We've had some great weather here in Portland lately. Yesterday my friend Ed and I got out for a 90 plus mile ride out in Columbia County. I'd say about 50% of the ride was on dirt/gravel. We headed out of town for 14 or so miles on Hwy 30 to Scappoose where we got on the Crown Zellerbach Trail which is an old logging road that is steadily getting rehabbed into a quality multi-use path. I'm more than happy with it in it's current ungroomed, bumpy, muddy state. The CZ Trail follows the Scappoose-Vernonia Hwy up to Hwy 47/Vernonia which is a nice ride in itself although the car-free option of the CZ is even better.
A little ways before the end of the trail we got on the Hwy and then got onto Pittsburgh Rd which was incredible. I got clued into Pittsburgh Rd through the Rapha website. While I'm not a fan of their clothes I do like reading about their "Gentlemen's Races." Pittsburgh Rd featured into their 2010 race (http://www.rapha.cc/2010-nw-gentlemens-race). As soon as we got onto to the road it began to climb. We stopped at one point to eat some food we had and take in the view, a mix of the beautiful (Coast Range) and despairing (clearcuts). At times the climbing was difficult due to mud and becoming rocky although never anything that required a mountain bike. Finally the road began to drop back down, first on hardpack dirt which gave way to larger newer gravel which was like riding on marbles before transitioning to asphalt and a fast descent into Yankton where we had pie before pedaling the last few miles down to hell that is Hwy 30 in the late afternoon. This was a really great ride and I wouldn't hesitate to do this exact ride again or some variation. Neither of us had computers on our bikes but when I got home I messed around with Google maps and it appears to have been about 90 miles or so. Ed hit 100 miles as he came from farther away and took a longer way home. Neither of us were on Rivendells but Ed was wearing MUSA shorts and had a wool jersey. I had various Riv purchased accessories on my bike. Ed's gearing was 38/18 and mine was 40/19. I would have preferred a lower gear and might consider setting my bike up as a dingle speed or double double in the future. We both had tires in 40mm range which I'd definitely recommend for this ride. I certainly wouldn't use anything smaller than 32mm. Oh, the VP pedals were great. I haven't been doing much distance riding lately as I'm sitting out randonneuring this year. Also my wife and I are expecting so there's a lot of non-bike related stuff on my plate. Still, I'm hoping to get out for a ride like this every two weeks or so for as long as I can. I imagine next week I'll do a variation of this ride but on a geared bike. Maybe CZ trail-Vernonia--Vernonia/Banks trail--Hillsboro--Max (train) back into Portland. We'll see. Pictures proved it happened: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41335973@N00/sets/72157632995135879/ --mike -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
