Permanent #1876 -- Kingsley Shacklebolt

• Distance: 410K
• Elevation: 12,179 feet according to RideWithGPS
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Ever thought to yourself, "Hey, I want to go to Seattle for a weekend, but I'm tired of riding the traditional STP route and don't want to pay for Amtrak fare?" Well, here's one for you!

This basically pieces together two of the brevets I did last year -- ORR's Olney Gothic Logger 300 and the last hundred or so miles of SIR's spring 400K.

You start in Portland and end in Bremerton. Assuming you want to get across the water to Seattle itself, you'll need to plan the ride so you can finish and hop on the ferry, which runs roughly once an hour between 6am and 11pm. Of course, this route can also be used in reverse, though I haven't yet written out a cue sheet for that way.

If you go north, you'll get the ride's only two semi-tough climbs out of the way in the first third of the ride. Highway 30 to Scappoose is, of course, totally flat, before heading over a lumpy Scappoose-Vernonia Highway that goes up to about 1,400 feet. There's also a great dirt path/trail/road which parallels this that I'd highly recommend as an alternative routing with the exact same distance.

From there, it's pretty familiar Oregon Randonneur territory -- out OR-47 then continue on OR-202, past the Birkenfeld store and towards Astoria. You do get back up to 1,200 feet or so when you go over the coast range, but it's a pretty relaxed climb, and on a backroads area with very little traffic.

After descending all the way down to just 70 feet and rolling through lovely Olney, OR, you continue into Astoria, where the rather terrible Astoria-Megler bridge awaits. It's long, nearly shoulderless, and usually windy. It's also well-signed for bicycles. Ride it, wait for it to be over, then enjoy continuing the rest of your ride on solid and wide roads.

Head north on WA-4, then meet back up with 101, which you'll take for a full fifty miles before turning inland at Montesano. Unfortunately you don't get many actual ocean coast miles, but it's still a nice semi-remote highway.

From Montesano, you roughly follow alongside -- but thankfully not on -- WA-12, on backroads through towns like Brady, Satsop, Elma, and McCleary. At mile 209 in Kamilche, you rejoin 101 (which is much busier here) briefly, heading for Shelton then WA-3 which takes you most of the way to the ferry.

After the Oregon Coast range, you never go back up over 500 feet of elevation. As is one of the perks of one-way rides, you can plan your trip and hope to get about 200 miles of tailwind riding (usually out of the south in winter/early spring, out of the north for summer/early fall).

Do keep in mind service options and availability for late-night riding -- there's a convenient 24-hour Safeway in Shelton at mile 216, but otherwise you might face long stretches without food available.

Permanent #1707 -- Gellert Grindenwald

• Distance: 224K
• Elevation: 7,705 feet according to RideWithGPS
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If a bird flew due west from Sellwood, it'd hit Netarts in right around sixty miles. Taking Highway 6 along the Wilson River makes it about eighty. Going the super-long caret-shaped (i.e, the symbol above the "6" on your keyboard) for this scenic route makes it just under a hundred and forty.

To get towards Birkenfeld, you have two options, and I chose to use Highway 30 and Scappoose-Vernonia Road rather than misc roads through the west hills and North Plains. This way is a good bit shorter, slightly flatter, and offers you a chance to ride on the Crown-Zellerbach dirt road which parallels the S-V. The high point there is around 1300 feet, so check snow levels and road conditions if you want to ride in wintertime.

After a well-traveled stretch of 47 & 202, Birkenfeld falls almost exactly at the 100km point. The little general store there recently stopped selling liquor, so you can't grab a mid-ride pull of Bulleit, but they make great hot sandwiches and have the usual market fare (chips, soda, candy).

A bit later, you get to ride the entire 9-mile duration of Highway 103, and there's another market available once you come out on 26. You do spend about three downhill miles on the rather busy and narrow-shouldered 26, but it's certainly survivable.

From there, it's maybe five miles from 26 to Henry Rierson (at mile 97), and then the gravel fun begins. The conclusion is obviously the same as #1706 -- Foss to Miami-Foley to 101 to Tillamook to Netarts. Fun stuff!

Permanent #1691 -- Grawp

Beautiful, isn't it?

This is my twelfth registered permanent, a multiday whopper designed to take advantage of two things: first, a RUSA rule which relaxes the time limit for rides >700K; and second, my grandmother's big lovely house in Oceanside that would serve perfectly as a mid-ride overnight rest stop.

Thus, time to introduce: GRAWP.

• Distance: 712K
• Elevation: 25,832 feet according to RideWithGPS
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It's enormous and awesome -- the name selection was pretty easy.

This is the end product of basically throwing a bunch of my favorite roads onto a map and finding a way to get them to stick together.

The initial southwest-bound crawl out of Portland is pretty straightforward -- taking well-traveled roads through Oregon City and Canby, then joining up with the official Willamette Valley scenic bike route and crossing over the Independence Bridge.

I aped the Independence-Kings Valley connection from Joshua's 600, then used the gravel Hoskins Rd to get over to Logsden which I last traveled on 2011's coast 600K. The seventy or so following miles are almost the same as what was used for Susan's ride, just reversed and extended out to Bear Creek Rd rather than a longish stretch of Hwy 101 towards Pacific City.

In Pacific City, you make a U-turn to go back and take Little Nestucca River Rd and Hebo Rd up to Willamina (this stretch lifted from the Three Capes 300K). Whereas that ride ducks back towards Forest Grove, mine sends you straight north out of Willamina for the toughest climb of the ride, towards Bible Creek Rd and a connection with Nestucca River Rd.

Going north over Cape Lookout is only about a 600-foot climb, nothing too outrageous, but watch for poorly maintained pavement. After passing through Netarts and Oceanside, my same comment applies for Cape Meares.

Stock up on food at the 24-hour (edit: closes at 1am) Tillamook Safeway, since you'll have a rather remote stretch on Miami-Foley Rd then the newly reopened Foss Rd (now with intact bridge!). Foss is about eighteen miles of rough gravel -- just what everyone wants to see at mile 320!

There's a restaurant and market on the short stretch of Highway 26 you need to use to connect to Hwy 103, which will likely be much-needed after the gravel stretch. Or, you can make that stop a relatively quick one and instead get a longer sit-down meal at the always-popular Birkenfeld store, about twenty miles later.

Unfortunately, the route just wasn't quite long enough if I used the Banks-Vernonia Trail, so instead you take a longer way back via Timber Rd. The final stretch is straightforward and well-used -- Clapshaw Hill, West Union, Laidlaw, Thompson, and Cornell.

Then, voilà, 712K done!

David and I will be riding this starting 5pm on Friday (yes, that's October 20). Overnight lows in the 40s, 30% chance of rain in most places along the route. Should be... interesting, if nothing else.