Near Death Experience

Those of you reading this that have known me for a long time will also know I am into role playing games. Not the computer ones (though I like those too), I am talking about good old fashioned, pencil, paper, and dice role playing games. Every first Saturday of the month my friends and I get together to play GURPS. Since my schedule has been allowing us to play at my friends house in Beaverton, and he has incredibly bad luck coming to my house (flat tires, speeding tickets, small fender benders, etc.) I rode to MAX and then bicycled to his house from there. I had never biked to Gilbert's house before, always taking the Jeep when I had it. Needless to say I was not fully aware of how hilly the route was.

I got off of MAX at the 141st & Milliken stop, from there it's about four miles south on Murray to my friends road. The route is hilly, from Milliken Way headed south it is mostly uphill with a few flat or downhill slopes, but they aren't super steep so I was managing alright. Then I saw the hill past SW Sexton Mountain Dr. Apparently, after looking at a map today, it's an actual mountain. Sexton Mountain to be precise. It's steep, very steep. I thought about waiting at the bus stop at the bottom steep. I had made everything else OK though so I pushed on and started up the hill. One third of the way up my heart was hammering in my chest so I stopped and caught my breath. I had switched into the lowest possible gear on my bike a while back since I just couldn't push on in anything higher. At least in that gear I was able to start up again on that incline. I caught my breath and pushed on, making it another third of the way up the hill I stopped once more. Perversely this is the point in which the angle of the incline becomes even steeper. Needless to say, I pushed my bike the rest of the way to the crest on foot. Looking back from the crest all the cars at the bottom of the hill looked like toys. I stood there and caught my breath once more.

After catching my breath I hopped on the bike and cruised downhill, a much more pleasant ride than the uphill for certain. Due to a motorist trying to turn in front of me (he had plenty of room but saw me and stopped instead) I was paying more attention to him than the road he was turning onto. Of course that was the road I was supposed to turn down but I zipped past it. I realized my mistake when I made it to Scholls Ferry Road and had to turn around, climbing uphill again to my friends house. By the time I got to his house my shirt was soaked through. It had been drizzling all day but I had been wearing a poncho to keep dry. It was sweat soaking my shirt not rainwater. The added detour to my route made the trip five miles instead of four.

The game went pretty good, it usually does. The majority of our group has been gaming on this schedule for around two years now. We did our usual joking around and general mirth making. Towards the end of our gaming session it started to rain hard. The rest of the guys looked at me and asked if I wanted a ride to the MAX station after the game. I said yes, thinking of that huge hill as much as how the rain was coming down outside. Just for emphasis a little thunder and lightning got thrown in the mix. Yeah I would definitely take a ride to the train. Of course by the end of the game it had cleared up. And my bike was too big to fit in anyones car as well. We tried stuffing it into Jeff's car, taking off both wheels even. No go. I told everyone I would just ride to the closest bus stop on Murray and take the bus to the train. I put the wheels back on the bike, grabbed my pannier and helmet out of Jeff's car and they took off.

I hopped on the bike and headed down the hill from Gilbert's to make my way through his neighborhood to Murray so I could catch the bus.

I forgot to reassemble the brakes. I found this out when I tried to keep myself from going too fast down the very steep hill that Gilbert lives on. I tapped the brakes at the top of the hill because I knew I didn't want to be going full speed at the bottom and try and make the 90 degree left turn.

I am fairly certain Gilbert's neighbors heard my shout of "Oh Sh*t!!" as I rocketed down the hill. Luckily about halfway down the hill was a side street that went back uphill. I managed to zip around that corner without wiping out and came to a stop. Thank god for gravity. I got off the bike and assembled the brakes. Then I stood there for a bit shaking.

After composing myself I hopped back on the bike and headed for the bus stop. I did ride partway up Sexton Mountain again, as far as my spent legs could take me anyhow. I ended up waiting forty minutes for a bus that is supposed to come by every twenty. When the bus finally arrived I found out that my bike is too large to fit the bike rack on the front of the bus. I could have walked to the top in the time that I had been standing there waiting. Of course now I had no choice but to walk to the top. No way would my tired legs get me up that steep slope on the bike.

To make a long story short, I managed. I made it to the top of the hill and then called my wife to explain what was taking me so long to get home. She asked if I just wanted to stay where I was and she would come and get me. I asked her to come pick me up at the MAX station. I was tired, wet, and cold, but I wanted to finish out the ride to the MAX at the very least. Besides it would take her long enough to get to Beaverton from Gresham that I could be there by the time she was at least. I made it those four miles and rested on a bench at the station until Taj picked me up. With the mile from our house to MAX that morning I had managed to go a total of ten miles on Saturday.

I took Sunday off from cycling to recuperate.


I have lost fifteen pounds and three inches off my waist since starting this blog.