Presidents Day is one of those holidays that a lot of us government employees get off, but not necessarily everyone else.  I had tried to get a group of us together for a ride that Mark had planned out of Yamhill, OR.  Unfortunately injury, weather, children or weather made it so that just Mark (Bogie) and I were available.

 

Mark had pieced together a loop with some exploring tossed in to potentially pitch the idea of a gravel ride to the Portland Velo group.  Also a bonus for me was that I would finally get to see Flying M Ranch.  This is another one of the places I knew about before even moving to Oregon thanks to the now defunct Velodirt.com.

 

I’ve written numerous times about my love for small towns.  Yamhill is cute, it doesn’t have quite the charm of Carlton (just a few miles away) but it does have a nice feel about it and there are a couple restaurants that look worth checking out.

 

It didn’t take long to get out of town and onto the gravel roads.  Old RR Grade Rd is exactly what it sounds like, an old rail corridor that was straight and flat.  That being said, Mark had planned on a route that was supposed to have about 2400′ of total elevation according to Ride with GPS.  I ended up with over 2900′ when all was said and done, so much for the wonders of technology.

 

 

 

We actually chatted with the owner of the ranch for a bit.  She told us that she does a Sunday breakfast every week with sticky buns, eggs, meats, fruit, etc.  Definitely piqued my interest……I love breakfast, it is my favorite meal.

 

The north side of the ridge we were riding on was a bit dicey with lots of ice and slush.  Once we got back into the more eastern and southern facing roads things got much better.

 

 

Some of these roads looks familiar from when Mark, Trevor and I hooked up with a Velocult ride two years ago.

 

I’m motivated to pull out the maps and see what else we can connect out there.  We popped out on Westlake Road at one point which is the main climb from Carlton up to the Nestucca River Road ride.  The log truck came out from the Toll Road and also out there someplace is the Trask River Rd to Tillamook ride.  Now if I could just win the lottery so I can free up some time………….

Thanks for reading and thanks for the route Mark.

 

-Pete