[Davidavin]

Once again, Portland put on a fabulous night WNBR. A lot changed since last year, too much I'm afraid as I almost completely missed the post ride. Everything seemed shifted north this year - the start point, the after parties, and probably the end location as well. PRevious rides usually ended at the east bank esplanade. Not this year. I wasted several hours trying to track down riders. Sitting at the esplanade location, scattered groups buzzed by me, but didn't stop. They were no doubt headed to one of the numerous after parties.

But, I need to back up a bit. This year unlike previous years, most of the pre ride was in daylight. There should be a ton of great pics on the net from this. It was awesome - a sea of bodies (not new) but in broad daylight now (definately new). It was really cool to get there early as I did and see girls stripping down to the buff to lounge on the park grass in daylight. At 6:30PM they were doing this, and the ride was still 2.5 hours away. Pics will come out looking like London WNBR pics, but with 10,000 or so bodies. There was a lot of pic taking too and somewhat lax enforcement. So all in all, it was an unprecedented opportunity to see Portland girls in all their glory. Irishboy may come through with pics. I took a few (see below) but will hope for others to fill in the gaps.

The girls below were fantastic - two of the best looking girls all night. But I put the camera away after shooting them. It shouldn't matter too much - I'm sure this years crop of photos will finally do justice to this ride. What a night!

BTW - I am desperately wanting to know where the ride ended this year. It looked like they may have finished somewhere north of the official after party on N Mississippi. I cruized by that spot and saw riders coming in from the north. But only about one tenth of the total number of riders seemed to have ended up at that after party (unless they were indoors). The motherload? I'd really like to know.....

Davidavin (Klondike)