Roads — The Dalles Roads

#20: Center Ridge Road • 7.9 mi • 380 ft • paved and gravel

Sure, you could say that Center Ridge Road is just a road on top of a ridge that’s half-paved, half-gravel, and connects a bunch of other roads together. And you’d be right.

But Center Ridge is definitely noteworthy on its own on its own. It traverses a high triangle between the watersheds of the Deschutes River, the White River and 15 Mile Creek — and you can see for many, many miles in every direction. On a good day, you can see Mt Jefferson, Mt Hood, Mt Adams, Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier and Goat Rocks. On a bad day, it’s hot or windy or cold or storming or all of the above.

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Gravel and Paved

#21: Fifteenmile Road • 19.4 mi • 1528 ft • paved

Ride 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.

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Paved

#22: Mill Creek Lookout/Mill Creek Ridge • 7 mi • gravel, dirt, downed trees

Mill Creek Lookout breaks off of the end of Mill Creek Road onto a rugged path and claws its way from the bottom of the valley onto the ridge top that’s been sharpened over the millennia by the north and south forks of Mill Creek running parallel on either side. It’s remote, 4-wheelers-and-shotgun-shells territory up here, so make sure you have everything you need in the event of a double-flat-broken-derailleur-type scenario.

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Extreme Gravel

#23: Long Hollow Market Road • 6.5 mi • 1296 ft • paved

It’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..

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Paved

#24: Emerson Loop Road • 10.6 mi • 1046 ft • paved

Like 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.

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Paved

#25: Mill Creek Road • 14.1 mi • 2154 ft • gravel, paved

Mill Creek departs from more or less the center of The Dalles, follows Mill Creek into a forest, then ascends all the way to the the top of the ridgeline above.

The road is mostly an easy spin along the creek. Eventually the pavement ends… “and the West begins.” Continue through onto Mill Creek Ridge road if you want to exit human civilization for a world of four-wheeler tracks, shotgun shells, abandoned cars. I once stopped early into a ride on Mill Creel at the Sandoz Farm stand and bought teriyaki pork jerky. I was glad to have it, hours later, as I lugged my bike over tree after tree on Mill Creek Ridge.

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Gravel and Paved

#26: Easton Canyon Road • 6.9 mi • 1562 ft • gravel, paved

This road used to get a steady stream of cyclists coming through once a year during the Oregon Stampede, but it’s mostly quiet the rest of the time. It’s the most direct route from Dufur to Center Ridge — a crushed gravel grind up a steady 6% climb.

I met one of my best riding buddies climbing up this road one year. Another year, on a particularly hot day, a group of us had to stop 2/3 up the hill and lay in a tiny sliver of shade cast by a low shrub. It’s also great as a downhill, although it never left any indelible memories.

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Gravel

#27: Fax Road • 4 mi • 503 ft • Gravel

Short but mighty, State Road offers smooth sailing back toward the Dalles after the white-knuckle descent down Hastings Ridge. This road gives you a short glimpse of what could have been if Fifteenmile Road continued the length of its namesake creek all the way to Dufur.

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Gravel

#26: Chenowith Road • 6.7 mi • 1951 ft • paved, gravel

Chenowith Road has three distinct sections. The bottom mile or so it’s a busy (by Dalles standards) road to the town of Chenowith. The next couple miles are tranquil tarmac in a nice valley next to an improbable miniature airport. As soon as the pavement ends, about halfway, the road turns brutally steep, and the surface gets loose and rocky.

I make a point of only riding down the steep part of Chenoweth as it drops into town from Ketchum Road. It’s tough enough going down — I can’t imagine what it’s like going up. But if you want to get up to the beautiful, ridge-top savanna of Ketchum as directly as possible, this is the way!

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Gravel and Paved

#29: State Road • 5.2 mi • 1244 ft

If 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.

David BoernerJune 26, 2019Paved