[OrRando] Woodburn Heartburn pre-ride report

[Marcello Napolitano]

I did the pre-ride for the Woodburn Heartburn 150k populaire yesterday.

The ride starts on familiar rural roads with little to no traffic between
Forest Grove and Newberg, and then again between Newberg and Woodburn. I had
been on some of these roads a few times before, but always after dark. The
wetlands are so much prettier during the day, and I even spotted a small
herd of buffaloes at one point. The cold heavy rain that I started with in
Forest Grove turned soon into a strong headwind that would slow me down
significantly all the way to Woodburn. At about 55k on Butteville road there
is an intersection with significant cross traffic at Ehlen Road. It is not
in the route sheet, but please be careful. You will see the same
intersections a few miles later, when returning from Woodburn.

I stopped to refuel in a lovely pastry shop in Woodburn. Yum! There is block
after block of Mexican food eateries in the historic downtown, but it was
getting close to the closing time of the controle, so I did not sample as
much as I wanted, and headed for the turnaround point at the intersection of
99E. I will have to go back with more time and an empty stomach.

The wind died down as soon as I left Woodburn, so I did not have any
significant tailwind on my way back. Oh well. When I reached Butteville, I
made a mistake reading the route sheet. There is a left turn listed at
88.8k, followed by a right turn at 88.8k, just one block later. These turns
come at the end of a short but very fast stretch of downhill. I glanced at
my bike computer, looked at the route sheet, and found that there was a
right turn listed at 88.8, so I turned right. And I ended up off route for
almost 4k before I reached I-5 way too early, and realized what had
happened. I retraced my way back to Butteville, and got back on track. 

A few miles later I entered I-5 for a one mile stretch. The shoulder is a
car lane wide, but in a couple of spots it narrows down to bike lane wide.
Not too bad, but I was glad to get to the Wilsonville off ramp.

After crossing Wilsonville, the road to Sherwood has no shoulder and heavy
traffic (lots of it trucks) going both ways. This was the most stressful
section of the ride. After Sherwood, Roy Rogers road and Sholls Ferry road
also had heavy traffic, but they have nice and wide bike lanes. After that,
the last 25k or so of the ride is once again on rural roads with little to
no traffic through beautiful Washington county farmland, wetlands, and
alpaca farms, until we get back to Forest Grove.

Between my detour in Butteville and a little sightseeing in Woodburn, by the
end I had measured 158 km on my bike computer. The total climb (measured by
my GPS) was 3670 feet, not including the detours. It took me 4 hours to do
the first 70 km to Woodburn, and about 3.5 hours to do the 80 km (plus 10 of
detours) back to Forest Grove.

Marcello John Napolitano

John Napolitano for Oregon Senate
A pragmatic centrist for fiscal responsibility
http://www.JohnNapolitano.com