Motorcycles! and motorcycles...and MORE motorcycles...and more...

I was out biking yesterday along a very popular road (Skyline, just past the Tavern, for those of you in the PDX area) and heard quite a ruckus of revving engine noise behind me. I assumed it was the car/driver I had recently seen that was enjoying revving its engine to a piercing whine while accelerating around a curve. I was wrong.

I started getting passed by motorcycles. At first just a few, who gave me lots of room as they passed (I ride close to the white line, but not on the shoulder as it is not reliable as a bike 'lane')...then quite a few more, who started getting pretty close to me as they passed...then even more, and I was feeling (real or imagined) like they were getting closer and closer to me as they passed.

I was starting to get a little nervous at how close they were going past me, and I was approaching a bit of a blind curve, so I decided to stop and let them all pass. It couldn't be many more, right? Wrong.

I stood there, hydrating more than I usually take the time to do :) while I watched them pass. And pass. And pass. After a few minutes I decided to start counting. I counted 25 more motorcycles in about 30 seconds. Given that at least 25 had passed me before I stopped, and I had been stopped for at least 2 minutes before I started counting, I'm guessing that there were at least 200 motorcycles in this bunch!

I got back on my bike and was just getting started when a woman cyclist came from the other direction. We looked at each other and just said "Wow! That was a LOT!," laughed, and were on our respective ways.

About 15 seconds later, one last motorcycle passed me. All I could think of was this last guy saying, "C'mon guys, wait up! Wait for me! Guys? Guys?"

The rest of the ride seemed exceptionally quiet after that.