The day was not meant to be too hot. It was early enough that the Beaverton to Forest Grove stretch was not heavily trafficked. The ride west is on the major roads, SW Baseline and SW TV Hwy out of Hillsboro (it changes names several times), both of which have entirely adequate bike lanes or shoulders, but for a few blocks past SW Cornell in Hillsboro. I kept my lights on, for all the contrasty shade in Hillsboro; a couple of local cyclists commented on my visibility.
My Forest Grove control choice was Maggie's Buns. When I rolled in, a customer outside commented on my Sweetpea. I asked if we had met, and after some discussion, he was probably on a local populaire a year or so ago. So I recruited him for the upcoming 9th Annual Verboort Sausage Populaire on November 1. You should come out and ride it as well!
South and a bit west to Hagg Lake. I tapped the lap indicator on my bike computer heading in, and also heading out, because I wanted to see how long it took for me to circumnavigate the lake. The contrasty shade was appreciated, and I did stop for one picture. 52 minutes to ride around the lake this time.
Onto my favorite bit south to the Gaston store, and then headed eastward back to the start. Tongue Road was a bit busy and tight until after the rollers. Uneventful back to Hillsboro.
Heading east on SW Johnson, I did not carefully pay attention to (this is my route, yes?) the cuesheet. There is a stretch where one loops around to the south, because of a creek and no bridge over it. No substitute for reading the cuesheet. :-)
Then north on SW 170th to SW Merlo, possibly the sketchiest stretch of the route - a narrow two lane road with ditches, and more traffic than it was originally designed for. I saw another cyclist take a sidepath on the west side; might do that next time.
And then very soon back to Jim and Patty's where a Mocha Mint Freeze was in my immediate future.
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