A Summer of bike tours big and small

East Fork Lewis River, Clark County WA, at the old bridge near Heisson

April at Lucia Falls on East Fork Clark River

Moulton Falls

Train at Yacolt WA

Lake Merwin, North Fork Lewis River, Clark/Cowlitz County WA

lava caves near Ape Cave, south side of Mt. St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens above the clouds

So far this summer I've completed two larger tours, my Eastern Oregon odyssey in early June (650 miles), and the Olympic Peninsula in late July (350 miles). But the weather is still nice, and I got the touring itch. So I've been trying to have as many mini-touring adventures as my schedule can allow. And I usually get about 3 days a week off, so when the days off align themselves in a row, I have plenty of time to do some short tours.

So far I've managed to ride out and back to the Oregon Coast with Cycle Wild over the Fourth of July weekend. I was part of an "early crew" (Tomas, Ed, Jon, and myself) who rode the beautiful and quiet Nestucca River Road over the Coast Range and on to Cape Lookout. We came back with the main group via Wilson River Hwy/Route 6, which was quite nasty with all the holiday traffic.

Two weeks ago April and myself made an expedition to the south side of Mt. Saint Helens and explored Ape Cave. Along the way we camped at Battleground Lake and a few Pacific Power facilities along the North Fork Lewis River, and returned via Woodland and La Center.

What's in store next? Well tonight April and I will ride to the Coast! We'll head towards Astoria, using Banks-Vernonia Trail/OR 47/OR 202 to get there. We'll stop at Stub Stewart for the night and spend a couple days at Cape Disappointment, the first time for me.

Around Labor Day we're going to do a Clackamas River/Mt. Hood loop. And September into early October is still good camping weather, so I hope to at least get a Columbia River Gorge excursion in as well.

Fun! Get out there and do a mini-tour of your own before the rains return.