Carfree Mt St Helens

The Mt St Helens trip was truly amazing. This was the first time I had ever planned
to cycle most of the way from Portland to Mt St Helens. The distance of 70 miles doesn't seem impossible until you figure that our destination was at 2700 ft. Team hardcore left southeast Portland Friday afternoon on our fully loaded ATBs (all terain bicycles) and followed an awesome route through east Vancouver on low-traffic streets. We wound our way through the beautiful suburban blacktop towards farm country. The highlight was definately Padden Parkway.
By the time we left Padden for the rural lands, the golden hour had approached and the scenery was simply stunning. When we finally reached the road which John's parents lived on, it was a wonderful precurser, as the road was very small and we saw no cars.
The next morning Jim and Joyce arrived and so the four of us squeezed into Jim's pickup for a short lift to Cougar.
It was a grand adventure to climb to the foothills of Mt St Helens. We enjoyed amazing viewsof the awesome landscape. There is so much more depth and meaning to the experience of cycling somewhere. We passed through deep woods, a few fields of clearcut, and decreasing traffic before we finally arrived at Marble Mtn Snow Park. We took a long rest and ventured on to the welcome quiet of a completely care-free road. We passed bicyclists and hikers casually meandering down the middle of the street. Obviously nobody was concerned for their safety as there was nothing to be afraid of. The closure not only brought peace to the area, but it also forced the outdoorspeople to travel by their own power down the road.
Our camping area was the middle of a hiking trail which we expected to be unused. We met up with Sugata and we enjoyed the stunning environment of a land minimally touched by humanity. The quilt of a trillion pinpoints of light brought such joy to us that we actually walked back to the road and lay there drinking in the rare experience for dozens of minutes.

The next day we packed up for the far end of the road at Lava Canyon. The road was beyond description in it's splendor. A corridor through thick evergreens surrendured grudgingly to steep sloped canyons formed by the eruption.
The trees reappeared just before we finally reaching Lava Canyon. After a peaceful lunch we explored the gorgeous lookout points to the crystal clear aqua river. The thunderous roar of the river was a marvelous counterpoint to the city's more common roar of traffic.
For someone like myself who doesn't have the ability to just drive out 200 miles from a city, it was a deeply moving experience to be far enough out that the only sounds dancing on my eardrums was the rush of the far away rivers and the swaying of the tree branches.
Then we jumped on the idea of riding down the road back to Marble Mountain. This venture was overwhelmingly worth it as three of us sped down the pitch black road with no fear of automobiles or traffic of any sort. It filled me with longing that more people could experience the public spaces of our world without fear as we did this weekend.
The next morning I woke up before dawn to enjoy the last experience of watching the sun rise on the volcano's slope (it would be saddening and depressing to come back here when the noise and fear of autos pervade the environment).
I was thrilled to see the sky as boundless as the landscape as I stood in the shadow of the mountain peak. The deep crimson sky gradually succumbed to a rich copper as the distant sun's rays leaped over the atmosphere and danced on the peak.
Our morning was peaceful and we shared company with the birds and chipmunks in the area.
Finally we went to June Lake on the way back. Our ride was just as thrilling as it had been every other time. My joy in this quiet environment will forever be a happy memory of peace.
All in all the trip was an unforgetable experience and I will cherish it forever. Though I had always thought that St Helens was a destination which would be unreachable for me unless I could convince someone to drive me out there, it's now clear that with proper planning this area is reachable by bike in less than 2 days.
(read the full photo journal)

Can Powell Ever Be Safe?

There have been several Powell Blvd Streetscape Plan meetings to allow ODOT to
"continue to allow SE Powell Boulevard to serve vehicle traffic movement while also improving the safety, accessibility and the aesthetic environment for pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders." (never mind that this is an oxymoron)
The effort is impressive. PDOT printed out huge maps of the entire stretch from the Ross Island Bridge to the I-205. Not surprisingly, the lions share of the comments were focused on the portion west of 20th. This is most likely because nobody with any choice would dare walk or ride a bike near east Powell. Those few who do are unlikely to be aware of meetings such as this. There were several mentions of creating traffic islands, bike paths on sections of McLaughlin where it crosses Powell, better signals, and more clear crosswalks. There were several comments about making safer connections between Cleveland High School and Powell Park at 26th, and creating access from 26th to 21st behind the park. Many people are similarly unhappy about crossing in the 40s and 50s given the bike crossing at 42nd and the high transit use at 50th. But the single hot button issue was how to deal with Powell and 17th. This area is a no-mans land because the Union Pacific tracks cut off access east-west, and the arterial cuts off access north-south. This completely cuts off Brooklyn from the rest of Portland. One woman I spoke to had spent an hour desperately trying to figure out how to get across. The current proposal is to rebuild the pedestrian passageway alongside Powell so that it sits closer to the road. This is one which I spoke out against because the lack of connections makes it equally unpleasant no matter how high it is above the street. Auto traffic has never been shown to reduce crime. People just drive by when something happens if they see it at all.
The other options for crossing the tracks (such as the pedestrian bridges) are laughable in their accessability. I spoke with several PDOT representatives on this and heard a lot of doubt that Union Pacific would be open to a new crossing. This is because they constantly move trains in and out of the switching yard and they have legitimate safety concerns. I heard one option that a new crossing could be made at the expense of removing a different one. So I proposed sacrificing a grade crossing on Division (there are currently three) if it allowed us to switch it with a crossing at Powell. However the folks at Wednesdays meeting appeared much more willing to talk strongly with Union Pacific. It's simply not acceptable that we should have the equivalent of two highways bisecting southeast Portland.