written version of TURN by TURN

For the time being I'll post this, but I am going to work on something a little more coherent and wont have you squinting to see which way to go.

Hell of the NW turn by turn.

All mileage is rounded to the nearest tenth of a mile.

Leaving from the Benton county fair grounds proceed south on 53^rd.

RIGHT turn at 1.9mi SW Plymouth Dr

LEFT turn at 3.1mi Bellfountain Rd

RIGHT turn at 3.4mi Chapel Dr

LEFT turn at 5.0mi Fern Rd

RIGHT turn at 5.7mi Evergreen Rd

VEER LEFT at 7.3mi

VEER LEFT at 8.1mi

APPROACH GATE at 9.2mi

VEER LEFT at 9.5mi

RIGHT turn at 9.7mi

RIGHT turn at 10.1mi

APPROACH GATE/LEFT turn at 10.5mi Ervin Rd

RIGHT turn at 11.5mi Decker Rd

RIGHT turn at 12.7mi Hwy 34

LEFT turn at 13.7mi Henkle Way

LEFT turn/APPROACH GATE at 14.6mi

VEER RIGHT at 14.8mi

APPROACH GATE at 18.1mi

RIGHT turn at 18.2mi Old Peak Rd

LEFT turn/APPROACH GATE at 18.8mi

LEFT turn at 19.6mi (go along tree farm)

FAST DECENT TO GATE followed by LEFT turn 20.7mi

RIGHT turn at 25.4mi (North Ridge trailhead)

RIGHT turn at 26.4mi Tum Tum Rd

LEFT turn at 26.6mi Shot Pouch Rd

VEER RIGHT at 27.1mi

LEFT turn at 27.2mi

CONTINUE STRAIGHT at 27.5mi

LEFT turn at 27.6mi

LEFT turn at 28.6mi

CONTINUE STRAIGHT at 29.1mi

VEER RIGHT at 29.6mi

RIGHT turn at 33.6mi Harlan-Burntwoods Rd

REST STOP! THE ONE AND ONLY at 34.2mi

RIGHT turn at 34.2mi Hwy 20

LEFT turn at 34.8mi Clem Rd

RIGHT turn at 39.1mi Nashville Rd/Hwy 180

VEER RIGHT 39.9mi

LEFT turn at 42.6mi Mary’s River Rd

YOU’RE HALF WAY THERE!

RIGHT turn at 44.8mi Hoskins Rd

Cross bridge RIGHT turn at 50.9mi Hoskins Rd

LEFT turn at 52.7mi Kings Valley Rd

YOU CAN BACK OUT NOW AND FINISH IN 15 MILES. SEE ADDENDUM AT END.

RIGHT turn at 53.4mi Price Creek Rd

RIGHT turn at 54.9mi

Continue straight APPROACH GATE at 55.1mi

Stay RIGHT at 56.6mi

Continue Straight at 57.1mi

VEER LEFT at 57.8mi

RIGHT turn at 58.1mi

Continue Straight at 58.7mi

GRADUAL LEFT TURN at 58.9mi (becomes double track w/ tall grass)

CAUTION Fast decent with hidden boulders

TWO LARGE DIPS! At 59.5mi

LEFT turn at 60.5mi

Stay to LEFT at 60.5mi

Stay to LEFT at 61.0mi

APPROACH GATE following with RIGHT turn at 62.4mi

LEFT turn 62.5mi

RIGHT turn at 63.2mi

Continue Straight at 63.9mi

Continue Straight at 64.2mi

RIGHT turn at 64.7mi 200 Rd connector trail

Slight LEFT turn at 65.7mi 200 Rd

APPROACH GATE at 66.0mi

RIGHT turn at 66.0mi Tampico Rd

RIGHT turn at 69.3mi Soap Creek Rd

LEFT turn/APPROACH GATE at 70.7mi

RIGHT turn at 71.3mi 580 Rd

APPROACH GATE at 75.2mi Lewisburg Saddle

APPROACH GATE at 75.2mi

RIGHT turn at 75.3mi 600 Rd

Continue STRAIGHT with a slight RIGHT turn at 77.3mi (stay on 600 Rd)

APPROACH GATE at 80.5mi Oak Creek trail head

LEFT turn at 81.5mi Oak Creek Rd

RIGHT turn at 83.6mi 53^rd St

RIGHT turn at 84.1mi Benton County Fairgrounds

ADDENDUM FOR SHORTER ROUTE

RIGHT turn at 52.7mi Kings Valley Rd

LEFT turn at 58.1mi Cardwell Hill Rd

RIGHT turn/APPROACH GATE at 59.8mi

APPROACH GATE at 63.4mi Cardwell Hill trailhead

RIGHT turn at 66.2mi 53^rd St

RIGHT turn at 66.5mi Benton County fairgrounds

The route

http://www.bikemap.net/route/788327

Here's an image and link to a fairly accurate map. I'll get turn by turn directions on here shortly.

organizer a no show?

