This isn’t the story of a road, it’s the story of a man: Sam Hill.
"Good roads are more than my hobby, they are my religion," Hill said.
His spiritual reverence is absolutely apparent as you descend the Maryhill Loops, constructed in 1909. His approach to good roadbuilding was to bend the roads across the terrain in a way that maintained easy turns and consistent grades of 3-4%.
Read MoreThe Dalles really only has one truly big, fast, awesome road descent of any significant length and 7 Mile Hill is it. You stare down The Dalles and the Columbia River dead-ahead, 1400 feet below as you sweep into the gorgeous, grassy hillsides—then blast at warp speed toward it, only slowing for a few tight switchbacks along the way. After a couple fast minutes, you sweep left alongside the Badger Creek and follow the gurgling brook down to Chenowith.
If you’re lucky, you’ll see a couple of very large dogs.
Read MoreIt’s a paved road in a national forest that goes up (or down) 3,000 feet from folksy, East-Oregon Dufur to foresty Mount Hood National Forest, then down to the Hood River. The descent from the top to Dufur is so long that you’ll literally get bored by how awesome it is. Use it to loop with the extended Skyline or Fivemile or Pleasant Ridge climbs — or keep going and ride it right off the edge of this website and over to 44trails.org.
Read MoreThe working-man's 7 Mile Hill, this is a road I could imagine riding every day if I lived in the Dalles. It sweeps out of a grove of oaks and down through orchards through a series of choice bends. A couple of minutes of fast descending and you’re in The Dalles.
Similar to 7 Mile Hill, I recommend descending this over climbing it, if you can. I usually loop up on the easy Chenowith to Browns Creek climb.
Read MoreYou might be a roadie if… this is the only road you know in The Dalles.
This classic route between The Dalles and Mosier is beloved for its relatively easy grades and its iconic Rowena Loops vista. It works great as a return route to finish off a hard day if you started in Mosier, or just an easy out-and-back to the Rowena Crest.
Like the rest of the Historic Columbia River Highway, the Rowena Loops was designed by Samuel P. Lancaster — in the style of his friend and associate Sam Hill of Maryhill Loops fame — so you KNOW it’s good!
Read MoreRide a couple road rides in The Dalles and I guarantee you’ll end up on Fifteenmile Road pretty quickly. Fifteenmile is the silk road to the East, snaking along Fifteenmile Creek, the largest of all the rivers in the Dalles Watershed. The road connects to everything in the drier, grassier Eastern hills.
My only complaint about Fifteenmile is that it doesn’t continue through along Fifteenmile Creek all the way to Dufur. Private ranch owners must have laid claim to those areas long ago.
In spite of this missed connection, Fifteenmile is still, unarguably, a very long, very mellow, very low-traffic road. And it’ll take you to a lot of places.
Read MoreIt’s long. It’s in a hollow. It’s paved. It’s the easiest way to get up to Center Ridge road. There’s nothing that really sticks out about Long Hollow except that it’s a smooth-as-glass paved road in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no traffic that has amazing views of Mount Adams. If this road was anywhere else, it would be one of the best roads around, but it’s in The Dalles, so it’s only the 23rd-best road around..
Read MoreLike a mirage in the dusty grasslands, Emerson Loop Road cuts a line of smooth tarmac through the rolling palouse hillsides between Eightmile and Fifteenmile creeks. I fondly remember this road as a smooth oasis in a grass desert after rattling my brain out of my skull down Wrentham Market or Roberts Market roads — back in the days of road bikes, rim brakes, and 25mm tires.
If you’re looking for an all-tarmac or mostly-tarmac ride through the open hillsides East of town, this is a great road to include.
Read MoreIf Dry Creek is a laid-back gravel hound, State Road is its over-aggressive, roadie sibling. It traverses from and to the exact same points, but fully paved and with a steep, straight pitch in the middle.
I prefer to ride State road down, and opening ‘er up on the steep section.
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