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“Staycation” In The Saddle

By Joe Kurmaskie

Summer in the Pacific Northwest is where you want to be on a bicycle. Period! Everyone comes to ride from somewhere else, so much so that we have our own month-long festival in Portland: Pedalpalooza.

When the rain clouds clear you realize that you are right where you want to be; Mt Hood is visible in the distance, there’s long days and short nights, the coast calls you to skip work and ride, there’s wine country, winding river rides and the sublime desert just on the other side of the Cascades. That’s why it pains me whenever I take a bike adventure out of Oregon during high season. It’s trading away paradise that will soon be lost to the gray and the damp and the days of fleece and Gortex.

Of course this is the inconsequential whining of a man who has it all. How dare I complain about whether my next bike adventure will be in or out of town? Still, knowing that I’ll be roaming Oregon with my family on two wheels this summer puts a big smile on my face.

Plans call for us to roll out to Sauvie Island for berry picking once a week: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and the short lived regional wonder, the Marionberry. There’s also a ride with a half a dozen other families down to Crater Lake, with stops along the McKenzie River and the OC&E Rail Trail near Kalamath Falls. This should be an epic, messy, loud ramshackled carnival of a ride.

Having kicked off the summer as the parade marshal for Cirque du Cycling’s family fun parade, I’ll follow up my B-list bike celebrity riding with appearances at Tour De Cure, Bridge Pedal and the event closest to my heart, The People’s Coast Classic. (www.thepeoplescoastclassic.org)

It’s a ride for the Arthritis Foundation, which Team Metal Cowboy (six members so far) will be doing in honor of the many with this disease, but specifically for my mother, Claire. She has lived, battled, survived and thrived through 40 years of swollen joints and pain that certainly would have crippled me.

The most indulgent ride of the summer will be a trip up to the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge to McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, Ore. I’ll be rolling with my older sons to share a true American tradition, the outdoor venue summer rock ‘n’ roll show. We’ll be having ourselves some Cake — the band, not the dessert, though considering we’ll have earned the miles, we might find some pie after the show. The Edgefield is a poorhouse farm converted into a hotel and entertainment complex. We’ll stay the night while I try to make some sense of a world that fashioned a spot to punish debtors not so long ago, but now cranks out live music and rounds of golf.

I’ll also think about some of my friends who are taking bike adventures further away this summer — all for good causes.

The husband and wife team of Tass Thacker and Bruce B. Junek have seven different slideshows that they take around to schools — 1.5 million students have seen them over the decades. I’m proud to call them my friends and quite bitter that they are roaming China without my family and I. But I know that their world-class photography will capture the story of their adventures bicycling and exploring a spot on the map I’ve yet to discover. Check them out at www.imagesoftheworld.com

Another great friend who is setting out to pedal for others later this summer is Doug Markgraf.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a horrible way to lose your mind. This 25-year-old Philadelphia schoolteacher would know — on May 31, 2006, he was involved in a hit-and-run accident while riding his bicycle in a bike lane in West Philadelphia. In the collision, Markgraf shattered bones, his helmet, and his bicycle — and suffered a severe TBI. He’s getting in the saddle to raise awareness and funds for Raisin Hope Foundation. During the summer, he’ll update his blog, www.dougtrails.wordpress.com.

Then there’s Bill Poindexter, who is a true success story on a bike. He went from being obese to being fit a few years back with the help of the bicycle. He’s created carfreeamerican.blogspot.com which profiles cyclists living a car-free lifestyle and he’s getting ready to cover 700 miles over 21 days — that’s how long it will take him to retrace a Revolutionary War route as he maps out a new trail from Rhode Island to Virginia.

To my other friends missing out on the Pacific Northwest summer to pursue their dreams by bike — you’ve made the right choice. I salute you from the land of temporary sun.

You Might Be A Cyclist if... is Joe Kurmaskie’s latest book — a collection of inspiring and humorous affirmations that every cyclist will recognize themselves in.