Did an overnight out to Stub Stewart.  The original plan was for 5 of us to head up, but unfortunately both Keith and Michelle ended up being sick this week.  Keith just coming out of it and Michelle just coming down with it.
I still had the company of Maria and Mark though and we had a nice long ride via Timber and Vernonia to the cabins at the park.

I feel like the weather gods were smiling on us.  We started out from my place with a little drizzle and gloomy sky.  However, during the ride the sun peaked out and we saw a fair amount of blue.  It ended up being quite a sweet day.

We pulled into the park well after sunset after a grocery store stop and riding the 10 miles from Vernonia to Stub.  It’s a neat feeling of riding down the bike trail in the dark.  Speed and distance definitely become a bit distorted when riding at night.  It was fun though and we saw a few nasty sections of the trail that took a beating from the December storms.

Hats off to the State Parks crews though.  They’ve done a stellar job of clearing downed trees, cleaning up landslides and marking up some nasty washouts along the trail.

If you have not stayed in any of the cabins, you’re missing out.  The price is very reasonable at $44 a night.  Most of the parks have at least one dog designated cabin too.  Though those include a $10 pet fee so that bumps the price up to $54 a night (you’re welcome for the math lesson).  I’d like to head out to Ft. Stevens with Mia and Codi for a weekend sometime this winter.  The cabins have heat, electricity, and fairly comfortable beds.  It’s nice for biking there because you don’t need to bring a tent or sleeping pad, so you do save a bit of room.  Plus if the weather is total junk you do have a roof over your head.

We took the more direct route home by heading down the bike path to Banks and back to Hillsboro.  The ride home was just over 26 miles and pretty calm.  We ended up the last 20-30 minutes just like we started yesterday, a little bit of rain and lots of clouds.  All in all not a bad weekend though.  I’d like to thank Maria and Mark for joining me.  Hopefully at least one more excursion like this before the mountain bike season starts.

Thanks for reading.

-Pete