CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
153 km one way from Troutdale - plan on about 2 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Government Camp and Timberline Lodge. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 10 km this is Mount Hood Scenic Byway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Samuel Lancaster, the engineer who built the Historic Columbia River Highway between 1913 and 1922, wanted a road that would show off the gorge instead of conquering it, and Troutdale is where it begins. The town sits where the Sandy River meets the Columbia, on the eastern edge of the Portland area, with a tidy main street, an old railroad depot and a hotel that began life as a poor farm. For a rider the gateway is easy: you leave the suburban edges, cross the river, and within a few miles the road starts to climb.
Read the complete Troutdale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Troutdale is where the day begins. Next is Government Camp.
Government Camp takes its name from an episode of frontier misfortune. In the autumn of 1849, a detachment of Mounted Riflemen heading west over the Barlow Road found the going so hard that they left their wagons at a spot near here and carried on without them. The place became known as the government camp, and the name stuck, a small piece of American history on a modern resort village at the foot of Mount Hood.
Read the complete Government Camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Government Camp comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Timberline Lodge.
The road up to Timberline Lodge is six miles of climbing from Government Camp, and at the top there is a building that looks as if it has grown out of the mountain. The lodge was built in the late 1930s as a Works Progress Administration project during the Depression, and craftspeople carved its timbers, wove its rugs, forged its ironwork, and painted its murals by hand. President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated it in 1937. The exterior was later used to represent the hotel in the film version of The Shining, though the interiors were done elsewhere.
Read the complete Timberline Lodge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Timberline Lodge. Next is Hood River.
Wind is the reason Hood River became what it is. Where the Columbia River Gorge narrows between the cool, wet west and the dry eastern plateau, the air funnels through with such force that windsurfers and kiteboarders gather by the hundreds, and the town has grown into a capital of outdoor sports. On a summer afternoon the river is dotted with colourful sails, and the bridge across to Washington State hums in the wind. Behind the town, Mount Hood rises to 11,249 feet, snow-covered through most of the year, and in front of it lies a valley full of orchards.
Read the complete Hood River write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hood River closes the day.
Troutdale → Government Camp is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Government Camp → Timberline Lodge is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Timberline Lodge → Hood River is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.