Permanent #2600 -- Fred Weasley Populaire

• Distance: 122K
• Elevation: 2600 feet according to RideWithGPS
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If you have time to do one day of biking in or around Yakima, this might be your best bet -- WA-821 a.k.a. Canyon Road offers some of the best riding and scenery in the area.

It's a simple out-and-back, through Selah to the turnaround in Ellensburg. The 821 follows the Yakima River for most of its 25-mile duration and is generally flat, with one hill near the southern end of the route that climbs up about 350 feet.

The canyon has several parks/campsites/rec areas, though as far as I know there's no drinking water available at any of them. In the summer, it'll be quite hot, and you'll quickly go through two bottles' worth of water -- a lesson I learned the hard way the first time I traveled this stretch in near triple-degree heat. So, leave Ellensburg with an extra little bottle of water in the summer, and you'll be totally fine.

While it's not at all drinkable, the Yakima River does provide some great cooling spots. Most of the parks along the river have boat launches, so you can bike right down to the river and dip your toes... ankles... knees... well, as much cooling as you'd want.

The worst traffic is from around the truck stop/fast food options for your turnaround in Ellensburg. The canyon itself is generally great for riding -- hardly silent or remote, but with plenty of shoulder space and a light mix of commercial traffic, local travelers, and all sorts of recreational visitors (fishers, birdwatchers, boaters, campers, and more!)

Permanent #2579 -- Minerva McGonagall Populaire

• Distance: 100K
• Elevation: 2600 feet according to RideWithGPS
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Several months later, a new permanent in Yakima!

This is exactly a 100K, starting and ending on Nob Hill Blvd in the west part of town (near my home, obviously). Goes further west to the boundary of the Ahtanum State Forest, on a gradual climb up to 3,000 feet elevation.

I rode the route (or at least the general area) a couple times shortly after moving here in the fall, then checked it out again last week during a surprising warm spell. The weather now is back down to mid 30s at best, so the road conditions are certainly iffy -- but the roads aren't permanently closed in winter or anything, so it's technically a route that's open year-round... so long as you can find a period of nice weather.

This 100K certainly has the potential to be a fast one. There's maybe four or five intersections with a stoplight or sign and, while you do go up from a starting 1100ft to nearly 3200ft elevation, the climbs are all super gradual. Back in August, for reference, I did the full course (way before submitting it as a permanent, so no card or credit) in 3:33 elapsed time... about 50 minutes faster than any other 100K I've ever done.

I can't promise you the same results, of course, but it's a fun and easy one that's waiting for you next time you're in central Washington!

Permanent #1893 -- Stan Shunpike

• Distance: 133K
• Elevation: 6,050 feet according to RideWithGPS
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Sometimes a 100K is too short of a ride, but a 200K is too long. Oh no!

Thanks to years of hard science research, I've unearthed a solution -- an in-between distance!

This one is 133K, or 82 miles. About 35 of them are on the Springwater Corridor, so if you do this ride on a sunny weekend afternoon, expect a variety of dogs, bikes, and walkers as company.

The real heart of it, though, comes from two hilly loops east of Estacada and south of Sandy. The first takes you out on Wildcat Mountain Rd -- a lovely road which continues into the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness south of Mt Hood -- on mostly sustained medium-low grades until a final little 10% kicker gets you to the info control at 452nd Ave.

From there, you get to rip down the Kitzmiller Rd descent into Eagle Fern Park. Southeast of there you make a loop of George / Clausen Rd, with a 1300-foot climb in about seven miles.

Once you leave Boring, the route is minimally serviced -- Eagle Fern Park should have running water, although I've been bitten too many times by unreliable parks dept. maintenance.

Permanent #1650 -- Cuthbert Binns

• Distance: 110K
• Elevation: 1,200 feet (according to RideWithGPS)
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On the opposite end of the terrain spectrum from Horace Slughorn 100K, there's this ride. 68 miles, and the highest point of elevation is the 9th Ave pedestrian crossing over Powell Blvd. Thank you, Sauvie Island!

