The sushi was superb, and Bob treated me to a delicious Oaxacan Mexican Hot Chocolate at Ginger Elizabeth. Back at his house, I packed up and checked everything twice. Then, at Bob’s insistence, I checked thrice. We snapped some pics, said our good-bye’s and I rode off into the night for a 7 mile ride to the Amtrak station. As in all the western cities I’ve visited, both off road trails, protected bike lanes, and regular ol’ bike lanes are almost ubiquitous.
The train to Portland was a bit late, so I started this trip officially on day 38. The coach section was almost completely full, so this was not a “spread out” trip. Was sitting beside a nice guy named Tommy who was asleep when I moved into the seat beside him. In the morning, he actually crawled over his seat to the end of the car to not bother me. A nice gesture I really appreciated because I got another 1/2 hour more of sleep after a mostly restless night. This is a 16 hour trip and other than a local commuter in Portland, I’m hoping to be done with trains for a while.
We came through the mountains of southern Oregon. Quite smoky before we got to Eugene where the air was clearer and the land flattened out with the mountains in the distance.
When I arrived in Portland, I immediately started looking for either a Warm Showers host, a hostel bed, or a hotel. Fortunately my WS prayers were answer by not one, but two WS hosts. I picked Tim and Jess because they were a little closer to where I need to be tomorrow morning to start my trek to Astoria.
Tim and Jess were welcoming, warm, and full of cycling, touring, and Portland knowledge. Their garden was full and had some of the tastiest cherry tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. I took the panniers off of Papa Hobo and settled in to a cozy room.
I had a get together with Alex from Ride with GPS about two miles from Tim and Jess. We had a great chat about new and upcoming features — check out “Explore” in the mobile app — some tweaks I thought the app could use (many in the works already) and what our needs are as a tourist feature user. Alex lived down the street from Tim & Jess and escorted me most of the way back. We were so engrossed that I forgot to take a picture.
Back at Tim’s and Jess’, we talked some more about bikes and routes and Oregon Hiker-biker camping and home (Tim is from Haverford PA and Jess from north of Albany).
Tomorrow, I’m going to ride the Tri Met MAX train to Hillsboro and then ride on to Astoria. Long day ahead as it’s almost 80 miles with some climbing. After all the train time, I’m ready for some riding!
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