Oregon City Topology

Oregon City is not flat.

The oldest part of town was built along the southern bank of the Willamette River, which is where the Oregon Trail came to an end. Just several 100 feet from the bank of the river is a cliff that rises 100 feet or so, and from there ground continues uphill for another mile or so, to a relatively flat area known as "the hilltop".

As the town grew, it headed South, up the cliff and then up the hill, so in general the further south you go the newer the buildings are. There are some roads that go up along the edge of the cliff, but for pedestrian traffic the city built a municipal elevator to connect the upper and lower business areas. It's a standard sized elevator but has an operator to push the buttons for you, although since there's only two we think her primary job is to deter vandals. Bikes are allowed in the elevator, but it's not big enough for the tandem.

We live on the hilltop and most of the stuff we need day to day is there as well, so we don't typically need to go down the hill. There are, however, a few exceptions, most notably the pool, which is about 2/3rds of the way down. Also, April's school is down the hill, around the cliff, across the river, and about another mile (only about 5 miles total), but it's unlikely she'll be biking there.

The hill's steep, but only about 3/4 mile long. When going down on the tandem/tag-a-long/trailer combination our challenge is to control the speed without using the brakes too much. We're a combined weight of over 400lbs, it's a steep grade, and the tandem has just two normal bicycle brakes, which if used too much can heat up the rim to the point where the tubes can pop. Our technique is for April to lean one way while I lean the other, thereby maximizing our drag, and then using the brakes intermittently. This allows us to keep the speed down around 30 (the speed limit is 25) while keeping the rim temperature down to where you can still touch it. On the way up we put it in the lowest gear we have, pedal the best we can, and stop and rest about half way up.