Chattering-Magpie-blog
Mad dogs and Englishmen.
Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun.
— Rudyard Kipling
Daytime high in Madras India is 92°
Daytime high in Madras Oregon is 106°
Amazingly, it’s a whole ten degrees cooler in Portland, only 96°
Yeah, it’s that hot. I’m schvitzing.
I usually go train kung fu on Saturday mornings. I didn’t want to drive my car and contribute to the bad air advisory we get in this heat. But if I trained, by the time I came rode back it would be too bloody hot. So I just went for a two-hour ride by myself this morning instead. I should have left an hour earlier when it was a little cooler. At least I could tell myself I was working on my conditioning.
I rode downtown, then across the Hawthorne to the beginning of the Springwater Corridor. I went out 8 miles, then turned around and came back.
I decided to experiment with alternate routes and came back across the Sellwood Bridge. It’s old, it’s narrow, it’s a little sketchy. Then up Hwy 43 to Lake Oswego. Idiot Lake Oswegians. There are two lanes going that direction and no shoulder to speak of, but could they be bothered to move over and give me a little breathing room? No. They have to zip past me within two feet.
From there I went up the hill along the Tryon Creek trail. I got my hill riding in, but at least it was shaded. I was beat when I made it home.
