logging roads

I've ridden some local dirt roads and have found them to be a joy. Today's ride consisted of some logging roads that have seen little traffic. By little traffic, I'm thinking a 4x4 goes up these roads a few times a year pretty much for hunting purposes. I also found out that in order to give a good route I will have to do some searching via bicycle, not motorcycle as my previous post had described. There are lots of gates and lots of "no no" signs. Most of which are impassable via a motorbike.

Those roads were fun! Thick foliage, tons of random off shoots, no street sign in sight. The roads make for great riding, but giving someone else directions on these roads would be useless. "Make a right at the pine tree." Turns out that these roads are littered with pine trees so that sort of land mark will be of no use. Denny was prepared with his iphone, which much of time didn't have signal, but when it did we were lucky enough to find we were on the right road. Here's a copy of today's route, Cypress818.

As for giving directions to others, this will be challenging, but I'll figure something out.

update and in the process of deciding on where to start

So this morning I chose to hop on the motor bike and go ride north of Corvallis. Ideally I'd ride my bike on these roads, but I was under some time constraints and it's been weeks since I last rode my motorcycle. BTW the motor bike was great in Minnesota, but when you work 9-6 Monday thru Friday, the weekend screams bike riding and leaves little time for the motorcycle.

This morning I rode north to Adair Village and then west into the farms and hills. I found some great dirt roads, but came to realizing the beginning of the race may start on paved roads for the first 5 miles or so. Not terrible, but ideally I'd like the race to start on dirt roads. I'd also like to omit the whole crossing of 99W.

I checked out Fall City's bakery today as well. I must say the lattes there are great, could have used a little more froth, but no big deal. Their sweet rolls are huge and delicious.

Here's a shot of how beautiful the ride could be. We can only hope.

routes in mind

So I've quickly drawn up some routes. One north of Corvallis and one south of Corvallis. The south side route looks brutal. 115 miles with nearly 15,000 feet of vertical climbing. There are few towns to ride through, especially ones that have a convenience/general store of some kind. Now this ride should be difficult, but not torture. The north route has plenty of climbing, 10,000 feet, but some of the hills are short and steep and followed by long flats. The north side route passes through a good mix of farm land and of forests. It also passes through Fall City and looks like there is a really good bakery in that town. At this point I'm leaning towards the north route. But as far as the ruling goes, I'll need to go ride these roads and figure out how inaccurate Google maps is. Then based on that I'll see what little tweaks can be done and see if I can include a river crossing, crossing of a wired bridge, or some sort of weird feature.

One thing is for sure, keeping the race 100% dirt road will be challenging. It may end up being like 93% dirt and 7% pavement.

As for now I'll just keep dreaming about the route. And come this weekend I'll go ride some of the route.

expirence, opinions, and resources

Today was a great day. Rode some dirt roads in the McDonald forest. Maybe riding to McCulloch peak won't be included in the ride, but it was a good gauge for what's reasonably do able.

Turns out I work with a 30 year logger vet of Starker Forest. Sounds like he knows the forest better than most. I also met Mike Ripley(excuse me if I spelled his name wrong), a man who knows a thing or two about bike racing here in Oregon. He mentioned quite a few things I'd never considered or knew such conditions/obstacles existed. Nelson Sherry of Peak Spots, knows the coastal mountains fairly well. He's been suggesting the route go through some hundreds of year old forest where some of the tallest trees in Oregon exist. He also mentioned passing through a plowed over ghost town. I know the route will need to pass through a few small towns to make sure riders can make a pit stop for food and whatever else is needed. I also bought a map of the Suislaw National Forest and a detailed map of the Mary's Peak area.

Now it's time to study maps, talk to officials about necessary permits, what roads are the best, how to mark the route, and to go on recon rides.

A taste of what's to be seen.

Inception

Hello,

My name is Andrew Pierre and I come from the land of 10,000 lakes. Not only do I come from a land of lakes, but I come from a land of free dirt road racing. Minnesota has a huge layout of dirt roads which offer some fantastic scenes. Even though the state may seem flat and littered with hundreds of acres of corn, the dirt roads there traverse a land scape of serene river valleys which offer some long and grueling hills.

That being said, my mission is to organize a free dirt road race for the people of Oregon. The race will be unsupported, full of hills, dirty, gritty, painful, but most of all fun!

Being that I am now committing myself to this I am planning on scheduling this race sometime in April or May. Late enough so its not too cold, but still in the rainy season. Length of the race will be at least 62miles but no more than 110 miles. A majority of, if not all of the race will done on logging roads.

I invite you all to follow the progression of this and to spread the word that Willamette Valley will have a dirt road race that will explore the logging roads of the coastal range.

Stay tuned for more updates...