We thought we might mix it up a little and go for a bike ride instead of a hike today. It was a hot day…the Banks Vernonia Trail is right there and mostly shaded and gorgeous. Perfect. We got the folders out, filled up a few things of water, grabbed our sunglasses and off we went.
If you turned left from Stub Stewart you'd be in Banks, Oregon in about 10 miles, and if you turned right from Stub Stewart you'd be in Vernonia in about 10 miles. We went to Vernonia (and around) and then back…about twenty-five miles on folding bikes. Not too bad!
The trail is gorgeous. What we didn't realize until we were on our way back, however, was that the trail TO Vernonia is very, very slightly downhill. It seemed mostly level to us but it's definitely noticeable that it is NOT level when you're on the way back FROM Vernonia. No big deal really…just that we haven't ridden more than about 5 miles on those little folding bikes before and this was, well…quite a bit more than that.
We're grilling up some chicken tonight and I'm going to try out the new compact blender/smoothie-maker I got for the Airstream by making some fresh gazpacho to go with dinner. If it works like I hope it does, I'll give details about it in another post.