Hey everyone,

My personal life has been less than ideal lately and has forced me to move back to the twin cities. Ideally I will be back for the ride, but we'll see what my job future holds and how expensive plane tickets are. For now I will be posting a map of the route and I will be posting a down loadable version of the route sheet. I'll have that up in the next week.

I'm really sorry I can't make it, but I need my family a lot right now.

thanks,
Andrew

route sheets and post cards

So I've been a little absent from the blog lately. I'm working five days a week at the shop again. Having a Saturday and Sunday weekend made it easy to cover a lot of ground, but I'm working Saturdays so I really only have one day a week to work on the ride and it's logistics. I have 97% of the route written down turn by turn. I would have 100%, but Sunday's ride went a little late and it was the difference between getting home at 5:30 or finish the route and get home at 6:30. I had no lights and needed to call it a day regardless. I was struggling to hold 14mph on the flats. Next weekend I'll have all the route recorded and then I can then transfer the hand written route sheet to a digital platform and figure out how to print up something nice and pretty for you all.

Speaking of route sheets. So I figured a few of you may be on the fence about this ride. Can't commit right now since it's kind of far out, schedule speaking? So this is what I'm going to do. I know of a crew of riders who are tentatively coming, so my plan was to make a handful of route sheets for them. At this point I'm going to print 10 extra route sheets. If Kinkos or a local print shop have a different quantity break then there may be more. So for those of you who just aren't sure you should be ok if you chose to do the ride the day before.

Let me reiterate the header on the blog. You all need to get a Starker Forests permit. These are free. You don't need to go to the office to get them, you can call them up and explain you're busy/out of town and you'll be coming and would like to ride on their land. They'll need to know what areas you'll be riding. Ask for these three sections; Soap Creek, Ridge Route, and Tum Tum Tree Farm. If they ask you for a fourth section I might choose the land just off of Skillings Drive over by Oak Creek Drive. There is a serious climb there that will lead you to the west end of McCulloch peak, 1600ft of vertical climbing in i'd say less than 5 miles. Pretty awesome ride.

BTW I recieved my first post card today. Friggin' sweet! I would make this thing into a shirt it's so cool. Nathan set the bar pretty high. Lets see what you got. It doesn't need to be serious. The post card I made for the Almonzo was of scene of the woods with a deer(one of those picturesque hunting images) and I had some Knog stickers laying around and put a scarf and sun glasses on the deer.

Here's a shot from today's ride. We'll see how snowy it really gets here later this week.

where are my postcards and mapping has begun

Where are your post cards? Is this ride too intimating or is it just falling on a bad time for most people? March 1st will be the cut off point for receiving post cards so if you have the slightest inkling I'm more than happy to make a route sheet for you, even if you don't make it. My original intent was to get people going and meet riders at the half way point and help give support, but at this point I think I might be the only rider. Not the worst thing. I was worried I'd have a huge turn out. Looks like it may be pretty low key. Well it's not a huge deal, because I'd host this ride again later this year and again next year. My mentor Chris told me the first year he hosted a ride like this only six people showed up and this year over 700 people registered for his ride. Maybe I should change my ride date for a more desirable time of year. hmm...

Well at this point April 16th is still the ride day and I am still working on the route sheet. It's been fun planning this route because when it's all said and done I think I'll have ridden the route four times or so. Each time thus far the weather has been different and I have loved each experience. The other cool thing is I'm averaging about 120 miles of bike riding a week. 100 of those miles is pure recreation which is very different from my previous years of bike riding.

If people want a shorter loop of this ride I can think up a good shorter loop that will keep you in the range of a four hour ride.

Regardless thanks for reading.

PS. Would you rather have us ride up the North Ridge of Marys Peak? This weekend offered time to hike this trail with my dog Randy. This is some damn gorgeous country.

Lost town in the hills

Just a reminder I need those post cards so I can start creating route sheets for all riders.

On Sunday I went out for a ride with Gregg and two guys from Team Dirt. Our ride started at Fort Hoskins and we rode out to Valsetz. What a great ride it was. The road was a well traveled dirt road following the Lukamute river with some great views. The ride offered some good conversation, mutual appreciation for the views, and having riding buddies made it a little more enjoyable.

