It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

Ugh, so I forgot the Nutella when I went shopping at Safeway four days ago. I figured I’d try my luck one block over at Bi-Mart so I could also pick up a bag of dried corn on the cob for our squirrel picnic table. Unfortunately Bi-Mart had neither Nutella nor squirrel corn, plus the bike rack was mostly blocked by plants. I’m fine lifting my cargo bike up a curb to access the rack when it’s so blocked, but I felt sorry for the owner of the trike locked next to me who probably had a tougher time of it. It wasn’t my day for bike parking because at Safeway I found a bike parked sideways along the entire rack. I was able to squeeze behind the rack, but what a weird way to park!

Pedaling home I mused about how “long” my shopping trip took, having gone out for one item and needing to hit two stores to find it. At only 2.3 miles my trip wouldn’t have been any quicker by car, and navigating between side-by-side strip malls is probably quicker by bike than car, but it all felt painfully slow. But then, why shouldn’t it? In this age with everything available at the click of a button to be delivered to our doorsteps while we busy ourselves with other stuff, we’ve no desire to think about the time and resources spent packaging up our items, or the van drivers speeding to illegally park and toss them at our doors. I’m going to try to be more patient and appreciative of my slow trips to select Nutella and squirrel corn in the neighborhood.

The day wasn’t all shopping and parking, though! I’m lucky to live close to Maria, queen of the hill killerz, and sometimes I get to join her on her hill. So that’s what I did for lunch today. I realized last week that I need a better method of counting my five repeats. I always doubt my count at the top of the hill and think I should do an extra climb just in case, but once I’m at the bottom with the climb looming the feeling magically goes away. I’ve started saving my hills as private Strava recordings so I can verify my reps after the fact, but that’s not good enough. I think I’ll trust my counting one last time while recording my efforts as a ride on Ride with GPS and then turn that into a route to follow in the future. Problem solved!

Today’s miles: 8
Total April miles: 260.4

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

The usual Monday: picked up lunches for the kids with the cargo bike (and Pixie in the basket) and after work took a road bike ride with two friends.

Today’s miles: 24.1
Total April miles: 252.4

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

Today I biked out to my friend’s neighborhood for our weekly walk, but since I hadn’t yet done my weekly hill repeats for Hill Killerz (Hill Killerz was just featured on BikePortland!) I snuck them in before heading over. It made for a poky profile:

That plus a longer-than-usual walk of 12 miles, including four hiking miles through Tryon Creek Park, made for a big day. There was no additional biking after biking home (surprisingly not slower than usual) and just a tiny Pixie walk–thank goodness for old dogs with short little legs.

Today’s miles: 22.9
Total April miles: 228.3

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

Two identical trips today out to ReRack today–first one to check on table volunteers and second one to work the table myself and then pack it all up.

30 Days of Biking is always a good time to cycle through all the bikes so I unburied my singlespeed from two years’ worth of detritus, pumped up its flat tires, and used it for the first trip. My Straggler has the trailer hitch for the cargo trailer so I took that bike for the second. Soon I’ll get to tote it all one more time to return the supplies to the office…but I’m happy to be done with heavy hauling for the mo’

Today’s miles: 22.3
Total April miles: 205.4

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

Early this morning I took my first grocery run of #30daysofbiking. I overdid it–a few of the kids’ favorite things were drastically reduced, but had “must buy four” requirements. So the side of my bike you can’t see is full of loose groceries and the two canvas bags are tied to my handlebars and the roll cage. Thank goodness for long handles! I feel like I waste all the room on top of my deck when I tuck all my groceries into the Xtracycle bags, but I’ve never considered putting bins or milk crates up top…until now, that is!

Then I switched to my road bike and made two back-and-forth trips to ReRack for the tabling event. Fun mural on the way:

And since I felt guilty for being away from the kids so much I told them I’d get them dinner at Dairy Queen so I switched back to the Big Dummy and waited in a line of nine cars.

Today’s miles: 24.5
Total April miles: 183.1

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

The fruits of yesterday’s labor:

I toted the tent/table/chairs/etc on the right to ReRack in my cargo trailer yesterday (and came back today to set them up). If you have a bike/roof rack to donate, bring it to ReRack on NE Sandy Friday 3-7 or Saturday 10-6 and 100% of the proceeds go to The Street Trust. Plus you’ll qualify for a $99 ticket to the Oregon Active Transportation Summit. Or just come by if you’d like one of us to tell you about SB 395/Safe Routes for All or OATS.

Today’s miles: 10.8
Total April miles: 158.6

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

This morning the kids had a dentist appointment so my 13-year old rode the mountain bike and I carried my 11-year old on my Big Dummy. I carry my 11-year old everywhere these days because it’s just easier to deal with fewer bikes and fewer tired kids. The path of least resistance is not the healthiest path, but that’s the path we’re on right now, sigh. Also, the curbside dentist check-in felt like doing curbside shopping at Target.

Then I took my trailer of work supplies six very slow miles to drop off for three days of tabling. Heading home (sans trailer, so much easier!) I stumbled upon the Mike Bennett glow-in-the-dark dinos–I had no idea they were in my neighborhood! Dino on a bike:

Today’s miles: 14.9
Total April miles: 147.8

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

I did one of those ‪”how it started/how it’s going” Twitter posts because ‪10 years ago yesterday we came to Portland to visit Clever Cycles for the first time…and now we live here and I often bike by them! Today I biked by on my way to and from the office to grab tabling supplies.

Then after work I swapped to my road bike and met up at the dentist for a repeat of yesterday, but in the opposite direction. It was nice scaling Mount Tabor first, but overall I like the other direction better.

Bonus glamour shot of my bike and trailer under a blooming magnolia tree:

Today’s miles: 40.3
Total April miles: 132.9

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

Over a year after writing Are you biking during shelter-in-place? Us, not so much I still haven’t learned the trick of hopping on my bike if I don’t have an errand or a friend to ride with. Fortunately I have a lot of errands and a few friends so I think I’ll succeed at 30 Days of Biking this year.

Today I picked up kid lunches by cargo bike (with Pixie in tow, but no kids came along) and after work I biked over to my dentist’s office to meet my hygienist for a bike ride. Much better than going there for a cleaning! He and his friend ride on weekends year round and during daylight saving time on weekday evenings, too. And since my last cleaning I’ve been tagging along. Today was his standard after-work jaunt up through River View Cemetery (photo of the undulating steepest part above–I hate that part) and then up Mount Tabor.

Today’s miles: 23.7
Total April miles: 92.6

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

I biked to North Portland for a haircut today. I didn’t used to bike an hour for haircuts, but the place I went to before the pandemic shut down and as luck would have it I realized my hair stylist from 20 years ago in San Francisco lives and works in Portland now! How auspicious. It was awesome to see Tina again and it was a lovely day for a bike ride.

It was surprisingly empty out (maybe due to Easter?) so I chanced the Eastbank Esplanade on my way home. I haven’t been on it in over a year since I avoid multi-use paths when I can–they’re not great for six-foot distancing and they tend to get crowded. But it was practically empty this afternoon.

Today’s miles: 18.3
Total April miles: 68.9