[ORRando] Kings Valley 400k pre-ride report

Thu May 2 20:51:35 PDT 2013

Thank you.  :)

Sent from my iPhone

On May 2, 2013, at 5:04 PM, Keith Kohan <bike2work2live at yahoo.com> wrote:

Jeff and others,

The 400k route uses HWY 18 not Yamhill River Road.  The roads are a bit different going east to west.  The road from Willamina just naturally flows onto the ramp for HWY 18.  You just stay on the shoulder and end up on 18.  The shoulder narrows down for a short distance and there are rumble strips, but it was still kinda early in the morning so there wasn't much traffic.  I think I rode in the travel lane for a bit to avoid a very narrow section of the shoulder that was almost all rumble strip and loose gravel.  But traffic was very light.

To get on Yamhill River Road from Willamina you have to cut across the ramp then stop at the light.  Then about halfway to Grande Ronde you have to turn right and take the overpass to get on 18.  You can't go down Yamhill River Road to the end and expect to easily get onto 18 there and head west.  That would be very difficult and dangerous.  So even if you use Yamhill River Road you only get to use about half of it before getting on 18 anyway.

I thought about using Yamhill River Road since it's such a pleasant ride, but the route sheet called for using 18 and that's also the shortest way and I'm lazy.

Keith

From: Jeff Arasmith <jeff.arasmith at gmail.com>
To: Keith Kohan <bike2work2live at yahoo.com> 
Cc: Randonneurs Oregon <orrando at orrandonneurs.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 8:58 PM
Subject: Re: [ORRando] Kings Valley 400k pre-ride report

Keith,
Thanks for the informative report.   I was studying the route last week and have a question you might be able to answer.  

Did you ride along Hwy 18 between the Business loop and the casino or use the parallel route on Yamhill River Road that we use on the Three Capes 300?

Thanks,
Jeff

On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 7:20 PM, Keith Kohan <bike2work2live at yahoo.com> wrote:
One advantage of being retired is I have time during the week to pre-ride Brevets AND pick the day I want to do it.  This way I can avoid the rain and the cold.  But I'm a bad picker.  It rained AND it was 37 degrees when I left yesterday when I did the Kings Valley 400k pre-ride.

But you know what?  It turned out to be a great ride anyway.  A lot of that has to do with the beautiful course through the coast range.

The route starts and ends flat. Lots of easy flat cruising all the way down to Grande Ronde.  The climb up and over the coast range there isn't too difficult and the descent on the Little Nestucca Road is beautiful and fun.  Unfortunately the Neskowin store is closed, so there are no services between Grande Ronde and Otis.  Some 38 miles.  Not all that far, but make sure your prepared.

Most of the rain yesterday was before I got to the Slab Creek Road climb after Neskowin.  Another beautiful road and they've repaired some of the really bad spots on the downhill into Otis.

By the time I got to Lincoln City the sun was out so I took the obligatory pictures from the top of the hill by the Inn at Spanish Head.  It was probably particulary beautiful yesterday after riding through the rain to get there.  It only rained a little bit more in spots as I rode on to Siletz.  A steady uphill along the river.  Very little traffic and a bit of a tailwind and smooth pavement made this section particularly enjoyable.

I didn't stop in Siletz this time but kept on to the Logsden store.  For those of you taking a more leisurely pace take note that the Logsden Store closes at 6 PM and the Blodgett store closes at 7 PM. If you're going to miss those closing times be sure to stock up in Siletz because you will find no other services before Monmouth.  Siletz to Monmouth is about 62 miles but there is quite a bit of climbing after Logsden so this section can take a while.  It took me about 4 hours to go from Logsden to Monmouth with a stop in Blodgett to chat.

The sun was out at the Logsden store so I sat at one of their picnic tables and talked with a couple of locals.  Every time I've been to Logsden local people stopping at the store have come up to me and started a conversation.  It's a nice place to stop and rest and it's easy for me to just sit back and let the time slip by there.

The gravel section on Logsden Road seemed a bit more gravelly than in the past.  They seemed to have filled in some of the washboard and smoothed it out a bit.  I didn't have too much difficulty with a 23c tire.

In Monmouth there are a lot of places to get your card signed.  The Burgerville at the turn towards Independence is open until 11 PM.  There's also a Circle K about half way to Independence that is open 24 hours.

The rest of the trip is flat.  At first I was put off by the 4am start time.  But doing the section through Salem and up the valley mostly in the daylight was very nice.  

I hope you love this ride as much as I did and I hope its warmer and dry!

Keith Kohan

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