I’m running out of things to say about all the remote gravel routes we keep riding. Derek mapped out this one so that we’d swing by and see National Falls first and then climb up onto a huge ridge before looping around on some moto trails to return to the start. Our ride was 26.1 miles with 2,952′ of climbing.
This ride starts right off Highway 230 by National Falls. We rode mountain bikes because we planned to check out some moto trails that you would NEVER want to ride on a proper gravel bike. If you skipped the trail and stayed to the gravel roads, a gravel bike would be fine. The first part to the falls is paved and zippy. Bikes aren’t allowed on the short trail down so we ditched them and hiked down. It’s an easy enough hike even in cycling shoes and worth it to see the falls.
Back on our bikes we continued to gravel and wow, there is NOBODY out here. It’s a maze of gravel roads and mixed conifer forest everywhere. The official climb up by Minnehaha Ridge was around 7 miles and 1700′ as it winds uphill. The fire that blazed through here a couple years ago is apparent when you get up and see all the dead trees and burn area. What’s also visible is Mt Thielsen! Thielsen is a 9,184′ shield volcano that is appropriately referred to as one of Oregon’s Matterhorns.
It was a fairly hot day and the water that seemed to seep out of the hillside all over looked so refreshing that I had to hop off and soak my feet. I’m not sure if it’s spring water or what. After my refresher we climbed to the tippy top and found the trail we were looking for. This is not a beginner trail. It’s loose, extremely rough and what I’ll refer to as chundery. It’s twisty and narrow in spots, dark from all the tree cover, and fun. This is an optional add on, you could stay on the gravel and skip the trail. Not us though.
The days are getting cooler and snow is in the forecast for the end of the week! We’ll see about that.
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