Reminder: Chehalem Range Ramble this Saturday, October 6!

It’s less than a week away! My Chehalem Range Ramble is a fun ride through some beautiful country to the south and west of the metro area. The weather looks like it’ll be classic early fall: mild with a chance of showers. Plus, those maples are starting to show their autumn colors. You should come along!

Here’s what you need to know:

The Chehalem Mountain Range is a small but relatively steep range dividing the Tualatin and Yamhill Valleys just southwest of Hillsboro. This area is relatively unknown to folks around the Portland metro area, but features some nice and quiet roads plus a fair share of gravel!

This ride is not super-intense, but isn’t easy. You will be rewarded with nice countryside and beautiful vistas. The ride is a no-drop ride, and won’t be moving fast. (i.e. your leader does not move fast). Expect several regroups. If you like riding hard and fast, this may not be the ride for you, but if you can ratchet back the intensity you may just enjoy yourself!

The details:

• This ride will happen on Saturday October 6 at 9 am. The sort of meet up spot is the Hatfield Government Center MAX station in Hillsboro, which is the west end of the Blue Line. We won’t actually “meet” there though, we’ll meet at a cafe in town (yet to be determined) to have breakfast.
• If’n you aren’t into a full breakfast, just meet us at the cafe by 10 am. This will be the departure time. (There is another coffee option nearer the station if you just want something quick, but I ain’t naming names. Hint: There’s a mermaid on the cup.) Please note that we won’t be going by the MAX station after breakfast, so meet us at the yet to be determined cafe.
• The ride is about 50 miles round-trip, and you can check that route out here. We can shave off about 10 miles by cutting out the gravel loop around Gaston. I’d prefer to keep that loop, but if we’re too beat or the weather starts to suck, it’s an option.  For the return we’ll be hitting up Forest Grove and straight-shotting along Baseline back to Hillsboro. Yeah, it’s not ideal, but it allows a dinner stop in FG (see below) and really, most of the riding right outside of Forest Grove on the south side is sub-par, so it’s six of one, half-dozen the other…
• As for breaks and food, Bald Peak is at about mile 19. I plan on taking a good break here and making coffee. While there’s an outhouse, there is no water here, so make sure you have enough for the ride, esp. if you want to make coffee here. At about mile 27 is Gaston, which has a store and  a pub/restaurant. We’ll pass through Forest Grove on the way back, so we can stop by the Grand Lodge for dinner and drinks if we choose and have time.
• While this ride does not stray that far from the fringe of the metro area, it has a surprising lack of services. After leaving Hillsboro, the next food/water will be Gaston at mile 27 and then there may be a country store or so before Forest Grove. So be prepared!
• I’d say about 25% of this ride is gravel. The ascent to Bald Peak is a good deal of gravel, and the Gaston Loop is mostly gravel. I’d say you should be good if you have tires north of 32 mm in width. Nothing super-technical, so you don’t need to ride your full-sus MTB unless you want to!
• This is an “okay” weather ride. Truly crappy weather may cancel the ride. There are really no bail out points out there, so I don’t want this to be an absolute sufferfest, if you know what I mean.

Are you interested in going? Please sign up below! Questions? Let me know.https://eventbrite.com/tickets-external?eid=49358152563&ref=etckt