Am I butch or what?

Women on Bikes had a ride scheduled on the Springwater Trail this morning, heading out in the opposite direction from the section I hiked on Thursday. I was hoping to catch the group at the 45th Avenue trailhead but we didn't connect, so I headed out on my own.

It was another spectacularly beautiful day, sunny but coolish. The first part of the route goes through some funky industrial areas, but there's a lovely bucolic stretch even before you hit 82nd Ave. After 122nd it starts feeling downright rural. Wildlife doesn't scurry away from bikes the way it does from cars; biking is like kayaking that way. I saw a rabbit, a flock of red-winged blackbirds, and several flickers. Also Mount Hood. And, of course, lots of friendly Portlandians out for exercise, too.

I ended up at Linnemann Station, which is waythehellandgone -- in the vicinity of Gresham, actually. Hey, I biked to Gresham and back! Door-to-door, as near as I can figure, about a 17-mile round trip. I feel like such a jock.

Actually I didn't bike quite all the way home, since the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Garage Sale is on this weekend and the streets were (and probably still are) jammed with cars and zoned-out bargain-hunters. Before I left on my ride, I put our old flatbed scanner out on the curb, with a sign saying "free." Nobody bit when I listed it on Freecycle a couple of months ago, but it was gone within an hour. I don't care if whoever scooped it up is planning to sell it on eBay; I just needed the closet space back.

Speaking of butch, I got a very short haircut yesterday. I took a picture of Laurie Anderson in to my haircutter and said "make it look like that." It will, when it grows out a bit.