[OrRando] Verboort Populaire pre-ride

[Michael Rasmussen]

Those of you coming out for the Verboort Sausage Festival Populaire
should get ready for a good time.  The route is a refinement of last
spring's Snoozeville populaire.  The start is relocated to McMenamin's
Grande Lodge and goes further up Dairy Creek road while cutting off the
Hwy 47 jog down to Gaston.

The route lets you warm up easily on flat roads through farmlands.
After just a couple of miles you'll experience a common road feature for
England, but rare here, a roundabout intersection.  Keep to the right, watch
for your "exit" and you'll be fine. I'd really like to describe the crops you'll 
see here. Honestly.  On the pre-ride we pedaled almost the first 30 miles
through a, at times dense, fog.  I saw dim shapes through gray haze.  

The first control is Longbottom's Coffee on the edge of Hillsboro.  We'll have
a volunteer there in case you don't want to wait in line to get your card
stamped.  You may encounter groups from Portland Velo or perhaps the social
SlugVelo riders in this area.  

After the control the route starts to undulate a slight bit until you reach
the "Florida Hill" of the Hwy 26 overpass.  To be safe, stay right until you
reach the actual ramp then cut across to the bridge.  After the crossing
you'll continue north with more mildly rolling terrain and the entry into some
wooded areas.  

Around 25 miles / 40 km you'll pass through North Plains.  Water is
available from a spigot in the city park (noted on route sheet), foodstuffs
and a bathroom at the town's market. If (if? hah!) it's raining on ride day
a wet section lies ahead so this may be a good place to don your raingear.  

Out of town the transition to horse (and sheep and llama) farms and wooded
areas.  The ride up Dairy Creek road features a very mild grade through the
yellows and reds of fall foliage. The woods get denser and denser as you go on
until shortly before the Snoozeville turnaround you'll be under a canopy of
leaves.  

The turnaround itself isn't much to get excited about.  The highlight just may
be a control volunteer or two with hot stuff to drink with sweet and salty stuff
to eat. You'll be able to replenish and prepare yourself for the descent.  

The ride up Dairy Creek and Fern Flat roads is a pleasant 17 mile, 27
km, out and back.  When you follow Mountaindale and then Wilksboro on
your way to Banks you'll rise over a couple of steeply pitched (at least for
this route) rollers they may even hit 6 or 7% grade.  With some luck you'll
spy geese or herons in the lowlands you pass through on this section.  

Banks, at mile 50, km 80, is the last chance to get supplies.  There's
a Thriftway as you get to town, an espresso shop midway though and a Shell
station for water and bathrooms at the north end of town.  

About a mile after Banks the first of the two hills on this route rises
through a tree lined hillside.  It's followed by deep rollers that grow
gentler until you pass through a marshland and make the left onto SR 6.

You're only on the wide, smooth shoulders SR 6 for just over a mile or 1.7
km.  Then you turn onto Stafford for the final climb of the day.  Consistent
with the climbing theme of the day, it it tree lined and goes one for a less
then half a mile.  

When you start the descent on Strohmayer you may be tempted to take the
corners quickly.  They seem like great corners - following the section lines they do
an abrupt 90 degrees with nicely cut banking. Unfortunately the view up the
road is obscured and you can't see oncoming traffic.  Another danger is their
slippery when wet surface.  Be careful in the section, you don't want to crash
with only six miles, 12 km, to go!

A few rollers, the antler barn, and the route arrives at Purdin road.  I
didn't see a sign for Purdin, so watch your odometer.  It is on a corner at
the crest of a hill.  Where "crest" means you get to bomb down at full speed
and burst onto the flatlands for the final little stretch to Verboort, the
finish and the sausage festival.

If you're really lucky the weather will be as nice as it was for the pre-ride. 
Plan on having fenders and lights.  Yes, the ride is scheduled to run entirely
in daylight.  It's likely that visibility will be compromised by fog, rain or
both.  Lights will be more than a good idea for the ride. 


-- 
      Michael Rasmussen, Portland Oregon  
    Be appropriate && Follow your curiosity
http://www.patch.com/words/ or http://fut.patch.com/ 
  The fortune cookie says:
And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the
hour of separation.
		-- Kahlil Gibran