Vernonia - Astoria - Vernonia, the first ORR Permanent of the Year!

A strange email came on my computer last week, "I have three riders (me included) who plan to ride the Nehalem River (Vernonia-Astoria-Vernonia) 200k permanent this Saturday starting at 7.30 a.m. For those not familiar with the route, it follows the Nehalem river to Birkenfeld and Jewell, climbs along Fishhawk creek to crest at about 1200 feet, then follows the Klatskanine River to Astoria. U-turn at US-101, and back to Vernonia. I estimate about 4000 to 5000 feet total climbing."

This was scheduled one week before my planned first permanent of the year, but Joanne was attending a yoga seminar, and the weather forecast was for clear skies, so how could I refuse? I emailed Marcello, the instigator of this adventure, back just two words "I'm in."

I watched the weather forecasts as Saturday approached, and the only change was the morning temperature, it kept getting revised downward. But I did not expect just how could it would be come the morning of the ride.

My alarm rang at 4:30 am, and I was out the door by 5:00, or as I like to say, "O'dark thirty". My Chev Astro van has a thermometer the measures the outside air tempurture, and it has at 30 degrees as I left home. No worries I thought, it has to be warmer in Vernonia. I was wrong. Boy, was I wrong. It was 21 degrees as I pulled into town!

Luckily, the Black Bear Coffeeshop was open. And it was warm inside! I grabbed my gear and got ready to ride in the warmth of the coffeeshop enjoying an early morning Latte. Soon, my fellow randonneurs arrived, Ray, Bill and Marcello. It was soon made clear to me that this was all Ray's idea. He must take the credit for suggesting we ride in such cold weather. No worries I thought, I have warm clothing and it will soon warm up.

Shortly after 7:30 am we left the warmth of the Black Bear and headed off toward our first control, Birkenfeld twenty miles away. For each and every one of those miles, my fingers froze. It is hard to smile, much left shift gears, with frozen fingers. But, knowing that sometime today I would be warm allowed me to peddle on.


Was I glad to see the Birkenfeld store! I managed to get a short ways ahead of the others and watched them ride in. Yes, that is frost along side of the road. We stayed long enough to me to consume a small V8, a Starbucks Frappuccino, and for my fingers to warm up.



The Birkenfeld store is full of history and fun. When we arrived, a group of locals were sitting and share stories on a cold Saturday morning. There is nothing like a shivering, fiftish man dressed in multiple layers of Lycra that will bring conversation to and end.



Just beyond Birkenfeld, is the Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area which has, according to Ray, very good bathrooms. (Yes, I tested them out and I must agree.)



And there are Elk! First we saw a small group of three who rushed off into the brush as we approached. Then, Ray and I came around a corner in the road to see a large herd in the sunlit meadow. Then kept an eye on us, and we must have frighten them as they slow moved off away from us.

After the meadows, came the hill.

When you ride a bicycle, you learn that the world in not flat. Leaving the meeadows of Jewel, we began to climb up the spine of the Coast Range, Oregon's little brother to the Cascade Mountain Range. But don't be fooled, the incline was steep and it was an worthy climb. Along the way, you pass Fishhawk Falls.



Leaving the hills behine, we soon came upon Young's River which empties into Young's Bay which is crossed by Young's Bay Bridge



When you see the eagle, you are almost in Astoria!

The route is an out-and-back, with the turn around point being Astoria. We rode into Astoria just far enough to reach the first Dairy Queen we saw. I must say their new Iron Grill Turkey sandwich really tastes great after 62 miles of riding in the cold January sunshine. I accompanied the sandwich with a small cup of hot coffee.



This building (is there a past tense?) is located in Jewel, an unincorporated area. The area really got hit hard by this winter's snow storm.

The route back was much warmer than the trip out, and since we were climbing from sea level, the hill was also much higher. We reach the Birkenfeld store near sunset. Lite up like fireflys, well, really bright fireflys, we rode back to Vernonia together. We must have been a sight, as one approaching car pulled off of the road and came to a full stop as we approached.

All in all, I really had a very good day riding with good friends. A nice time was had by all.

Posted 8:30 PM by John Henry