Riding in the Rain 6-10

It rained just about all day June 10th.  At first, I planned on doing a good long ride, but as the day wore on and the rain continued to come down, I procrastinated.  Eventually,  I did get out for a ride, about 26 miles, but it was sure unpleasant.

In Rock Springs, most people treat the rain differently than most Portlanders ever would.  In Rock Springs, rain is a treat and while it can be unpleasant everyone knows it's needed.  In Portland, rain is treated indifferently, until enough is enough.  Right now, everyone in the Portland area is sick and tired of the rain.

That brings me to riding in the rain.  Riding in the rain, is an incredibly unpleasant experience.  It's impossible to stay dry, as the rain and water is forced into every nook and cranny on your body.  Water hits your face, then runs down the front of your jacket.  You then spend the rest of your ride in a wet, clammy, and cold state.  Further exasperating matters, your hands are completely exposed to the weather and quickly get cold, while more water is forced up your arms under your sleeves.  Finally, as your legs get wet, even if you have waterproof shoes, the water runs down your legs into your shoes.  All together once you've had the experience, you would really rather not duplicate it again.

So my ride started off ok, it was drizzly but it wasn't raining hard.  However, just before I made it to the I-205 bridge, the clouds opened up.  I decided to take a break under the bridge, in hopes that I might wait out the squall.

There, I ran into another challenge.  Trying to take your own picture, in a challenging environment isn't easy.  I spent about 10 minutes trying to get a decent picture of me sitting on my bike under the bridge but no luck.  Of course once I stopped trying that, I didn't have any problems getting a decent picture.







Then I had a decision to make, to ride into the rain which was only coming harder, or to head home, still getting soaked in the process.  I decided that a 2 hour ride just wasn't going to cut it, and pressed on.  The ride across the bridge was downright terrible.  On this bridge the bike path goes straight down the middle, with 4 lanes of traffic on both sides.  Every time a car passes me, I was splashed with a wave of water, full of dirt, grime, and oil.




Just as I turned off of the bridge, the rain slowed down and then the sun came out.  If I wasn't already soaked through, it would have become a very pleasant ride.  However, after pushing through another 2 miles, I decided that I'd done enough and turned around.

Now, I'm gathering up all of my things and loading my parents van.  Tomorrow morning, we'll drive up to Seattle to meet Don, one of my riding companions, and then we'll head to Camp in Anacortes.  Just 3 days left as I'm writing this, and we'll finally get started.

By the way, I would really appreciate any comments you have.  Whether you have questions or are just letting me know that you read the post.  It'll help me keep my motivation up to post when I get really tired.