When the winter cabin fever starts to set in, I like to try and treat it with some sort of overnight trip. I’ve done at least 5-6 trips to Stub Stewart over the years during the winter months. It’s close enough for convenience, I can bike there in as little as twenty two miles or as much as seventy miles depending on the route we take.

This trip I was smart enough to plan well in advance by booking a cabin back in November knowing, that by the time February rolled around, I was going to be needing a little “adventure” in my life. I got Colby and Dean to commit fairly easily too.

Saturday’s weather started out damp and drizzly in the morning with a promise of clearing by the afternoon. I had tossed out a few route options that would get us to Stub in under 30 miles but not quite as direct as the most direct option.

We worked our way over towards Cedar Canyon Rd to climb up through Hayward and drop down to highway 26 and jump on the Banks-Vernonia Trail at the Manning trailhead. We topped out just under 1400′ in elevation coming through Hayward and it was cool and drizzly, especially as we descended the mucky gravel road back towards Manning.

I’ll definitely take full blame for the route option and knowing that Dean has not spent a whole heck of a lot of time in the saddle recently. We rolled into the cabins after about 27 miles but over 2600′ in elevation gain, keeping close to the “golden ratio” of 1,000′ for every 10 miles. Generally, rides in this category, especially multisurfaced rides, can be considered moderately hard to difficult. I should have given him the option for the more direct, but slightly shorter, route.

The three of us settled in as the sun was setting and just chatted for most of the evening. Being the super exciting, plus young and vigorous, men that we are we made it all the way to 9:30pm before calling it a night. We did manage to sleep in until a little past 7am, giving us almost a solid 10 hours! I rarely get that so I am not going to complain.

It poured rain several times during the night but other than a little spitting drizzle in the morning we made it back to my house relatively dry. The wind out of the west, southwest was a bit rough at times though.

Gotta say thanks to Dean and Colby for accompanying me up to Stub. It is always a bit more fun to do these trips with a few other people. Then when you’re damp, chilly and the sun is starting to set you can share it with someone else.

Thanks for reading,

-Pete