I’ve been wanting to ride the Crown Zellerbach Trail for some time now.  However I always wanted to do it as a loop from home and come back down the Banks Vernonia Trail for about a 100 mile mixed surface ride.  I couldn’t bring myself to just drive out to Scappoose just to ride the trail.  It kind of goes against my love of starting rides from my front door when I can.  However, when someone else invites you and a bunch of others on a group ride….sure why not.

About 9-10 of us showed up in Scappoose for a 10AM rollout.  The weather has been pretty dang wet this week and today was forecast to be warm (upper 50’s) and dry.  That however didn’t mean that the trail itself was dry.  Quite the opposite actually, it was wet and boggy.

The trail is more or less a gradual uphill from the start.  Just before peaking out at the high point (a whopping 1,268′) the trail kicks up to a bit more of a real hill.  It was a sopping wet slog for a good part of it too.

The group kind of split up on the climb and we regrouped at the top.  Temp dropped to the mid 40’s from the mid 50’s back in Scappoose.

The CZ is a multi-use trail and we saw other bikers, hikers, runners and  even some  horses.  I think everyone was taking full advantage of the warm and dry weather.

It’s a nice little downhill into from the train trestle.  We couldn’t exactly rip it though because of about 5 downed trees across the trail.  In hindsight it would have been nice to bring my trail saw.

We all hit the end and headed back.  Not the most difficult of route finding.  The gradual climb back up to the train trestle is then rewarded with a nice long downhill back to the start.  Unfortunately Sarah had a pretty good little crash coming off one of the wooden bridges on the way back.  She scraped up her hands, cut her face and had a pretty gnarly gash in her knee.  Hoping she’s okay and sending good vibes.  It’s never fun to crash.  She is a nurse though, so I am pretty sure she knows how to take care of it.

So thanks to Sarah or Mielle or whomever set this ride up.  It was a good time.

Thanks for reading,

-Pete