# Riding the Banks-Vernonia Trail in Oregon



## zpl (May 7, 2007)

Some friends and I got together for another ride this past weekend. We wanted to try something different, and some members of the group have a strong preference for MUPs, so we decided to ride the Banks-Vernonia trail, which is a gorgeous and smoothly paved path that runs for 21 miles between the small towns of Banks and Vernonia in Oregon. 

The plan was to drive out to the trailhead in Banks, ride to the end of the trail in Vernonia, have lunch, and head back to the start of the trail in Banks. Then Eric, Chris, and Anthony would do the out-and-back again. Don and I skipped the second ride out to Vernonia and instead rode to Hillsboro, where I then continued home to Portland. All said and done I clocked 78 miles on Saturday. I doubt I could have spent the day any better. 













































This was a cool trestle bridge, and on our way back I took a short video of us crossing it: https://vimeo.com/44201723



























In Vernonia we stopped at the Blue House Cafe for lunch. The food was great but service was pretty slow.









Fuel for the return trip.









This gave me a good laugh.









Right around Tophill there are some really steep switchbacks. They appear pretty suddenly, so be careful when descending them. 









That's Mount Hood in the distance.









Riding through Hillsboro, OR









The Nike campus has a nice bike path that can get you between two major roads. This is a mural they have.

I also took another short video of the group descending which was pretty fun: https://vimeo.com/44201427

Enjoy,

Scott


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## Meat Foot (Jul 13, 2005)

Looks cool. This MUP/rails to trails is on my to do list. Thanks for the pics.


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Nice photoshop on the blue sky! :yikes:


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