Second Permanent of the Year

The alarm goes off at 5:00 am, and Joanne and I load up the rain tandem into the van and off to Newburg we to. This will be Joanne's first permanent of the year and my second.

We have chosen the Prairies and Wetlands route. Staring in Newburg, we ride to Mt. Angel, return to Newburg and then travel to Forest Grove and finally return to Newburg. This double loop route allows us to stash supplies, lights and extra clothing in our van that we can access before starting out on the second loop.

We arrive at the Newburg Public Parking lot to find eleven others getting ready. A simple posting to the Oregon Randonneuring mailing list seems to been very productive.

Before 7:00 am, we ride over to the Newburg Thiftway grocery store for the signing of our control cards and we are off. Well almost. I was last in line at the check out counter and went I exited the store, everyone had already left!

Oh well, it turned out to be a good think. Just as we were getting on the tandem, my cell phone rang. It was Elise who was late and just arrived at the parking lot. We decided to wait for her as it was her birthday and all.

So, several minutes after everyone else had left, Joanne and I were off with Elise following behind in our slipstream. We left at a brisk pace and kept it up. Normally, I tend to want to take it easy in the first part of a ride so I don't burn myself up, but since we were the last ones out of the gate, we had some folks to catch.

Crossing the Willamette River Bridge was easy as it was so early in the morning. We stopped briefly at the first informational control and then enjoyed a nice ride along the east bank of the Willamette River all of the way to St. Paul. There, we continued south toward Keizer, but turned to the east on Keen Road. As we crossed over the freeway, we saw the first riders of our group. "Rabbits!" I yelled and we picked up our pace.

We soon came upon a group of five which included John, Lynn and others. We passed them with a cheerful "Hi!" and continued on in search of the rest of the group. We did not find them until we reached the road to Gallon House Covered Bridge our second informational control. There, we saw Kevin, Cecil, David and Sandy. We rode with these folks for most of the rest of the ride.

After a short stop in Mt. Angel, we were back on the road heading back toward Newburg. As we rode north, the sky seem to darken and we all agreed that the temperature was getting cooler. While it was never warm, we began to feel colder as we rode.

Soon, we were in Newburg at the Coffee Cottage. We never intend to spend much time there, but we always do. On our way out of town, we stopped and picked up our lights before heading to Dayton and our third informational control.

The route then took us though the small town of Lafeyette, a town will much more traffic than it seems it should have. Five of us were stopped at a stop sign waiting for cross traffic which did not have to stop to clear so we could make our left turn. We waited and waited, but an opening just didn't appear. Then, a kind soul approaching on our left stopped to let us turn, but traffic was still coming from our right. After a several seconds, I saw an opening and called out "Going!". To my surprise, I then heard a chorus of warnings as the kind soul had apparently lost patience and started at the same moment I entered the street. But disaster was avoid and we all got across the road.

This led us to Highway 47, a busy road with narrow shoulders. Last year, we rode this in darkness and rain, but this year we were in daylight and dry roads. But, I thought I felt drops on my face, very tiny drops. The kind of drops that could lead to rain, but not always. But we were not to ride in wetness today as the drops disappeared as we approached Forest Grove.

Rolling up to Maggie's Buns we were pleased to see that it was open. It closes at 3:00 pm; we had arrived at 2:40. I choose an order of pasta with pesto which was really good. Again, time slipped by and we spent 45 minutes resting before we left.

The final leg of the ride is on Springhill Road, a very nice road. Sandy, Elise and Joanne & I picked up the pace as we began to smell the barn. We arrived back at the Coffee Cottage in Newburg at 5:07 pm, just one minute before sunset. We had finished our January Perm in daylight!

Route Map

Posted 8:45 PM by John Henry