Looking back at my last two Midnite Bicycle League Challenges, I noticed some similarities between the rides I logged each year. There were some library runs, some PDXWLF rides, and other places familiar and close to home. This time, I told myself at the outset, I would do it differently.
Turns out I was right, but not quite in the way I had intended. Rather than the intentional, adventurous, and novel night riding I had envisioned, I ended up … barely completing it at all. January was marked by significant rain, a major ice storm, and some garden-variety laziness. I did manage to ride a decent amount for the month regardless, but it was predominantly day riding. In some cases my return journey was in the dark, but I initially left the house during daylight hours. Even if I could have logged those return trips, it didn’t feel in the spirit of the challenge even if it may have met the letter.
I thought this year I might actually fail to complete it at all, due to the requirement that one must “do rides over two months during the Challenge.” Once January slipped through my fingers with zero rides logged, I was prepared to chalk it up as an Incomplete and finish it out the best I could regardless. It wasn’t until mid-February that I realized the challenge actually concluded in early March, giving me 2 days nights to make good on that criteria.
If one is inclined to split hairs, I did actually fail a different criteria — I forgot to get a photo of my bike on one of the rides. To compensate, two days after the Challenge technically ended I took a photo at the same location as Ride #1. It was as it would have been that first night — bike was kitted out in the same way, etc — but I confess it’s a sleight of hand. One can hope that a jury of my peers would forgive the oversight.
Ride #1
- Date: 5 Feb 2024
- Sunset time: 17:25
- Sunrise time: 07:25
- Bike used: Norco single-speed
- Location: Inner Southeast and Central Eastside, Portland
- Length of ride: 8 km round trip
- Weather: 10C; clear
Having failed to log any rides for the Challenge in January, as mentioned, I was determined to get something on the books even if it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
Despite my lack of night riding in January, I had actually been having a very bike-centric month in a different way. As is often the case in winter, I was working on the underlying code of the Shift calendar. Perhaps it was cabin fever from the ice storm and wanting to think ahead to warmer days filled with bike rides, but I was on a real tear getting things done. Being a volunteer project, we naturally have all manner of backlogged to-dos, ideas, and maintenance to get done. This month we finally decided to get serious about dealing with some deferred maintenance, so I started cracking on it about as often as I could. We also resolved to meet in person every week to keep the momentum up.
So, this night I was bound for our tech crew meeting at our go-to locale, Lucky Lab on SE Hawthorne Blvd. It’s conveniently close to home, which is great for a lot of reasons, though for the purposes of this challenge I had to run a couple errands along the way to artificially extend my route to meet the minimum distance. Hardly the novel night riding I had in mind at turn of the year, but it was a good motivator to finally get started.
Ride #2
- Date: 13 Feb 2024
- Sunset time: 17:35
- Sunrise time: 07:15
- Bike used: Norco single-speed
- Location: Central Eastside and North Portland
- Length of ride: 16 km round trip
- Weather: 5C; clear
My wife had the last-minute idea of meeting up after work for the Portland Mardi Gras Parade on North Mississippi Ave. After judging that the weather would amenable enough for a bike ride (cold, but clear), I saddled up and headed north. The route was one I’d taken many times before (Eastbank Esplanade to N Williams Ave) but at least in terms of the Challenge it was new so it felt like a win. I staked out a spot near Stormbreaker Brewing, grabbed a beer, and waited for both Sarah and the parade to arrive. (It starts at the north end and works its way south; I was a few blocks from the end of the route.) I’d never been to the parade before — or New Orleans, much as I would like to — so I didn’t really know what to expect. It was a good time; some fun costumes and music, and a good excuse to be out on a February night. The parade also included a tall-bike crew, and most of those folks were familiar faces.
After the parade ended we dropped into ¿Por Que No? for some tacos, which was busy though surprisingly not as swamped as I had expected. We then walked for about a mile to where Sarah had parked the car. (She’d needed to drive to work that day, so hadn’t been able to bike herself.) From there, she drove and I rode to head home.
Ride #3
- Date: 25 Feb 2024
- Sunset time: 17:50
- Sunrise time: 06:55
- Bike used: Norco single-speed
- Location: Inner Southeast Portland
- Length of ride: 11 km round trip
- Weather: 9C; raining
This was the last day of Sandwich Week, and our previous attempts had been stymied by Sarah working late or some other such disruption. We tried to meet up at Gigantic Brewing on Hawthorne (myself riding from home, and Sarah bussing from work) but when I arrived I found out that their Sandwich Week sandwich was sold out. Sarah was still en route on the bus, so I pivoted to a second location at the Hinterland food carts. Unfortunately they were also closing up shop for the night a bit early; frustrating, but understandable as it was a rainy Sunday night near closing time anyway.
I then doubled back and we met on Hawthorne near a cluster of places that were still open (albeit sans Sandwich Week sandwiches). The rain was a bit heavier than I had originally anticipated, so after getting soggy riding in circles I was ready to just sit down and eat. We ended up getting some (excellent) Thai instead of sandwiches.
After our meal, we looked at her (relatively paltry) options for getting home via transit. One of our go-to busses, the #70, stops running irritatingly early on weekends. The best bet ended up being a half mile walk over to Division to catch the FX2 bus; not the most direct, but about as good as it was going to get given the schedules. I waited with her until just before the bus arrived, then rode home via a quick dip down Clinton St and back to Brooklyn.
Ride #4
- Date: 1 Mar 2024
- Sunset time: 18:50
- Sunrise time: 06:45
- Bike used: Norco single-speed
- Location: Lower Southeast Portland
- Length of ride: 10 km round trip
- Weather: 4C; cloudy
This ride sort of rhymes with ride #3 from last year — I planned to drop off some recycling and pick up a few groceries. Neither were particularly pressing errands, but as mentioned I was in a bind to finish this challenge on time. The weather was pleasant enough, and I expected to be busy the following night, so this was my only real option to complete it.
I started by dropping off #6 recycling at the Kenilworth Presbyterian Church on SE Gladstone, same as last year. I then went to a grocery store that was deliberately out of my way, in Woodstock, so I could log a few more miles and still try to score some kind of novelty to the ride. From there I let gravity do most of the work downhill and through Reed College campus, then popped over the Brooklyn Rail Yard on the Holgate Blvd bridge sidewalk. I anchored the ride with a stop into Ruse Brewing, in the Iron Fireman Building on SE 17th Ave, where I had a self-congratulatory beer to mark a successful end to the Challenge.
Carry the Banner 