Four County Ride
Ride Report 8/13/00

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There were many choices for cyclists this day, The Bridge Pedal, The picnic Ride by the Wheelmen, The Covered Bridge Century by the Mid Valley Bike Club, The Helmick Park and Bethany Rides by the Salem Bike Club, and the Four County Blueberry Ride. Our goal was to provide a challenging ride through the forests of the coast range, touching on all four counties, Washington, Yamhill, Tillamook, and Clatsup. We were hoping to pick up those riders who wanted more ride than the Bridge Pedal and less driving distance than the Covered Bridge Century. Three tandems and two half-bikes took the bait so we had ourselves a bike ride!

The first 30 miles took us up through two national forests to the Coast Range summit of 1642 feet. While this is not exactly Mt Hood, there is 4,450 feet of climbing in the whole ride of 97 miles making this ride an excellent accomplishment for any cyclist. One of the half-bike riders opted for the short course along the Banks Vernonia Linear Parkway. This 45 mile short loop is not as benign as might be thought since much of it is gravel and there are some steep climbs where the trestle once crossed. He brought his mountain bike and was hoping for another taker but all the tandemists and the other hardy half-biker wanted the challenge of the full 97 miles.

We led out of Banks, but turned it over to others at the spot where we said our good-byes to the mountain biker as he turned off to the Parkway. Riding sweep lets us be there so we can help anyone in trouble. As long as we can find a rider along side of the road, we happy to stop, wait and either help or kibitz.

Extending half way up into the sky, the climb from the bottom of Highway 26, gives way to pondering why any biker would want to go this way. We chatted happily as the group soon disappeared in front of us never to be seen again. Later, local authorities in Birkenfield reported a group of tandems whooshing through so we knew they must all be OK. About half way up the climb, we came upon Rich and Gayle who were having a snack beside the road. Gayle smiled saying, "I tried to make it to the viewpoint, but just got too hungry." We agreed and joined them by pulling out some chips to munch.

It was such a perfect day for a ride. The sun, playing peek-a-boo at us through the clouds, was held to a surprisingly cool 60 degrees for most of the day. We stopped at the artesian well to refill our water bottles with the deliciously cool water that bubbles up constantly. I was wishing there were some way to pipe that water down to Portland. I think it tastes as good as our Bull Run water.

Refreshed, we powered up over the summit and stopped to gear up for the chilly ride down the other side. We screamed down the mountain at 45 MPH keeping pace with a group of cars stuck behind a slow moving RV. I was beginning to panic as we reached our turn to Vernonia because I was not sure how we were going to get to the left with all the autos to the side and behind us. Louie yelled over the wind, "Signal left like you mean it!" I stuck out my arm and pumped it pointing to the left. The car to our left and rear at first did not want to let us in but then realized none of us had much choice. We couldn’t stop and he couldn’t pass us so he slowed to let us merge. I held down my left arm to signal slowing, and Louie took the Blueberry into an extreme lean to the left catapulting us to the left onto the off ramp to Vernonia. He pulled The Blueberry over to the right and around we went shooting under the bridge and out onto the suddenly quite stretch of road that runs along the Nahalem River. Whew! I wondered how the others fared.

We entertained ourselves playing zitch and counting the number of times we crossed the Nahalem River. It must have been at least a dozen times. Just like in zitch we lost track of the number but called out the crossings in tandem, "It’s the Nahalem River!" each time we crossed.

We caught up with Gayle and Rich sitting on the porch of the country store in Birkenfield. We love this store for its hospitality. Not only will they let you use the restroom but it is clean and decorated nicely. I hope all the bikers who ride this way stop here and spend a little money. We split a burrito and a toll house cookie ice cream sandwich that looked so good that soon Gayle and Rich each appeared with the same delicious treat in hand. We made a pact not to read the fat grams listed on the wrapper.

Louie took a short nap on the porch swing while Gayle and Rich forged on ahead. Soon Louie, who has had a bout of insomnia for the last few days, opened one eye and said, "Do you have any of those performance enhancing drugs like the ones they are not supposed to use on the Tour de France?" "No," I replied, "But I have some no doze. Will that work?" Wow! Big Mistake! Louie has laid off coffee and colas for the last couple of weeks in an effort to get more sleep. Giving him no doze was like giving him a super energy pill! No sooner did we get started than he decided that we should do some intervals for the whole last half of the ride. "UP!" he would shout and up I would go for a standing interval. "DOWN!" he ordered and down I would go so he could stand. "SPIN!" he commanded and away our legs would go at 120 RPM’s. He would give us a 30-second rest (I would not call that a rest but he did!) and away we would go again. The last half of the ride went by very fast. Well, at least we burned off the toll house cookie ice cream bars. We didn’t slow down until we were 3 miles from Banks. I was going to sleep good and hard tonight no matter what happens to Louie!

We are very proud of a couple of tandem teams, Rich & Gayle and Bill & Anne. Rich & Gayle have improved tremendously from when we first met them. They kept up an impressive pace on a long difficult ride with some significant sustained climbs. Good job Rich and Gayle! Bill & Anne did their first ever century. After doing the 97 miles, they felt so strong they rode around town until they got in their last 3 for an even 100 miles. How nice that their first century was a Blueberry Ride. Both teams get a 4-blueberry rating for a job well done! Honorable mention goes to our half-bike rider, Ivan, who decided to hang with the tandems for the 97-mile ride, downhills and all.