Day 5 Portland to Dallas OR
Riding out from downtown Portland is not easy, although it certainly is possible. The difficulties result from both traffic and terrain. There is, however, a simple solution: take the MAX. I rode to the MAX (sort of like the Metro) station at SWOak and SW 10th and, for $1.50 USD, took the train under the big ridge where the Zoo is located and out to the Beverton Center stop. This took about half an hour, counting waiting for the train, and cut about six miles and a lot of climbing and riding in heavy traffic out of my ride. From just north of the MAX station, I took SW Hall about three and a half miles southeast to Greenburg RD, then took Greenberg for two miles to where it ends at 99W in Tigard. SW Hall has a bike lane all the way - albeit with too much broken glass in the lane - and Greenberg doesn't need a bike lane.
99 W after the bike path ends
I headed west and south on OR 99W. It has heavy traffic including lots of trucks, but it also has a marked bike lane or a good shoulder. This is not great riding : it is noisy, smelly, and occasionally scary. I rode it for 22, moderately hilly, miles to Dayton Station where OR 18 heads west. IT was better this year than last, when I rode it into Portland, because there was little construction and the bike lanes had been improved. I did. At one point, worry about having a punctured front tire. It was just that the pressure had gotten down to 50 pounds which is where handling starts to deteriorate. That, combine with cross winds and truck traffic made bike feel unstable. I was really relieved not to have had a flat on my first day of riding in Oregon!
OR 18 with truck and good shoulder
After three miles on OR 18, which has lots of trucks, but also an excellent shoulder, I turned onto OR 223 for eight miles of peacefully rural riding. It was a nice change! It was chilly and I had a pretty good headwind and the ver present threat of rain. Oregon 'winter' riding in June.
OR 233 heading south from OR 18
Then I got back on 99W and headed south again, but with a wide shoulder and much less traffic.
99W south of Amity OR
It was a chilly, windy, day with temperatures in the low 60s and moderate winds from the south and west. I wore my usual touring clothes - long sleeved eco mesh adventure shirt, bicycling pants, knee warmers, and silk liner socks in Shimano sandals, but I supplemented the shirt with a light weigh Sugoi vest (purchased, slightly used, from another member of the touring list.) This light weight vest was perfect for the chilly day.
I stopped to eat in Newberg - good Mexican food - and for a snack in Amity. I wasn't in a hurry today, so I took a long lunch and had a half an hour long chat with an interesting fellow in Amity. He was a former bicyclist who was shopping using his kids pink scooter as transportation. A nice fellow and we had a good visit about bicycling. Then I cranked on down the road to OR 22, where I turned west heading for Dallas OR.
I'm visiting friends in Dallas and then heading for Corvallis to visit other friends, but I could easily have continued on down 99W to Corvallis today. From Beaverton, it is about 80 miles to Corvallis.