Permanent #1894 -- Irma Pince

• Distance: 205K
• Elevation: 9,265 feet according to RideWithGPS
• Route
• Cue Sheet
• Registration

Surprisingly, my 19th registered RUSA permanent is my first which comes close to be a "true" 200K that both starts and ends in Portland.

Also surprisingly, none of the previous eighteen routes took advantage of perhaps my single-favorite stretch of road in the greater Portland area -- Pumpkin Ridge to Smoke Ranch, as seen here from a ride report a while ago.

As you can see, the best parts of the ride are unpaved; on this route, about 20 total miles on either gravel or dirt. You can certainly navigate everything on a road bike with narrow tires, but you'll have a better time with some wider rubber between your legs.

It's also a damn hilly route, with a handful of climbs competing for the title of "best part of the ride". Going up a furlong (which I learned was an eighth-mile at bar trivia yesterday) of loose gravel at 12% on Pumpkin Ridge might be a good pick, or there's a similar stretch on the paved Mountain View Road which is particularly painful since it comes just two miles after a quick control stop in Scappoose.

After Canaan Rd spits you out on Highway 30 at the Deer Island mini-market, your last 45 miles of the day will all be dead-flat. A loop around the east backside of Scappoose gives you some lovely quiet miles instead of the usual bustle of 30 (and is needed to put the route over 200K), but then it's back on the highway and returning to SE Portland.

Permanent #1586 -- Cornelius Fudge

• Distance: 130K
• Elevation: 5,418 feet according to RideWithGPS
• Route
• Cue sheet
• Registration

If the previous Flitwick route takes a meandering path towards the coast, this one is about as direct as possible. Same startpoint at Holgate, but you'll tackle the west hills on Cornell/Thompson rather than through the zoo, then quickly turn off Skyline to take some boring but reliable suburban roads (Laidlaw, West Union) towards North Plains. After a control stop there, it's straight west again on some backroads that dump you onto Gales Creek Road before it meets up with Highway 6.

You'll take Highway 6 for basically its entirety. Because it's the most convenient coast route out of Portland, it's well-traveled by bike campers and tourers, and it has a decent (not amazing) shoulder. Traffic is moderate (not amazing), including some commercial trucks and vacationing RVs. It does get drastically worse on three warm-weather holidays -- Labor Day, 4th of July, Memorial Day -- so I wouldn't recommend taking it by bike on any of those weekends. Otherwise, should be fine.

This one ends in Tillamook rather than Netarts, and I forget why I decided that. The highest pass on Highway 6 comes just nine miles or so after you join it, then you can cruise at a good pace for the rest of the way into Tillamook. If you can time it right so traffic is low, the road is absolutely gorgeous, and definitely worth traveling at least once.

Both permanents are reversible, but I haven't yet written up cue sheets for anyone who wants to use them going in the opposite direction. There is a bus service from Portland to Tillamook -- leaves Tillamook at 8:10 a.m. and 12:25 pm, or leaves Portland (from the train station) at 10:35 a.m. or 3:15 p.m.

Permanent #1585 -- Filius Flitwick

• Distance: 211K
• Elevation: 10,140 feet according to RideWithGPS
• Route
• Cue sheet
• Registration

This one is a bit of a challenge -- starts off quickly by taking you up through Washington Park and past the zoo, then almost all the way north on Skyline before dropping back down into North Plains via Moreland/Solberger (3K feet of elevation in first 28 miles). The next stretch is quite a bit more mild, though, taking familiar OR Randonneurs roads through Forest Grove then south to Carlton (mile 65).

You'll probably want to stock up on snacks and water here, since there's no services available for the next 45 miles, and you'll be tackling one of the tougher coast range passes in northern Oregon. Main Street becomes Meadow Lake Road as you go west out of town. You get a few flat miles before the real fun begins -- from ~350 feet of elevation at milepoint 70, all the way up to just under 2,000 feet by mile 79.

At about that point, you go by McGuire Reservior (it'll look damn tempting for a dip on a hot summer day, but the big tall chainlink fence around it tells you otherwise) and start to follow Nestucca River Road for most of the way until you reach Highway 101. There's a few campgrounds along the way (may or may not have toilets or potable water), and one three-mile stretch of gravel around mile 90 that's, in my experience, fairly hard-packed but also pothole-y.

You rejoin civilization of sorts in the lovely town of Beaver, OR. A Shell station/market is probably your best bet for any supplies you might need for the last twenty miles of the day (there's a few other businesses, but the Shell is the only one I've seen be consistently open for business).

Three-ish miles north on 101, then left onto Sandlake Road... which means, of course, a climb over Cape Lookout. Not too hard, but it's enough to push your day's total elevation gain over 10K so it might not be too enjoyable. From there, a descent down to Netarts Bay, then six flat waterfront miles into the endpoint in Netarts, OR.