After the last overnight at Stub Stewart in the snow, I booked another cabin for this past weekend. I wanted to get in one more trip before the next few months focus more on training rides and races.
I convinced Michelle, Dean, Tom & Cassie, and Shawn to join me for this one. Being winter in Oregon still, there was obviously a good chance of some rain. However we are on track for the wettest February on record and it has been a very wet month so far.
I had read earlier in the week on the State’s website that there was some downed trees on the BV Trail between Top O Hill and Stub Stewart. We figured it would be worth the chance and maybe we’d have to climb over a few downed trees and such. Boy were we wrong!
Michelle took the more direct route to the park while Tom, Dean and I took my 60 mile route out through Timber and up to Vernonia. Somehow we totally lucked out and only got randomly rained/drizzled on. We even had the sun pop out a few times.
We actually made fairly decent time to Vernonia and the BV Trail. As we headed back down the trail towards Stub there were some trees and obvious landslides that had already been cleared. Then we hit the switchbacks, crossed 47 and saw the first of the carnage.
It took us almost an hour and half to go less than 1.5 miles. It was pretty brutal and we really should have just ridden the 2 miles down route 47 (as sketchy as that would have been). It wasn’t one of the wisest decisions ever but it did add a bit complexity to a rather straight forward ride.
After finally getting to the park we basically hung out, had dinner and stayed warm. During the overnight there were on and off heavy rains and even a couple snow showers mixed in with the rain as we all had breakfast Sunday morning.
The ride home was very wet and had an annoying wind out of the south. I was quite happy to get home and take a nice hot shower!
Thanks to everyone for joining me. It was fun to hang out and chat. Mix in a little exercise, adventure and hangout time and still home before 1pm the next day. Pretty good if you ask me.
Thanks for reading
-Pete
ON & OFF RHODES 
WOW…..Now that surely was a rough ride…..Is it the rain that brought all of those trees down or the heavy snow you had a month or so ago…..Gosh it was 66 degrees here today…..The 2 snowstorms we had at 3 days apart dropping 20″ of snow has melted significantly…..Wish I could say we were to get “no more”. Say halo to Mia for me. Hope you are both doing well…..Love, Maggie
It was a combo of the rain, snow, ice and wind over the past few months.
Woah. That is a lot of downed tree. If only you’d packed in your hand saws! 😉