Riding out in the Yamhill hills the other week with Mark was so much fun that I asked Mia if she wanted to go explore some of the area this weekend.  The weather forecast was looking killer after a little bit of snow and ice last week followed by a fair amount of rain this week.

 

I tweaked Mark’s loop a bit for a 28 mile ride that would hit all the highlights we did but skip some of the pavement too.

 

Mia is a big fan of her road bike but hasn’t done all that much gravel riding, especially since we moved out here.  It was my chance to show her a bit of what goes down on some of these gravel rides that I’ve been doing the past few years.  I’m guessing by her smile and comments after the ride that she had fun!  We’re both still huge fans of our road bikes but, well you know, N+1!

 

 

The roads were a bit wet from the week of rain but surprisingly not a lot of spray being kicked up onto our  backs or each other when riding behind each other.  The North Yamhill River was moving a lot quicker than the other week, probably due to all the snow melt.

 

 

 

 

I wanted to show Mia the Flying M Ranch too.  Part of the reason is my ploy to convince her we need to head out here for one of their Sunday breakfast.  There happened to be a wedding taking place on Saturday so there was a fair amount of traffic for a couple miles before and after the ranch.  Not exactly what you would expect out on these roads that don’t really lead anywhere faster than the paved roads back towards town.

 

The next few miles after the Flying M have the most elevation and I give Mia props for gutting it out on the steeper sections.  She’s no slouch on the bike but she has significantly less miles on the year than I do.  So yeah, I’m giving her props!

 

We actually saw one other rider out there today.  He was headed in the opposite direction to us, and I recognize him, but don’t know his name.

After getting back to the car we headed over to Carlton to hit up Carlton Coffee.  I was a bit sad that we missed them being open by only 30 minutes.  However the silver lining ended up being The Horse Radish.  We had not been here yet, but it was a fabulous find.  The sandwich I got was fantastic and the vibe was pretty great.  Definitely be going back there again.  For sure this route will be one that we do here and there and it’ll give us an excuse to try a few more places in Yamhill and Carlton.

 

Great little date ride with my wife.  It’s been awhile since we’ve ridden together for any length of time.  Looking forward to lots more!

Thanks for reading,

-Pete