of course Neal will fly in from Boston for this ride.
@Spaghetti Legs, aka Dr. Ferrari has been a cellmate of mine for the last 2 Eroica California rides, first in the Magic Bus, then at the Palazzo degli Eroi (which he named). He will, of course administer PED's and assist in our blood doping schedule. (always bring a medical professional on a trip whenever possible). Hugh resides in Virginia, and will be flying out as well.
@SquireBlack is another recividist cellmate from the past 2 Eroica Cali's. He's a local Portland State University computer science professor that has provided wise council on the last two Eroica trips, so naturally he will return in the role of consiglieri on this trip.
Jim G., my greek brother from a different mother (no BF handle, yet, but goes by yojimg on the interwebs) will take the train from the Bay Area to Portland Thursday night along with his ride. Jim publishes the most used trail calculator on the planet, took the UBI framebuilding course one year before I did, and makes custom racks. Yeah, we gotta lotta things in common, like a difficult to pronounce and spell last name starting with the letter G.
Bob Williamson lives maybe 8 blocks from Neal in Brookline, Mass. He rode in the last 2 TdFFD's with Neal and myself. His steady tempo makes him the perfect person to draft behind, which I've done for many a mile. His collection of bikes is smaller than Neal's, but is on average significantly nicer. Bob's visiting his sister in Sacramento the week before, and will take the same train that Jim G. has booked. Jim leaves Emeryille around 10pm, the train gets to Sakatomato around midnight and arrives in PDX early afternoon the next day. As of about a year ago that route added proper bike hooks so you can roll right up instead of breaking it down into a box.
Four of us can be found in this picture. @Andy_K, the fifth (in Molteni orange) could not get out of previous commitments for this ride, but will surely partake in the send off feed and hydrate event the night before. @SquireBlack and I will host two out of town riders each on Friday, June 28th. We'll certainly have that kickoff dinner somewhere in Portlandia, local PDXers keep your eyes open for that announcement on this thread so you can join in!
Full details of the route can be found here. Note that to see all of the sections of the ride, scroll down to the lower left corner and click on "Show all on map".
A trip I'd done a few years ago seemed like a good starting point, the last day of that one wasn't a terribly fun route, and a gravel mountain pass lay parallel to the penultimate section, so I modified it, an improvement, I think. Day one starts at the Portland Union train station for a 4 hour trip to Seattle, then six days of riding back to Portland. Here's a map of the route:
A really good trip involves friends, so I wanted to drag some others along. I'd met @scozim and @northbend on that trip, but both were unavailable that week. Feelers were sent out, gradually replies were made. I realized that this was a holiday week, with the 4th a Thursday this year, so a few months ago I booked enough rooms and beds for 6 people, one of the riders realized there are only 10 bike hooks on the train and booked six of those as well.
Here's the lineup:
@nlerner has been spending a lot of time out west recently riding bikes in the spring, even has a ride named after him, and participated in the Last Winter Tour of the Willamette Valley. He has reciprocated the last two autumns, hosting me for FFD 2017 and 2018. So of course Neal will fly in from Boston for this ride.
@Spaghetti Legs, aka Dr. Ferrari has been a cellmate of mine for the last 2 Eroica California rides, first in the Magic Bus, then at the Palazzo degli Eroi (which he named). He will, of course administer PED's and assist in our blood doping schedule. (always bring a medical professional on a trip whenever possible). Hugh resides in Virginia, and will be flying out as well.
@SquireBlack is another recividist cellmate from the past 2 Eroica Cali's. He's a local Portland State University computer science professor that has provided wise council on the last two Eroica trips, so naturally he will return in the role of consiglieri on this trip.
Jim G., my greek brother from a different mother (no BF handle, yet, but goes by yojimg on the interwebs) will take the train from the Bay Area to Portland Thursday night along with his ride. Jim publishes the most used trail calculator on the planet, took the UBI framebuilding course one year before I did, and makes custom racks. Yeah, we gotta lotta things in common, like a difficult to pronounce and spell last name starting with the letter G.
Bob Williamson lives maybe 8 blocks from Neal in Brookline, Mass. He rode in the last 2 TdFFD's with Neal and myself. His steady tempo makes him the perfect person to draft behind, which I've done for many a mile. His collection of bikes is smaller than Neal's, but is on average significantly nicer. Bob's visiting his sister in Sacramento the week before, and will take the same train that Jim G. has booked. Jim leaves Emeryille around 10pm, the train gets to Sakatomato around midnight and arrives in PDX early afternoon the next day. As of about a year ago that route added proper bike hooks so you can roll right up instead of breaking it down into a box.
Four of us can be found in this picture. @Andy_K, the fifth (in Molteni orange) could not get out of previous commitments for this ride, but will surely partake in the send off feed and hydrate event the night before. @SquireBlack and I will host two out of town riders each on Friday, June 28th. We'll certainly have that kickoff dinner somewhere in Portlandia, local PDXers keep your eyes open for that announcement on this thread so you can join in!
Full details of the route can be found here. Note that to see all of the sections of the ride, scroll down to the lower left corner and click on "Show all on map".