Originally Posted by
rlmalisz
From Hillsboro, there's a designated scenic bikeway route to get to Banks and connect with the BVT. However....what will you be riding? Road bike, or something that will handle semi-rough trails? I ask because the BVT ends at Vernonia. There's the Scappoose-Vernonia highway to get to US30, but I've driven it and wouldn't describe it as a great bike route.
When I've headed to Astoria via the Banks-Vernonia Trail, I continued from Vernonia via OR 47 then to OR 202. It's a pretty pleasant ride with low traffic and one climb over the Coast Range. I'd do that rather than 47/30.
One thing to take into consideration if going this route is where to stay. It's about 100 miles from the Hatfield MAX in Hillsboro to Astoria via this route. There's camping at Stub Stewart (20ish miles in), in Vernonia (30ish miles in), and at Big Eddy campground (40ish miles in.) As far as I know, there's no legal camping after that on the route, though there is a horse camp (Northrup Creek) several miles off of 202, and since the road passes through a bit of Clatsop State Forest, one could probably bush camp there. And Fort Stevens campground near Astoria adds about 10 miles on top of the main route.
Originally Posted by
rlmalisz
And you probably already knew that there's a several-mile chunk of the Nestucca River Road that's unpaved. I've ridden it on a skinny tire road bike many years back, and while it was doable, it wasn't tons of fun.
I've done it on tires in the 35mm wide range and didn't have issues. One positive thing about the couple miles of gravel is it keeps traffic volumes fairly low.