I've wanted to go to Valsetz ever since I had heard of it. The idea that a hustling bustling town was completely obliterated is so hard for me to understand. Visiting the Adair Military Base is a weird place, but the choice for the military to close up shop and move else where is understandable and a common occurrence in our nation's history. The fact that here was a town in a little valley miles away from another town where there were over 2,000 people living here complete with a two lane bowling alley and a gas station and then one day the logging company just up and closed the town. Couldn't they have closed the mill and just let the town exist and do its own thing?

Well if you have the chance take a look at the website I hyper linked on the first occurrence of "Valsetz,"its pretty neat to look at all the old time pictures.


I think I need to go back and explore more and see what's left of the town. Maybe there are some lost artifacts or something there to tell a story about the life in Valsetz.

The route has been completed

I did the last of the recon today. Pretty tough ride for a single speed. As long as it was flat and smooth things were great. Once the route changed to soft dirt road things slowed down, but were still good, then the road turned into double track with golf ball to fist sized rocks laid every 20 feet or so in small groupings. I've ridden some of this portion of the route before and a geared cross bike handles it well, but maybe I'm a little ambitious with a 46x20 geared SS.

So I followed my planned route but soon realized the map I had showed some roads that existed at one time, but were now heavily over grown. So I followed some more traveled roads in hopes of achieving a similar route. My main concern is having the route on roads we all could figure out and not easily get lost on. So the map showed a large hill. I didn't know this large hill was just shy of being a mountain. The climb just kept going and going. Then at the top there is no gratifying look out, just lots of fir trees. The decent however was awesome. Really really fast with some wide winding turns and then just before you get onto a public road there's a sweet section of single track riddled with whoop-dee-dos and a creek crossing. The creek is about 7 feet wide and 7 inches deep. It's very rideable. But if you're going into it to quickly you're going OTB.

So after this portion I am debating on adding one semi difficult last short and steep climb. For me after 3 hours on the saddle I couldn't do the climb so I by-passed it. I can imagine what a short and steep climb will feel like after 5 hours in the saddle and I'm betting riders would prefer an easier way. The easier way is paved and is against all that this race is about. After the last climb it's flat with a nice long mellow down hill finishing at the starting point. So I'll debate with some people who've attempted this climb and see if a cross bike can do it.

Now since the route has been designed and traversed, it's time I attempted the route in one shot. I need to get the actual milage, real time gps route, and write down where every turn is per cumulative mileage.

Wish me luck! I might need two flasks for this.

Connections

This weekend I went out both Saturday and Sunday in exploration. Figured out a pretty straight forward route and we'll be passing by another general store which should allow most of us to fuel up just in case we passed up the first store.

The roads this weekend were wet, soft, and icy in spots. Both rides covered me in mud and road grime. One plus of both rides, my new Showers Pass jacket did awesome, kept me dry and warm. My Lake boots however got soaked both rides. The views from these rides were great. Long rolling ridge lines, swollen creeks, snow mingling with green ferns and moss covered trees. It's no rolling fields of corn and soy beans, but the smells here help weigh in Oregon's beauty.

Another thing I have left out in my previous posts, a "ride" day date. April 16th is the day I have chosen. For those of you interested in riding the Mudslinger this would make for a great training ride. ;)


PS. would you like to see what the route will be?

got lost, again.

Today I missed a turn on my recon ride and ended up finding very pretty views, but achieved little in discovering more of the route. Also I lost my Starker Forest permit and my Starker maps. All in all 4 hours on the saddle was a good time. I now have Tuesdays off now so I get to ride my bike and the route more frequently!


Something I missed in the previous post.
When you send your post card in, make sure you write your name on the post card.
Every other week I'll be posting the rider roster.

Get those postcards sent!

I am now ready to accept your postcard entries. The first 50 entries will get a direction packet and a "ride" prep baggy.

Best postcard design will get a Hamm's beer cycling cap with their race prep baggy.

Before I post the mailing address I need to list some "ride" day needs and remind you that this race is completely unsupported, not official or licensed or insured in any way, and much of the course will have little markings and has little to no cell signal. So be prepared for the worst. Being that this will be in April I'm planning for a rainy miserable day so dress appropriately.

This may be obvious but I need to state the necessary things for riders to have with you on the ride. I won't be checking you over, but if you're missing one of these pieces you may find yourself stranded.

Mandatory:

1. Cycling computer with trip distance functions.
2. Helmet. Don't be an idiot and show up without a helmet. No one wants to call the cops trying to describe where they are and have a helicopter to pick up because your smashed head wide open.
   
