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Hell on Two Wheels, Until the E-Bike’s Battery Runs Out. The New Yorker writes a nice article on e-bikes.
For context, this past year I bought a Tern HSD P9 Performance ebike and love it!1Yes, the blog post is still in my drafts.
HT: Roman Meliška on Mastodon.
In early spring, Suzi and I started shopping for e-bikes. We’d ridden e-bikes before on vacation and they are magical. There’s no other word to describe them.
After many hours on the web and taking multiple test drives, the Tern HSD P9 Performance, in limon, remained my top pick. On May 12th, Grey1Limon, Grey Limon. was mine. Not much later, Suzi had an e-bike of her own.
We rode them on the Banks-Vernonia linear trail. We rode them at Sunriver. We rode them in the neighborhoods. I rode Grey to Starbucks and to work and home again. I rode Grey on longer weekend rides.
While riding on October 8th,2Yup, another post soon to be back-dated. I looked down and saw Grey was about to hit 1,000 miles on the odometer. Just as I reached my Starbucks, the odometer turned — cause for celebration! ;-) c[_]
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After work, my bike was calling my name. As it was too late for caffeine, I headed off to my friends: the wheat field and the power pole.
One of the advantages of touring around on a bike is how easy it is to jump off and take a couple of pictures.
For once, the wind seemed to be at my back most of the time, well, except for one section. No worries. I geared down and enjoyed the scenery. After all, my bike isn’t built for speed, but comfort. With its upright seating, it’s more of an “enjoy the scenery” sort of ride.
I hope you’re enjoying your summer evenings, too!
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I rode by the same field and took pretty much the same picture. And then I took a different way home. One nice thing about a slower bike is that I explore closer to home.
I hope you are finding time for safe adventures, too!
The last couple of days, it’s rained in the mornings. That’s a good time to go for a bike ride. So, off I went.
I found a quiet country road I hadn’t ridden down before and found a field of grain. The next day, I rode down a road I had ridden down before and found the same field of grain.
The past couple of evenings, I’ve gone for rides on my new-to-me bike Darth. Staying close-ish to home, I visited Orenco park and the Rock Creek Trail.
The meadow has sure grown since 2014.
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Coming to the weekend, Jamison said he wanted to try biking a new section of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. It sounded like a lot of fun, so we loaded up our bikes and headed to Wyeth. Turns out, it was opening day for this new section of trail.
We discovered a couple of waterfalls we didn’t know existed. We stopped and waded at the base of Hole-in-the-Wall Falls, then continued on to Starvation Creek, where we turned around.
When we got back to Wyeth, it didn’t feel like the day was over, so we continued east. There was a sign marked Mitchell Point, so we exited 84 to explore. Not much to see other than a great view of the gorge. :-)
After Mitchell Point, we continued to Hood River where we watch the kite sailors while the sun went down behind the hills.
On the way home, we stopped at the Corbett View Point. I’ve stopped here before, just as the sun was setting. This time, we were a little later in the day, but it was still beautiful.
Another great day!
Photo credit. Thanks to Jamison Logan for the photos of Suzi and me and of the kites!
Five bikes on the car and we’re ready for fun. We have arrived at Sunriver for our summer family vacation of 2019.
Warning: This is a long post with lots of pictures.1Credits: Although I took most of these pictures, some of the best I borrowed with permission. Thanks to Ashley for the pictures of the doggies swimming in Sparks Lakes on the first Saturday and to Heather for the picture of Gilligan rolling in the meadow by Todd Lake on Tuesday. Major Kudos to Jamison for finding a bunch of typoes and bringing them to my attention. Enjoy! ;-)
Unlike some of our earlier visits to Sunriver, we have no biking mileage goals. Our goals are relaxation, fun, and family time. Ashley and Kevin will be here only for the weekends and Jamison only for the final weekend. We’re saving our kayaking until then.
We rent the same place as last year.2It would appear that I posted no pictures from last year. As I have some, I’ll need to fix this. Done! It’s on the north side of the community. That means it’s farther from the village and main pool.3Which we end up not even visiting. For that matter, we don’t go to the north pool either, but we biked by it daily. Although it’s a bikeable distance to the village, I doubt we’ll bike there for a bag of coffee or some chapstick. For that, we’ll likely go to the north store. It’s also quieter here and our neighbors are largely owners. This means I’ll be able to watch people aerate, thatch, rake, and mow their lawns on my vacation. Sweet!