It's a rather ridiculously simple route -- out Highway 30, onto Sauvie, over to an info control out-and-back on the island, then another info control out-and-back, then back onto 30 and home.

Any semi-fast rider could easily find themselves up against the minimum time limit (3h40m); or, you could take a two-hour picnic on Sauvie and still finish in time without feeling rushed at all. Me, I'll probably use this as a training route of sorts, a nice way to get more comfortable keeping up an 18mph pace for several consecutive hours.

Permanent #1875 -- The Bloody Baron

#1875 -- The Bloody Baron

• Distance: 172K
• Elevation: 8,261 feet according to RideWithGPS
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This one is, at least in parts, positively Rapha-esque. After a straightforward route from SE Portland to Camas, you head north and, though you'll never really be more than 20 miles from the suburbs, you'll feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.

You use L-1000 and Dole Valley Rd to carve a winding path up towards Amboy, in the foothills of Larch Mountain (no, not THAT Larch Mountain, nor the other Larch which you see signs for off OR-6). This route tops out at just under 2,000 feet of elevation, and my favorite, though usually inaccurate, route mapping site guesses there's over 6,000 feet of climbing in the middle fifty miles of this route.

There really isn't much civilization between Camas and Yacolt (the small town just south of the turnaround in Amboy), and with some rather rough gravel roads you should plan accordingly with clothing, food, and tools. I think the only quasi-commercial building you'll pass over a 20-ish mile stretch is a jail, and that's not exactly where you want to pull up to beg to use their phone if you have a mechanical failure.

There's about 15 miles of gravel in each direction -- heading north, they're mostly (but not entirely) downhill (with some rather steep grades in spots); on the return trip, you get, well, the opposite. Different riders will find one or the other to be preferable. I'd recommend riding it with at least 30mm tires, and will be using 40+mm myself, though if you're comfortable and familiar with gravel on a road bike it's doable on anything.

So -- if you've grown tired of Dixie Mountain and Otto Miller, head up over the I-205 bridge and check this one out.

Permanent #1706 -- Ludo Bagman

After our success -- in some sick sense of the word -- on the 712K two weeks ago, I was resolved to use Foss Road a hell of a lot more, and that led to two new permanent submissions. First, a simple out-and-back ride from Netarts; second, a Portland-to-Netarts commute that goes through Birkenfeld and is my third such one-way perm between those two points, along with a Nestucca River trip and the most direct Highway 6 route.

• Distance: 157K
• Elevation: 5,763 feet according to RideWithGPS
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Foss... it'll definitely keep you on your toes.

On the 700K, we hit this right at sunrise, at mile ~330 on two hours of sleep, and it was like manna from heaven. No drifting off to sleep when you're darting (and, once or twice bunnyhopping) basketball-sized potholes and chunks of dying pavement. Lots of darting up and down 30 or 50 or 100 feet at a time, one nigh unrideable wall that seemed like a 20% grade, then a more mellow stretch to get to Henry Rierson campground, which'll be the turnaround for this 157K.

The campsite has drinkable water and some pit toilets, though I can't 100% guarantee that either will be in service year-round. There's another campground much earlier on Foss -- mile 34 on my cue sheet -- which claims to have drinking water, but I've been burnt before by relying on never-updated county and state park websites, so... I'll assume it's not there 'til I can roll by and inspect in-person.

To get to the awesometastic gravel stretch, it's a really simple route -- Netarts into Tillamook, north on 101, then inland for Miami-Foley Road. Pavement ends right after the recently reopened bridge over the Nehalem River (though the washed-away railroad in the same spot has not been repaired), seven miles after you turn off Miami-Foley.

Bring plenty of snacks and water, some wide-ish tires (David rode this on Nomad 28s and was quite happy), and you'll love it.