A weekend in Dufur: Dufur Valley Road

July 7, 2019

So before we go out for today’s ride up Dufur Valley, we have two news items to report:

It’s our anniversary! Rachael had to remind me this morning when she came down to the lobby. 31 years! Completely amazing - what a run we’ve had. Thanks, Rocky!
We received this link from Frank in the morning mail, and feel inspired by it. We’re changing our plans for next year and will be entering the Mountain of Hell bike race. We’ve been wanting to go back to the French Alps again but weren’t sure we could still do the climbs, so this is perfect - we’ll just start at the top and glide down. Rachael’s excited about putting up some good video for us, and is already thinking up lyrics for her singalong.

Our day gets off to a fine start, with us waiting in the lobby for the coffee to arrive. Yesterday there were probably twenty guests in the hotel, but it’s quite quiet this morning. The cook comes out to ask what we’d like, so we get a custom order rather than the smorgasbord we grazed on yesterday. We enjoyed a great breakfast: bacon, scrambled eggs, granola, fresh fruit, muffins - just the thing for the ride we have planned.

For your consideration. Bike friendly, excellent breakfast, at the nexus of some of the best cycling roads in the region.

You can head out from Dufur in any direction and find great riding. Saturday we went southeast up Central Ridge, and yesterday is was south up Tygh Ridge. There are great rides to the north as well, down Eight Mile and Fifteen Mile Creek; and longer rides to the south toward White River Falls and Maupin beckon too. Really, you could spend the better part of a week right here.

Today though, we’re heading straight west, up Dufur Valley. A climb awaits.

Happy Anniversary, love! Let’s go climb a hill!

We’ve ridden Dufur valley twice now, if my memory serves correctly. Both of the previous times were as part of a two or three day loop through Dufur, Hood River and The Dalles. We began in Dufur after driving over from Portland in the morning and parking the car in town here. The first day was a ride west up Dufur Valley to the crest, and then dropping down to Highway 35 and passing through Parkdale and Odell on our way down to Hood River. It’s a pretty healthy ride - it’s a nineteen mile, 3,300’ climb to the divide, followed by a long drop through the upper Hood River Valley. 55 miles, 4,500’ of climbing - we definitely earned our stop for huckleberry ice cream in Parkdale and a good dinner in Hood River.

When I think back on those earlier rides, I remember the awesome views of Mount Hood we got after crossing the saddle - as the crow flies, we’re only a few miles from Cooper Spur as we descend toward the highway. The plan for today is to climb to the summit and then about a mile or so down the other side, to the first spot where we get the views. In my map reading, that looks like about where we converge with NF-44 and drop steeply into Dog River Canyon. Views or not, we’ll stop there because after that the descent gets serious and we won’t like turning back and climbing out again.

The ride is just as I remember it, at first. The valley east of Dufur is really beautiful, and draws you right in as you gradually climb Fifteen Mile Creek through golden wheat fields, with Mount Hood ahead to lure you on. About five miles on, the creek divides - Fifteen Mile climbs to the Southwest, but our road goes northwest up Ramsey Creek before dividing yet again. We’ve only climbed a few hundred feet so far but the real work starts here, as we pull away from Ramsey Creek to the crest of the ridge to its north.

It’s still here, or a newer one just like it. I took a photo of this birdhouse when we first biked this road, probably more than twenty years ago now. I’ll have to hunt down that old photo and compare the two. I’m certain it was taken at the same spot, at the high point of a rise and bend in the road.

A view that inspires you to ride. Today’s route passes those two knolls at the center and then angles to the right along Ramsey Creek. After that, it’s all uphill for the next fifteen miles.

L'herbe est plus verte de l'autre côté, as the French like to say.

The first five miles are an easy ride, climbing gradually until we reach the branching of Ramsey and Fifteen Mile Creeks.

The photos don’t quite capture it, but it is so golden now! I don’t think we’ve biked here at quite this season before, but it is really breathtaking.

We’re gradually seeing more lavender fields like this up here in the northwest. It won’t be long before folks are streaming here in the summer instead of that overhyped Provence.

Almost immediately after rising up from Ramsey Creek the ride changes - we leave the wheat fields behind and soon are biking through scrubby oaks and then a lovely ponderosa/white oak forest. Another mile and we cross the national forest boundary and lose all of the views - it’s just us, the forest, and the climb for the next fifteen miles.

I really like having the GPS on the bike on climbs like this. There are so many mind games I can play to keep myself going - counting down the miles, counting down the remaining elevation gain. I’m very number-oriented, and tend to count down the remaining work according to some theme. When we were bridge players, I would start mentally working through a deck of cards once I got to some multiple of 52 (52 miles to go; 520 feet of climbing left; whatever). Lately, I’ve gotten fixed on squared integers - I’m down to 12 squared (1440 feet of climbing left); 11 squared (1210’ remaining). Pretty silly, but whatever works for you.

I’m feeling good about this climb today - it’s coming pretty easy, and we’ve just gone under eight squared when Rachael stops for a break with six hundred feet of climbing. As we start up again, she encouragingly says there’s only sixteen hundred feet left.

What? I think back and realize I’ve been wrong all morning - it’s a 3,300’ climb, not the 2,300’ I’d somehow been thinking. Damn - I’m back at thirteen squared.

