North Plains Banks Vernonia Redux

Yeah, I'll probably ride this route multiple times in a month.  It is good any time, as long as there is not ice.

Ray and I set out on Oct 1, early, because he had to get to work.  It was cool, and, in a seasonal first for me, foggy.



Also, starting at 7:30am gets us school traffic.  Now, granted, one is a parochial school out in the country, and the others are on the main drag in Banks.  But, as we are used to no other road occupants at all, it was certainly noticeable.

The trail was wonderful, as usual.  We are still detouring to the control at Lake Vernonia.  Given that I was on my skinny-tired road bike, we took the trail to Hwy 47 through town to the lake.  There was excellent fog at the lake.


(hmm.  Not sure how I like this result of the app I used to process the picture...)



We rode back over a bit of hardpack, up a steep (paved) grade, and then back into town for our regularly-scheduled coffee and sweet roll stop.

Ray: "I'll have one of those."
Staff: "Heated?"
Me: "You wanted the butter on top, right?"
Ray: "They taste even better that way!"

(same order for me :-) )



The sun came out for our return.  At one point, something flew into my helmet, and I called for a halt to let it go.  Ray: "Is it buzzing?"  Well, not yet.  Good thing I was wearing a cap; I had picked up a yellowjacket!





What with school now in process, the return from Banks to North Plains was again low-traffic.