[OrRando] Newberg-Newport Perms....

[Susan France]

I wanted to give everyone an update on a perm route I rode a week ago. It is
the Newport-Nashville-Newberg route of 200k. The route has 6300 elev gain. I
also did the Newberg-Newport route but those roads are probably more
familiar to all.

It starts out on the Yaquina Bay road which is always nice. A wee bit of a
spur into Toledo to an info control to get the appropriate distance. Then
you travel north to Siletz. I noticed a Dan Henry for the Lighthouse Century
so I decided to check out the road. It was really nice, a little extra
distance and extra climbing but worth it to get off onto a road with
absolutely no traffic. From Siletz you head east on Logsden Rd. It was the
most perfect road. Recently paved with a 4 foot shoulder and no traffic. It
follows the Siletz River so only slight climbing. I thought I was in cycling
heaven. Logsden store/PO/general store was very well stocked. The only thing
out here in the Siletz Valley. A super friendly Yellow Lab puppy will come
out to greet you... things are slow in the Siletz Valley. At Milepost 18
there was a "Pavement Ends" sign. The road was suppose to be paved the whole
way so now I wondered how much gravel I would have. 3/4 mile uphill with
mostly hard-pack gravel. I did walk a little bit with my 25c tires. The
downhill was another 3/4 mile, very steep, curvy and loose. I needed to walk
a bit more of this and even walking at times was tricky. (I've been known to
fall down walking on gravel roads as I seem to be less coordinated than most
folks) After the gravel the road goes through several very small communities
with no services. Nashville is only an abandoned store. Summit has a Grange.
At time the road was very potholed but it was beautiful, quiet and rolling.
Only a few log trucks passed me and they were all quite polite. The quiet
roads end at Blodgett on Hwy 20. A store here with plenty of choices. The
next 5 miles on 20 was busy and noisy with trucks, but the shoulder is
mostly 10 feet wide and the road downhill for the most part. (I wouldn't
recommend hwy 20 from the coast with such a quiet route just to the North.)
The route then head north on Kings Valley Hwy at Wren. The hwy was busier
than I liked with gravel and log trucks and no shoulder, but it was a
weekday. I suspect it's much better on the weekends. Lots of ups and downs
on this road. There were small stores maybe 2 along the route. I remember
one in Kings Valley and somewhere else??? It features a lot of Oak trees, a
covered bridge park, some wetlands area. I also noticed Salem Bicycle Club
Dan Henry's so I was on one of their event rides...not sure which. This
would probably be quite nice for a fall ride. The road got busier into
Dallas but I was also coming up on afternoon commuter traffic.

The roads back to Newberg from Dallas were all familiar, I had a tailwind
and a tractor to pace behind so it seemed to go quickly.

Nice route. I'd recommend the combination Newberg-Nestucca-Newport and
Newport-Nashville-Newberg for a nice tour. For this one I had my son and his
girlfriend drive to Newport and set up camp. I took a day off between the
two perms to just hang out at the beach. Kiehl was also kind enough to leave
me a vehicle in downtown Newberg so I wouldn't need to finish my perm with a
5-mile 1200 foot climb home...The extra 5 miles was OK on the way out!

Susan.