Through the woods

I had a noon time meeting in Forest Grove, but took my mtn bike with me in hopes of riding the Banks-Vernonia rail trail. I arrived at the Banks Trailhead just after 2 PM.  The parking lot was full and as I pedaled out there was a pretty steady stream of people on bikes coming back.  I was obviously late to this party!

A full ride from Banks to Vernonia would total 42 miles.  I was thinking that about half of that would be about right. I set my sights on getting to Tophill, about 12 miles in, and not surprisingly, at the summit.

 I pedaled out on what was a beautiful day.

 I stopped from time to time to take a photo.

  I stopped to get a photo of the wild peas in bloom, but a squirrel decide to photo bomb.

As I neared Tophill I noted a sign that said there was a viewpoint 1 mile away to the right.  The road as not paved, but I had the mountain bike, so I turned and went up. The maximum grade reached 18.3%.

I never did get a good view, it seems that the trees grew up since the sign was erected. I could see out across the hills and valleys, but branches precluded getting a decent photo. I continued on until the road I was on turned to dirt, then morphed into game trails. About the time I decided that I should probably turn around I reached a clear cut and could see a road on the far side.

I made my way across the clear cut and arrived at a spur road, that soon intersected with Bacona Rd. I pulled out my phone and brought up Maps.me and determined that I should go to the right.
It was a gravel road and was definitely going down. The gravel was deep and loose enough that I kept both hands on the bars and kept my speed down below 15 mph.  I tried to pick a path to stay on firmer surfaces.  Before too long I was back down to the Buxton Trailhead. From there on I let the bike roll.

I stopped a a logging operation to get this photo

Then continued back down the trail toward Banks.

As I got back to the Banks Trailhead, I noted a guy putting notes on vehicle windshields. He noticed me riding up and handed a little note to me and invited me to visit his local brew pub sometime.  I took him up on the invitation and had baby back ribs and a locally brewed IPA.  Not a bad day at all!

.......Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total

Today ......0.................0.................21.....................0............21

Jan.........0.................. 0..................0.....................0..............0

Feb.........0..................0..................0.....................0...............0

March.......0.................0................0.....................0...............0

April.......0.................0..................0......................0...............0

May.........0..................0................80....................0..............80

June........63..................0................59....................0..............122

July........0...................0................21....................0...............21

YTD..........89...............0................160.....................0.............249