Derek and I made the short drive out to Tillamook State Forest for this mountain bike ride. What I’m calling Wolf Creek loop is part singletrack, part gravel road. This is one ride I wouldn’t recommend and won’t do again. It was just too much steep climbing.
Wilson River Trail is a great singletrack that spans nearly 20 miles total, paralleling the Wilson River and Highway 6. Our ride started by doing a segment of it heading west from Smith Homestead. This trail is like a roller coaster of punchy little climbs and then fun descents, some switchbacks, lots of twisty turns and a whole lot of greenery. We came across a few hikers on the weekday we rode it and I’m sure there are more on the weekends.
After the singletrack we hung a right on a gravel road and climbed basically forever. It was incredibly steep in places with a max grade of 18.3%. Looking back, this climb was 4.7 miles and 1,997′ of gain. That’s too much and I’m glad we were on mountain bikes because even though they are heavier, I don’t think my gravel bike would have the gearing/traction to get up the steeper pitches. We made a series of turns to get up by Cedar Butte, and then wrapped around for one rip roaring long gravel descent back to the start.
