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Geographic region: Oregon Coast Range
Municipality/town: Scappoose
Route configuration: loops
Distance: 24.2 miles
Min/max elevation: 91’/2,053’
Total ascent: 3,083’
Max grade: 12.5% up/11.3% down
Surface: ~16.5 miles gravel/dirt road (parts of Pisgah Home Rd has large, chunky rocks), ~7.5 miles paved road
Bikes allowed: yes (mountain bike recommended)
Obstacles: none
Best months: spring, summer, fall (higher areas may be covered in snow during the winter)
Permits: none required
Traffic: the majority has little to no traffic; Mountain View Rd and Dutch Canyon Rd have light traffic
Feels safe to go alone (my personal comfort level): no. Consider bringing bear spray.
Driving distance from downtown Portland: 20 miles
[Click on buttons above to get route links on Gaia GPS or Ride with GPS]
To get to the start: From Portland, head north on Hwy 30 toward Scappoose. Turn L on Bonneville Rd – go 300’. Turn R on SW Old Portland Rd – go 0.6 mi. Turn L on SW Dutch Canyon Rd – go 0.7 mi. Park on the left side of the road.
Head west on Dutch Canyon Rd – go 450’
R on Adams Rd – go 370’
@0.2 mi: L on Mountain View Rd – go 2.0 mi
@2.2 mi: L on Holaday Rd – go 1.2 mi
@3.4 mi: R on unnamed gravel road (there will be a gate to cross) – go 0.2 mi for a viewpoint
@3.6 mi: head back on gravel road – go 0.2 mi
@3.8 mi: R on Holaday Rd – go 2.3 mi
@5.1 mi: L on Pisgah Home Rd (which eventually becomes Bacona-Pisgah Home Rd) – go 5.4 mi
@6.9 mi: stay R at Y
@9.2 mi: R at 4-way intersection
@10.5 mi: R on Pisgah Lookout Rd – go 1.7 mi
@12.2 mi: L on Gunners Lake Mainline – go 0.3 mi
@12.5 mi: straight/L to on unnamed road – go 1.3 mi
@12.9 mi: stay straight/R
@13.1 mi: L at Y
@13.5 mi: continue straight on Bacona CCC/Bacona-Pisgah Home Rd – go 4.4 mi
@15.mi: L at 4-way intersection
@17.9 mi: sharp R on unnamed road – go 1.7 mi
@19.6 mi: continue straight on Rabinsky Rd – go 2.2 mi
@21.8 mi: L on Dutch Canyon Rd – go 2.4 mi
End @24.2 mi
Starting in residential Scappoose, this route heads right up into the Coast Range with a hefty three-mile hill to get you warmed up. For your efforts, at the 3.4-mile mark, there is a gravel road with a gate on the east side of Holaday Road that takes you to a gorgeous view. Cross over (or around) this gate to make a quick quarter-mile jaunt to see the lush valley to the east, and on a clear day, Mount St Helens.
After your fill of the views, head back to Holaday Road and continue northwest, winding through forest and farmlands until you turn left onto Pisgah Home Road. This road quickly turns to logging road with patches of forest in various stages of harvest and regrowth. Pisgah Home Road gets quite chunky after around the seven-mile mark and stays pretty bumpy for the next couple of miles or so. Also, you will be in the midst of another big three-mile climb here. The views to the south from this section are stunning, however, so it’s worth it.
At 10.5 miles, you will turn right onto Pisgah Lookout Road (unmarked). As of 2024, the initial section of this road has been clear-cut, but this offers great views of Mt. Rainier, St. Helens, and Adams on a clear day. The road soon turns into a smaller, more rustic road winding through dense forest. At 12.2 miles, you will turn left on Gunners Lakes Mainline, proceeding for a third of a mile before veering to the left on an unnamed road that will take you back to Pisgah Home Road. You will get a glimpse of one of the Gunners Lakes along the way. .
Once you are back on Pisgah Home Road, you will head east toward the way you came. However, instead of going all the way back to Holaday Road, you will take a sharp right on an unnamed road at 17.9 miles. You will wind downhill through coniferous forest, eventually joining with Rabinsky Road. Farms and rural homes will start to pop up as you make your way down to Dutch Canyon Road. This last 2.4-mile section takes you through bucolic farmland for a nice flat finish.
