March 30, 2013
What a great route this is.
The day started just before sunrise the temperature was a little cool
but you could easily get by with short fingered gloves. The route starts and finished on the
Banks-Vernonia trail, which is a great way for a Brevet to start and finish, no
traffic and fairly smooth payment. I convinced my friend Ed to ride this Brevet
with me which made for a great introduction to Randonneuring for him.
The
first 11 miles or so is a gentle 1% uphill climb, followed by a quick descent
into Vernonia. After a quick control stop
you are back riding again taking to the low traffic back roads from Vernonia to
Mist, Brikenfeld and finally on to Jewell.
Along the way the road is mostly
smooth and almost entirely flat which made for a very quick first 100km. There was a lot of fog which is probably how the
community of “Mist” got its name.
Upon approaching Jewell you come
upon the only confusing section of the ride, you need to continue straight
to the Jewell Elk Refuge rather than turning on 103 to head toward Elsie. I’m
pretty sure Ray the event host said something like that at the start of the
ride but I couldn’t hear him. Anyway, a
mile or so after the intersection we came to the Elk Refuge where there were dozens
of kids doing an Easter egg hunt. Off in
the distance a heard of Elk was just leaving the field.
A quick stop at the refuge to
answer a control question and we were off again backtracking to 103. The ride southwest on 103 follows the placid Nehalem
river along a slightly undulating road.
After about 6 miles you spot the elegant highway 26 bridge then duck under
it before turning on 26 for a quarter mile ride to the Elise store and
bakery. There were a few riders (Del, Michael,
and maybe David?) ahead of Ed and I at the store but only by a minute or
two. I think most everyone got a pastry
from the bakery / general store and ate out on a picnic table. I had a day old cinnamon roll which was still
yummy. Though within 5 miles of leaving
the store I was bonking pretty hard and had to watch Ed and Michael ride off. I struggled on and did a few Gu shots. By the time I reached Brikenfeld I was
feeling pretty good again. A bit further
up the road I came across Ed who stopped to adjust his bike computer. From there on Ed and I rode together for the
last 30-40 miles.
The route back to Vernonia is pretty
flat and went by quickly. Ed and I
stopped at the first gas station in town, where Del, Michael and a guy on a
blue bike (didn’t catch his name) were just finishing up and getting ready to
leave. We refueled and headed out just
after the others had left.
The return trip on the
Banks-Vernonia trail went by quickly, the gentle uphill the first 10 miles went
by quickly and soon we were zipping down the final 10 miles to Banks. Along the way we past a lot of other trail
users including horses and families out for a stroll or ride. Thankfully we dodge the few toddlers on bikes
that wandered in to our path without incident and finished out the ride in high spirits.
