jeff@work

I've been trying to make an effort to get out and see more of the state this year. I knew Detroit Lake is a beautiful area so I figured I'd give this one a whirl. My endurance this year has been pretty good so I decided to go for an out and back of the full distance, wound up with 140 miles and 9000 feet of climbing... yes I did almost fall out of my car when i got home

Ride Oregon does an awesome job with their guides and write ups, you can read about this one here: Cascading Rivers Scenic Bikeway - Ride Oregon Ride

The scenery riding out of Detroit is just gorgeous, heavily forested, you see the river quite a bit, very low traffic, and the road is in excellent condition. It's a gradual climb with a few rollers before kicking up to a serious climb for a couple miles that had me taking advantage of the 28 on my cassette. Once you crest the top to be honest it gets a bit boring... you have flat/ very gradual descent for several miles where it's a fairly straight road lined with trees... not much to really see but don't be deterred... you eventually descend back down so you're riding in more of the temperate rain forest and following the rivers and creeks for most of the remainder of the ride. At around 45ish miles in you pass the Ripplebrook Camp Store which offers some snacks and food, you can also refill your water bottles, there's a faucet a few feet to the right of the font door.

After about 50 miles the road changes a bit... you come into a higher traffic area and the quality of the road drops considerably. If i was to do it again I'd turn around here... there's still nice scenery to be had by continuing on but I don't feel it's worth taking on the extra 40 miles round trip. Maybe once Farady Road is reopened I'd reconsider as that looks like a pretty cool route that drops down away from the traffic and follows the river for a few miles.

Overall a fun ride with some beautiful scenery, only saw 3 other cyclists out which was a bit disappointing but also got thumbs up from 3 different cars which was pretty cool! If you're in the area I'd recommend checking it out but I'd lean towards skipping that first 20 miles or so out of Estacada.





I didn't take a ton but the rest of the pictures are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...5301319&type=3

trainsktg

That's a nice write-up. I hadn't heard of this route before.

keith

enigmaT120

Did you see many motorcyclists? I've been that way a couple of times on mine. If it's the road I'm thinking of.... Did you go past some hot springs in the river? If so, I've heard to not go in them. Too hot, and on private land anyway. Though I don't think you can own a river.

jeff@work

Thanks Keith.

Ed, I saw a TON of motorcyclists, lots of guys on adventure bike setups... i was a little jealous on the climbs... ha I didn't notice any hot springs right along the river... granted I might have just missed them. There is Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat about 10 miles outside of Detroit but it was down a gravel road so I didn't check it out.

enigmaT120

The last time I rode that way it was near freezing, so the steam from the hot springs was really obvious.

Since that road is paved all the way, I always expect more sport bikes than I see. There is a gravel road that links to the north-east, around some lakes, and over to the Mount Hood highway. That would be a good bicycle route, too, I think. All way too far off for me, and now I suppose with fire season I'm not supposed to be bicycling up the logging roads in my area for the rest of the summer. That sucks.