Oregon Biking: Pedalpalooza and other events

From the ORBike Website:

DALPALOOZA | June 6-29 - Portland and Vancouver 

Oh how we love June! The rain starts its low recession and lush summertime relaxation is on the horizon. Bike events abound and there's no shortage of fun to be had on two wheels.

June also means its time for Pedalpalooza, Portland's annual celebration of bike creativity. Clever bikers host a series of mostly free (and often wacky) events for three jam-packed weeks of velo revelry.

One of the signature events is the World Naked Ride. Incarnations of the event happen worldwide, but Portland's is regarded as the largest. This year the ride will kick off in partnership with the Portland Art Museum's Cylepedia bike-themed art exhibit. The ride will leave from outside the museum and a pre-party will be held inside. Admission is $1 per piece of clothing.

Other Pedalpalooza rides encourage clothing, such as Bowie vs. Prince ride (pick your allegiance to one of those two pop stars by dressing in homage), Cowboy Ride, Star Trek vs. Star Wars , and the Hot Socks Ride.

If you're new to biking, Pedalpalooza offers ample opportunities to meet other bikers and learn new skills as educational events abound (like Bike Touring for Women). If you're new to biking with kids, the family-friendly activities are an excellent way to gain knowledge from experienced biking families.

Every city should be so lucky to have a festival like Pedalpalooza, when bikers come out in droves to revel in summertime cycling silliness. The only downside? Some days are so full there are as many as 20 events to choose from. We've highlighted some of our favorite events in the ORbike calendar (and the newsletter calendar on the sidebar here). Rally your bike party posse and start planning now - you definitely don't want to miss out on this bike fun, the perfect way to kick off summer. 

Memorial Day: McKenzie Pass trail open

Memorial Day weekend.
We picked the default city for us to go (resolution has been to go somewhere any time there is a three or four day weekend..even if it's just a day trip or two).
The big thing this year for us..was we got notice that the McKenzie Pass was open to cyclists and hikers only until June 9th..we had known for a few months, but just had too many things scheduled to make a day trip out of it or anything.  So this weekend was THE weekend to go.  I was excited as a friend of our's (Brendan) had gone there back in JULY of 2011 and the snow was so high he got a great photo of his bike up against a snow wall that was over 10 feet high!!  It's a great photo!  I wanted similar.

So we started the climb.  Honestly..I figured Dimitrios was going to leave me in the dust.  But..he didn't.  My bike rides up Rocky Butte at lunch every other day have paid off.  We only had to stop once and that was for me to take off my long sleeves (it was actually pretty warm at the bottom) and take photos of us at a lookout point before the top.  I still haven't learned how to do the 'Bike and remove' things well, especially on inclines.  Maybe one day.




As we got closer to the top, the snow started to appear!!








Then we got to the wall, the snow WALL!!





It wasn't as HIGH as we were hoping (there wasn't a lot of snow this year and it's a little late as has mostly melted off) but man oh man!  Does it make me want to go back next year on the first weekend to experience all the snow craziness.
We loved being up there!  You'll see in one of those photos Dimitrios is holding a snowball and tossing it :)  He threw it at me after the photo, which led to a snowball fight, which then made us realize that SNOW IS MADE OF WATER AND IT'S COLD ;)
We kept heading to the top!  And then..we were there!  We didn't take any photos as we were taking a break (ok I took a few on my phone, but I don't have them where i can access them right now) and then bundled up to head back down.
And man, am I glad I brought the right stuff to bundle up.  Windbreaker, jersey with sleeves (that can be removed, they were snapped back on), wool socks, knickers that are fleece lined, ear warmer, and full fingered gloves.  Oh yea...GLAD I brought those.
The descent was COLD...I got up to speeds of 35mph ..Dimitrios went faster (he has less fear than I do) and video'd it with his helmet cam :)  It was FUN AS HELL TO GO DOWN..then we had all this energy..our commute speed back to the car was like 23mph!!!  It was great!  The wind was at our backs..I felt GOOD!

Six Gap

Dimitrios did well last Sunday.

105 miles in 6 1/2 hours. He did all of Six Gap...and his legs felt like spaghetti to prove it.

I started looking today for photos of him on flickr - and came across the ones I posted. Thanks to x376 User on Flickr for posting them and this set

I'll be posting more as I find them!

Oh and the guy in that last photo -- with the black/white helmet right in the front?! That's my BFF Brendan... :D

Six Gap

Looks like Dimitrios and I will be attending Six Gap this year possibly.

I know he's definitely interested...me? I gotta check school schedule and funds to make sure I can do it/tag along...

Heat Index Over the 100's

Really makes me not want to ride.
It rained last night. The heat index is still supposed to be in the upper 100's today...therefore my lazy/heat exhaustion butt did NOT get on the bike this morning as I had planned.
Meh.
Will make up for it tomorrow and Friday...
and there's the King of Evil that's going on this weekend. Maybe we'll attend that on Saturday to give us some riding stuff to do ...
Maybe...

Events I'm going to try to attend in the St. Pete area...

The first one I'm going to be representing 'The Skirts' so I'm pretty excited about that.
I believe there was something going on on Davis Island within the next two months as well. As soon as I get more info on that, I'll post that as well. It should be a fun/good time.
I just gotta figure out how to carry the camera and the bike all at once now :)

THIS WEEKEND - CALL TO CRANKS IN FT. LAUDERDALE

Title is also a link to the web-site.
Looks to be a lot of fun ...

Sadly, we won't be able to attend..but ..if anyone else can make it out, please do.

No Win for me

Just an update.
I did not win the 'Women of Trek' essay contest like I was hoping.
So, no new Trek and gear for me
And, this blog will not be read by billions anymore (if it's even read at all).

But that's ok - I'll just keep trying every year until they eventually get sick of seeing my name OR I actually do win based on the essay I write. (hee hee).

The Skirts Ride - 2nd time around and still awesome!

I went last night with the St. Pete Skirts on their Tuesday night ride. I really like those ladies. They've been really welcoming and really nice! If you're female and you're looking for a group of ladies who ride and DON'T leave you behind or make you feel like you're not part of the 'in' crowd..I would seriously suggest you come along for this group. They're always happy to see more ladies at the ride and hell, they put up with me and my social anxiety pretty well. Heh.

They're also going to start doing longer rides on Sunday mornings. This, I am interested in. This Sunday starts at 11am and they're planning on heading to Seminole to a friend's house for lunch. This works out for me because I can ride to St. Pete in the morning. Meet them @ 66fixed and then ride to Seminole with them and drop off when I need to head back to the house. So perfect! I can get a ride in on the weekends with a group that I enjoy riding with. Who knows...I might just actually be able to catch up to Dimitrios one day :-O!

Need to purchase a shirt from them and recruit more ladies...also we're going to try and plan on going to the Ft. Lauderdale shin-dig that 66fixed is going to be at on Memorial Day weekend. There's a velodrome down there and both of us want to check one of those out, and possibly ride in it.

Tuesday nights! Again, just the thing I need to keep going during the week! Thanks ladies!