3. Handle bar map case. Cyco Active makes a sweet map case that Peak Sports will be stocking.
4. Cash. I'm pretty sure Burnt Woods general store takes credit, but cash is universal and a safe bet for a small transaction, plus it comes in handy as a tire boot or home made bandage.
   

Suggested:

1. Flat kit including a "tire boot" just in case your tire gets sliced open. It's happened to me out there.
   
2. Cell phone
3. Decent multi-tool
4. Food. Pb&J, gel packet, cliff bar. You're riding for 4-7 hours, prepare yourself.
5. Spare chain links.
6. Band Aids or maybe even a first aid kit if your planning on getting rad.
   

This isn't necessary to say, but training for this might help.

Lastly the address to which I will be accepting postcards.

Hell of the Northwest
c/o Andrew Pierre
1825 SW 49th st #185
Corvallis, OR 97333


I'll be posting updates and a "ride" date shortly. I'm thinking April 16th.

Happy New Year!

Happy F**king Holidays

Hope you're all doing well. It was a nice holiday weekend. Saw some movies, ate some good food, and played categories on Skype with some Minnesota friends. Here's an awesome clock my friend made for my wife and I.

oh you silly silly google maps

So I began recon on the planned route. Things went well. From the proposed start riders will be riding paved road for the better part of the first 7 miles, but you will be happily greeted by a well used dirt road that is the foreground to a nice 10-15 minute climb. Then it's off into the woods for a little taste of logging roads.
This beginning portion will be very easy to navigate and after the first climb I'm sure if there is anything in the ways of a pack people will spread out and there shouldn't be an issue of bottle necking. I know I know, I'm making this sound like its a legit race.

I got a little lost in this first section only because I had no map and was trying to remember how google maps had displayed this area. Turns out my gps device mapped a route that google maps had no idea existed. Well after a back track and probably unnecessary left turn which made a large u-turn, I made it to a small neighbor hood. And then immediately recognized where I needed to go. At this point I was confronted by a scruffy Jack Russel terrier who was friends with a Rottweiler who could have cared less about me. After a short negotiation with the terrier and explination that he should probably stay near his home I was allowed to leave.

Then I started the next section of my proposed route. This portion looked great on google maps. Even Starker Forests' map promised this area would be the beginning of a great climb. Well turns out the gate to the road I wanted to go up was electronic and had a chain lock comprised of almost only locks. I ended up checking the Starker map I had and realized I could get on this road via a road just south of here. So I back tracked found the other road and bypassed the gate. Then I ended up near a water treatment plant and was eventually stopped by a man in a county truck. I was pretty sure I was trespassing, but played it off like I was just following orders from my map and figured I'd be ok. He was nice enough to just tell me to turn around go back the way I came and if I wanted to go where I was planning just continue down a different road and look for the next Starker gate on your left. He also said, "If you get hassled by anyone else around here tell 'em you spoke to Jon." I road back the way I came bypassed the gate and then followed Jon's directions.

At this point I was a little off schedule. I had covered 15 miles maybe in almost 2 hours. I was hoping to ride the first half of the route in 4 hours. So at this point I was going to at least ride the first 1/3 of the route. The next section was pretty. Really steep spots and there were some fresh cut sections on hill side with a few single trees left. Everything was straight forward and would leave most people little doubt they were on the right path.
The rest of the route I rode today was straight forward and finished with an awesome decent.

Tomorrow I'll try to ride the 2nd 1/3 of the course.

Happy Trails!

Monday morning

Monday morning will be a busy one. Go take my motorcycle license test, pay for my Oregon drivers license, visit Starker Forests HQ and get some maps, and call up Weyerhaeuser logging for a map of their land.

Next weekend I'll be riding a large portion of the route, looking at the new maps, and looking to expand and modify the route.

Come January 1st I'll get an address on this blog for racer entries.

Mac Forest, Soap Creek, and Starker Forest

Today I had the day off, the dog assumed Kristin and I were gone to school and work(no non stop barking due to separation anxiety), and I needed to justify the massive amounts of food to be eaten tomorrow.

This was my ride. http://www.bikemap.net/route/762700
As a native Minnesotan you'd think I have practiced the act of winter MTB rides. You my friend are unfortunately wrong. I've done plenty of road rides and dirt road/crushed gravel rides in winter, but never a mountain bike ride. I had plenty of friends who've done it and have been invited here and there, but I never did it. What a waste of a 5 month long winter.