In the morning after breakfast, we drive to the village with the pups, get some drinks,4Yeah, that’s a daily thing. Probably the last time I mention it. and walk to the lodge. We’ll discover this trip that we walk a lot more instead of biking as we don’t have any way to transport the dogs while biking.5I try to convince Heather to get a bike trailer for dogs and practice with Gilligan. I’m not sure I succeed. And we don’t want to leave the dogs cooped up all day. Even so, we’ll do a fair amount of biking. Today, we bike to Lava Lands, a place I’ve biked to before. Why I remember this as a level ride, I don’t know. Lava Lands is a cinder cone in the midst of a shield volcano. It makes sense that the ground rises as we get closer. The rise isn’t steep, just persistent. Next time, we’ll reserve this ride until later in the week.
Ashley rented an e-bike for the weekend. Wow! It’s magical! As a plus, it looks like a regular bike. She has no problems with the incline. :-)
Heather’s friend Kristin is with us this first weekend. She asks whether we’ve been to Sparks Lake. Why, no, we haven’t. At her suggestion, we load the dogs into cars and head to the lake. Mousse and Gilligan have such a good time, they’re nearly frantic playing fetch and swimming in the water. As the sun nears the horizon, Kristin leads us on a walk to where we have a great view of South Sister and Broken Top on the far side of the lake. Beautiful!
The hot tub calls my name…
We walk the dogs then ride our bikes to the Lodge for brunch. Mmm…
Kevin and Ashley aren’t staying the whole time, reserving their vacation time for later. We say goodbye to them. Kristin leaves as well.
A nice quiet day. Isn’t that what vacations are for?
Sparks Lake was so much fun that Suzi, Heather, Melissa, and I decide to go back with Gilligan. On the way back, we stop at Todd Lake, too. Gilligan approves!
In the evening, I finish reading The Fifth Witness6The Fifth Witness is written by Michael Connelly, the same author of The Lincoln Lawyer that I read some years back. Although I enjoyed the book, I was disappointed spoiler alert that both books share a similar plot twist at their ends. I bought it in the village a couple of days prior. Or maybe it’s after midnight…
Today, we decide it’s a good day to bike. We bike to the lodge for brunch, then bike all the river loops. Suzi makes our reservations for kayaking. This is gonna be fun! We’re so looking forward to kayaking! Melissa gets a snowcone. I should’ve got one, too. I’ll remember that for next time.
In the evening, we take a quick bike ride to the footbridge to see the sunset. There are definite advantages to this place.
Yet another day at Sparks Lake! Mmm… This time, we meet Grandma Penny, a sweet old doggie whose owner is pretty nice, too. We relax and go to the Village Bar and Grill, watching the guy play keyboards and guitar and work to get audience participation. Getting four couples up for a twist dance contest is impressive.7I’d have to take up drinking to do that, and even then?
This is another good day to ride. We bike the east side to the village. It has more hills but we power through. Then through the south side and all the river loops. Essentially, we bike the perimeter.
In the evening, Suzi and I head to Bend for a little shopping and to pick Jamison up at the airport. Let’s see how much Sunriver we can get in during the short time he’s here.
Ashley and Kevin return, too. :-)
Everyone is here! Today is the day we have been waiting for. Today, we kayak.
The route we kayak is on the Deschutes River from LaPine State Park to S. Century Drive by Big River Campground. Allegedly, this can be done in about 2.5 hours. Being founding members of the dry-paddle drifting kayakers, we take nearly 4 hours.
In the evening, we bike to the footbridge at the end of the day and take family pictures. Ashley ignores the “No Jumping” sign to take a jump shot. ;-)
We finish the day with a trip to the Village for Goodies. It’s probably not a trip to Sunriver without ordering and waiting for a milkshake.
It’s our last day. We know we want to go for a bike ride today and yet we need to check out in the morning. Last night, we packed as much as we could to prepare.
We bike to the Nature Center. Sunriver’s new swan family is on the island when we arrive, then swim toward the eastern shore. Then we bike back and finish getting everything loaded back into our cars.
We drive to the village and have lunch at El Caporal. Gilligan had such a soulful face. She knows we’re packed to go and doesn’t want to. Can’t we just stay a little longer? :-(
Suzi finds a sweatshirt, Jamison finds some T-shirts, and I find a coffee mug.8If only I needed a coffee mug. Yet, it makes me happy. c[_] :-) One more smoothie and we’re on our way home.
A new study looks at why bike share is so much safer than regular biking. Surprisingly, a combination of inexperienced riders riding heavy bikes in urban areas without helmets (along with a few other factors) results in safety.
Today I completed a 5K. No, not a 5-kilometer race, but 5,000 miles on my bike since my family gave it to me on Fathers’ Day 2013. Yeah, it’s hard for me to believe, too. :-)
Ride on!
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