Geographic region: Oregon Coast Range
Municipality/town: Scappoose, North Plains
Route configuration: loop
Distance: 17.6 miles
Min/max elevation: 196’/2,052’
Total ascent: 2,589’
Max grade: 12.4% up/11.1% down
Surface: ~15 miles gravel/dirt road (Pisgah Home Rd has large, chunky rocks), ~2.5 miles paved road
Bikes allowed: yes (mountain bike recommended)
Obstacles: 3 gates (closed to automobile traffic but allows pedestrians and bikers to cross:
gate at 7.3 miles from the start, where the unnamed road turns L off of Bacona-Pisgah Home Rd
gate at 8.9 miles
gate at 11.7 miles (usually open)
Best months: spring, summer, fall (higher points tend to be covered in snow during the winter)
Permits: none required
Traffic: mostly no traffic on the weekends (there may be some logging traffic on weekdays) ; very light on Dutch Canyon Rd and the first mile of Rabinsky Rd
Feels safe to go alone (my personal comfort level): I'd normally say no as it's remote with no cell service, but I did do it alone with bear spray and felt fine.
Driving distance from downtown Portland: 24 miles
[Click on buttons above to get route links on Gaia GPS or Ride with GPS]
To get to the start: From Portland, head north on Hwy 30 toward Scappoose. Turn L on Bonneville Rd – go 300’. Turn R on SW Old Portland Rd – go 0.6 mi. Turn L on SW Dutch Canyon Rd – go 4.3 mi. Park at the intersection with Otto Miller Rd.
Head east on Dutch Canyon Rd – go 1.2 mi
@1.2 mi: sharp L on Rabinsky Rd – go 2.2 mi
@3.4 mi: continue straight (Rabinsky Rd becomes an unnamed road) – go 1.6 mi
@4.7 mi: stay R
@5.0 mi: sharp L on Bacona-Pisgah Home Rd – go 2.3 mi
@7.3 mi: L at 4-way intersection on unnamed road – go 0.4 mi
@8.0 mi: L at T on unnamed road – go 0.1 mi
@8.1 mi: R on unnamed road – go 2.0 mi
@10.1 mi: R on unnamed road – go 0.8 mi
@10.8 mi: R at Y – go 0.1 mi
@10.9 mi: L on NW Tupper Ranch Rd (following power lines) – go 1.1 mi
@11.7: stay R at Y
@12.0 mi: L on Wilderness Rd – go 0.5 mi
@12.5 mi: L on NW Smoke Ranch Rd – go 1.4 mi
@13.9 mi: L on Dixie Mountain Rd – go 1.0 mi
@14.9 mi: Dixie Mountain Rd becomes Otto Miller Rd – go 2.6 mi
End @17.5 mi
Though this course does not have the most cumulative climbing of all the routes, you’re going to feel the nearly 2,400 feet of ascent crammed mostly in the first half of this 17.6-mile loop. But what a stunner this route is, with incredible views of forested mountains, lush valleys, and bucolic farms.
It starts easily enough with a flat-to-downhill 1.2-mile section, with lovely farm views. But once you turn up Rabinsky Road, you are in for a five-and-a-half-mile butt-burner of a climb. The last part of this tough climb is on a chunky rocky section of Pisgah Home Road, but you can give yourself a breather or two to enjoy the spectacular views to the south from here.
At 7.3 miles, you will take a left on an unnamed road. The next several miles can be confusing with several branches of roads splitting off here and there, so be sure to look at the provided directions carefully as well as a saved offline map of the area. Part of the course here follows along the large powerlines, and it gets a bit rougher through this section.
Just after 12 miles, you will join Wilderness Road, a lovely section through deciduous forest that gets almost fluorescent green in the spring. Then you will head east on NW Smoke Ranch Road, where you will start to see tall coniferous trees again. There are a few scattered homes out here, signaling you are getting just a bit closer to civilization. However, when you head north on Otto Miller Road, you will no longer see any homes until you get down close to Dutch Canyon Road for the finish.
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