I loved riding today. Up in the hills, I bet it was in the upper 20's, the snow/ice was so fun to ride on. Similar to loose gravel, but had a much more appealing crunchy noise to it. Not to mention the beauty of a snow covered area. I love how clean snow looks when it first falls. Made me a little home sick.

So today's mission was another one to gauge how difficult this ride should be. 34 miles on the mountain bike with two longer rest stops ended up taking a little over 4 hours. There was one section with an incline that even in the best of hiking boots would be difficult. I had to climb pushing the mountain bike up hill for about 20 minutes, it was more like carrying the bike. Ow! My calves were burning by the end of that one.

So in my mind I think the route will run pretty close to Mary's Peak, then head north, explore some logging roads north of Cardwell Hill, then through the Mac Forest, finally finishing on some flat roads in the valley? hmmm... I'll draw some maps up and see if I can keep it around 70 miles and something like 6000-7000 vertical feet of climbing. I'll also do my best to have at least one decent rest stop. The fast guys should be able to finish this in 5-6 hours. The rest of us can do it in less than 8.

That all being said. I think I'm going to cap the entries as well. Doesn't mean your friend who didn't sign up soon enough can't ride it too, but I'm only going to make as many maps as I can. So for those of you who want to ride this with a map get your postcards ready. In the next couple of weeks I will get you an address to mail the postcard to and will only accept entries after the first of the year. Best postcard will win something, not sure what yet, but rest assured it will be awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving!

google maps

Don't believe everything google maps says. On today's route, google maps wrote that there was a connectiong road from forest road 3000 to Old Peak road. There was in fact a road, but that road was abandoned oh say 20 years ago so Denny and I hiked a planed out area full of new growth forest for a mile and half until we reached Old Peak road. Very fun regardless. still working on figuring out a route, but I don;t think GPS devices will be needed. I'll have route cards made up.

defeat

Yesterday's excursion proved to be a challenging one. I had hopes of climbing Marys Peak and then exploring the dirt roads along the north ridge. Well turns out Denny and I missed a turn and ended up riding a great dirt road that went from 2800ft to about 300 in 20 minutes of wild downhill riding. Needless to say it was fast, but speed was in check due to some massive pot holes. Yesterday's ride consisted of about 48 miles of riding and 4700 of climbing.


Oddly enough I met my limits. Just after descending Marys Peak my legs gave out. I didn't "hit the wall" per say, more like my legs just hurt real bad and did not want to move anymore. That was very odd. Nutrition is key and I'm sure I could have eaten better the day before. Oh well you live and learn.

Next weekend I'm going to explore some roads west of where we ended up and north of Hwy 20. The route I have in mind keeps changing. We'll see what happens.

Can I ask you a question?!?!

Another dirt road ride this past Saturday. Again very painful, but with a few more rides under my belt an imperial century seems do-able. That's not to say it won't be painful and very likely nearing an 8 hour ride, but do-able none the less.

So on Sunday's journey Denny and I rode Cardwell Hill road and then north on Kings Valley and then east on Price creek again. Cardwell Hill was just fine going up. And by fine I mean not a mess of peanut butter, but on the way down it was slow and mushy. The views on Cardwell Hill are fantastic. An old logging road with boarders of new growth forests, Mary's River, cattle grazing land, and vineyards.
Price creek road is a great road. It lines a farm that has fenced areas sized for cattle and yet all you'll find is a acres full of chickens and one single shaggy bull. I'll try to take pictures next ride.

This time was better. I realized I remembered the route pretty well and we were some what prepared for the giant water run off ditches on one of the descents that we nearly launched off last time.

Then we made it to the main road just before we headed into McDonald forest. We came upon an older gentlemen leaf blowing. Leaf blowing a dirt road surrounded by trees. Does that make sense? Back in the old country, Minnesota, we let rain and wind take care of those pesky leaves that made it to the street. Leaves on dirt roads? who cares. Either way this man must have had one mean leaf giving him grief. You know that one leaf that seams like its been super glued to the ground? One of those bastards. Since this guy was frustrated with his leaf job, he stopped us and asked us if he could ask us a question. He then began to make a statement rather than a question. He told us that the road we were riding on was a private one. The only reason bikers were ever on this road is because of some blasted bike race. A bike race held something like 10 years ago. And if we ever hurt ourselves on these roads we are in for some trouble.

What was that suppose to mean? I'm taking it as a weird way of encouragement to continue exploring roads others have been shunned away from.

Come next weekend I'll do a little exploring and then hopefully a little cross racing on Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

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.