Western Oregon is laced with logging roads, thousands of kilometres of well-built gravel that almost nobody drives outside the working season. On a wet weekday in August, I saw two trucks in three days.
Rain changes these roads completely. The dust settles, the forest smells of cedar, and the clouds sit low enough in the valleys that every climb ends in fog.
Riding wet, staying warm
The trick is to stop being precious about getting wet and focus on staying warm instead: a thin wool layer, a shell you can open on the climbs, and a dry set of clothes that never leaves its bag until camp.
I rode 210 kilometres on this loop and never once wished it had been sunny.