Monster Cookie, Bike More Challenge, Scenic Bikeways Anniversary: Wheeling Season is Here

The weather looks dry and temperate, and it's time for the Salem Bicycle Club's Monster Cookie, the first big ride of the season this Sunday, the 28th.

Monster Cookie, 2011

If you bike regularly, you'll already know about it.

If you don't, it's a metric century - 62 miles - through the rolling hills of French Prairie out to Champoeg and back. Some people only do half of it, from Salem to Champoeg, and get picked up at Champoeg.You could do the second half, from Champoeg to Salem, also. This year they'll also use the Winter-Maple Bikeway through town and much of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway also.

Day-of-ride registration ($40) opens at 8am on the Capitol Mall Fountain and plaza. A last minute decision is ok! That's the best way to wait and assess the weather if you're not an all-weather rider.

And always remember Governor Geer, who rode his bike out to Champoeg on May 1st, 1900, to set in motion the establishment of the historical marker and then the park!

And City Councilors do the Cookie, too! (And Councilor Andersen often bikes to Council meetings and for other City business - see below for more in the City's lack of institutional commitment, however.)

Prepping for the Monster Cookie, 2015
(Councilor Hoy on left in helmet, via SBC)

Bike More Challenge

One of the items on the recent update to City Council on the work by the Congestion Relief Task Force is a recommendation to "develop and implement commute trip reduction programs."

The Bike More Challenge is one of the biggest and best and funnest around the state, but the City's participation has been very lukewarm, practically invisible. Both the City of Salem proper, and our businesses, haven't really got behind it. Mostly it's State agencies. So it will be interesting to see how this year goes, especially with the City of Salem.

The program is right there to be leveraged! (You don't have to wait for the City, of course.) The challenge runs the whole month of May and can register here. It's lots of fun.

The Bike More Challenge is a fun, free competition to encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to experience first hand joys and benefits of riding a bike. There are lots of fantastic prizes to tempt your team, which we'll announce as the Challenge approaches. Show off your #bikemore pride with these awesome merch items!

Businesses compete against each other to see who can get the most staff to ride a bike and log their trips between May 1-31. We use a simple points model to allow workplaces to compete with each other across their size category (see the points system below). The points system has been carefully selected to ensure a fair and exciting competition, and to strongly encourage workplaces to engage new riders if they want to climb the leaderboard and secure victory!

It’s not just about who can ride the most miles, but also who can encourage the most people to give bicycling a try. Of course, if you log more miles and more trips you'll earn more points (and have a shot at some special individual prizes), but the fastest way to earn more points is to encourage more people to get on a bike and ride!

Scenic Bikeways 10th Anniversary

From Oregon Parks and Recreation:

The Oregon Scenic Bikeways Program is celebrating 10 years of beautiful bike routes 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. May 3 at the Capitol Galleria. The free event is open to the public and will feature cake, gifts, guest speakers and the unveiling of the brand-new scenic bikeways map.

17 of them! (click to enlarge)