We’re really on the climb now. After briefly following Ramsey creek, we climb away from it and for the next fifteen miles ride the crest of the ridge separating it from Eight Mile Creek, in the next canyon to the north.

Remember that bluebird house we saw earlier? There are dozens of them lining the roads around Dufur, and they appear to be paying off. Dufur looks like it’s gearing up to challenge Bickleton for the title of Bluebird Capital of the World.

My vision for this ride is that we would climb east to the divide, and then drop off the west side until we get a massive view of Mount Hood. Wrong vision though. Here, still ten miles from the summit, is the closest view we’ll get of the mountain today.

Still, it’s not a bad climb, and it’s very pretty. When we finally come to the summit though, it’s an annoyance to see that there’s no summit marker to take a photo against. There’s a watershed divide sign, but we hope for better and bike past it looking for the real sign. Soon we’re dropping though; and at the junction with NF-44 Rachael hollers for us to stop. She’s not dropping any further.

So, a small disappointment mars the day. I’ve been picturing a picnic lunch here, enjoying our just reward of peanut butter sandwiches and a killer view of the mountain. No view, but the sandwiches are great. And, an unexpected delight - just as we’re about to hop on the bikes and start climbing back toward the summit, a butterfly alights on Rachael’s leg. I’m not hopeful it will stay put long enough, but I quickly pull out the camera to take a picture. Amazingly, the butterfly stays for just long enough for me to finally get it into focus, and for its wings to open at the right moment (spread your wings, we softly urge it). Rachael is starting to grimace from a leg cramp just when I finally get a reasonable shot.

This photo took a lot of patience, on my part and Rachael’s. It was hard to get this tortoise-shell butterfly into focus, and harder still to time the shot for when it’s wings were open. This is about the tenth shot, and the only good one. Rachael’s leg was starting to cramp by the end.

See the discussion with Bill about the previous photo. I’ve included a shot of the underside because it gives clues on the identification.

I very rarely take photos while biking, but I couldn’t help myself here. If you zoom way in, you’ll see that Rachael has attracted another butterfly, hitching a ride on her right glove. It rode along for about a hundred yards before flitting off just after I took this shot.

It’s an easy, gradual 400’ climb back to the summit. Rachael decides to carry the pannier, because she wants the shirt with her in case she gets cold on the descent - she has a lot of experience with being cold and having to wait for me to catch up because I’ve stopped for photos, and is taking no chances today.

Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to me that she’s biking off with my outer shirt too, so I don’t bother trying to stay with her. When I reach the summit again, she’s gone already. She just rode right through it, and is on the descent. We’re not leaving without a summit shot though, so I stop for one before starting down myself. Before long, it occurs to me that I’m getting cold, biking in the shade into a significant headwind at 4,500’. She’s well out of sight and with a three thousand foot descent ahead I’m not likely to see her again soon.

By the time I finally catch up to her ten miles later, I’ve gotten pretty chilled - not too bad, but enough so that I’m happy to see her stopped by the road. I quickly grab my shirt and put it on, and we keep descending. A few miles later we’re out of the trees, in the sun, and it’s suddenly too hot again.

When we get back to the car, it’s of course an oven inside. We quickly pack up and head to Kramer’s Market for something cold to drink before driving back to Portland. The drive itself is stunning for the next fifty miles, with one jaw-dropping view after another as we descend through the wheat fields to the Columbia and then drive beneath the astonishing basalt cliffs of the gorge. What an incredible place to live! We love traveling, but we love coming home too.

So if this were a real summit sign as it should be, it would state that the elevation is 4,622’. And why isn't Rachael here for another anniversary selfie of the two of us, which is what I’d been planning on the climb up?

She’s not in the photo because she just kept riding, and is bombing down the east side of the gap, an exhilarating fifteen mile descent ahead of her. Which is too bad, because it’s windy and cold up here, and she has my extra layer in the pannier. I won’t catch up with her for the next ten miles.

After dropping through the national forest for about ten miles, we start seeing the light at the end of the green tunnel. This is an excellent descent - fine road surface, almost no traffic, and a road straight enough that you can just glide.

Probably less than a minute before taking this photo, I was exclaiming to Rachael about how dazzlingly golden this wheat field was. By the time I stopped and pulled the camera out though, it was in shade again.

I hung around here for what must have been nearly ten minutes, waiting for the sun to come back out again. All I got for my patience was a few small patches of sun blowing across the ridge, almost too fast for me to take a shot of them.

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Ride stats today: 44 miles, 3,900’; for the weekend, 122 miles, 10,300’

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Keith KleinBonjour,
Faut-il que je augment mes honoraires en tant que “captionist”? Bien, ils sont de maintenant deux fois plus chers!
Er, moo!
Cheers,
Keith
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5 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Keith KleinLet me think back to my years as a math major long go. If I remember correctly, 2*0 is still 0.
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5 years ago

David MathersAnne and I thought maybe we would join you on the 'Mountain of Hell Bike Race' but we've changed our minds. Looking forward to the videos and soundtrack 'Highway to Hell'.

Happy Anniversary!
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5 years ago

Scott AndersonTo David MathersSorry we’ll miss you, but it sounds like we should have plenty of company anyway. Looks like great fun!
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5 years ago

Jen RahnHappy Anniversary!!
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5 years ago