Late Summer Banks-Vernonia MTB Ride

For pictures, see the May 27, 2010 post (we forgot to take the camera this time...sorry)

On Saturday morning we took out the mountain bikes and dusted them off for a day on the Banks-Vernonia trail. This time, we parked in the town of Banks and rode from the southern terminus of the trail. It was a cool, partly cloudy morning (9:45) and I wore a long underwear capilene shirt under my jersey. It really never warmed up enough to shed a layer. There was a remarkable amount of bicycle traffic from a local metric century ride ("beaverton, banks, and beyond") but we rode along at a nice, steady clip and ended up passing most of the participants. When the pavement gave way to dirt, the others must have taken a different route so we had the woods to ourselves for a while. It's much more pleasant to ride on fat tires along that stretch!

In Vernonia we hit the local market and got some soda, chips, and fruit leather to go with the peanut butter and honey sandwiches and apple I'd packed. There was a horse event at the arena next to our picnic site, so we watched barrel racers zip around as we munched. After lunch, I had to put on my raincoat for an extra layer (Cold!). The ride back seemed shorter, and we ended up back at the truck by 2:45.