Day 10 (Thursday 5/20/2010) - Portland to Goble

12:30
I’m sitting in Whole Foods in downtown Portland, OR. Last night I biked over to Reed College in the South-East “Quadrant” of Portland, at the recommendation of my friend Mark. He said it should be a good place to stealth-camp for the night. As it turned out, he was right—sort of. The campus is really beautiful, situated around a large, scenic pond. I’m guessing the students are on break, because the campus was more-or-less deserted when I arrived around 19:00. I cruised around looking for a good spot and enjoying the quiet beauty—a welcome relief after the hectic activity of downtown. I found an open building on the edge of campus—I think it was a visual-arts building—that was completely empty. There was a nice little lounge where I was able to relax, charge up my electronics, and enjoy one of the doughnuts I’d bought at Voodoo doughnuts. There was also a comfy couch that looked really inviting.

I figured I was pushing my luck, and wondered when security would come to lock up the building (working security @ Naropa has trained me to think about such things). Sure enough, right around 22:00, the guard showed up and asked me what I was doing. They even asked to see my ID, and took down my information (Did you get a call, Steve? I told them I worked security @ Naropa, and showed them my employee ID in addition to my driver’s license). Needless to say, I figured it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to camp on-campus after that.

I found a pretty secluded area on the edge of a golf-course only a few blocks away, and settled in for the night. I got a relatively good night’s sleep—think the last few, restless nights finally caught up with me. It rained a bit overnight, but the bivy sack kept me warm and dry. I took advantage of a lull in the rain, and broke camp around 06:30.

I headed back into the city, and decided to check out the Shambhala Center of Portland. Unfortunately, it was closed and no one was there when I arrived around 10:00. I was going use the shrine room to sit for a bit, but oh well. The world is my shrine room! :-)

So, I stocked up on some dry-goods here @ Whole Foods, and charged my phone (they even have WiFi). Next I’m going to head North-East up highway 30 to Astoria—about 90 miles to the Pacific coast. Not sure when I’ll be able to connect to the internet again.

Oh, by the way, you might be wondering why I haven’t posted any mileage distances or speeds. The bracket the holds my cycle-computer broke on day one, and without it, the computer doesn’t pick-up accurately (it’s wireless, and has to be positioned in the correct spot). I’ve been checking every bike-shop I come across, but so far, no luck. Oh well, It’s kinda nice to ride without paying attention to my data.