*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

Out along the Oregon Coast, on the tidewater side of US101, the intrepid motorcyclist can find the Cape Arago Highway.

This highly scenic roadway begins at the west end of Newmark Avenue in Charleston, Oregon at Empire Boulevard and follows the edge of Coos Bay out to the South Slough Bridge after which 7 Devils Road branches off and Cape Arago Highway heads out towards the rather famous lighthouse that bears the same name as this roadway.

View from Cape Arago

Photo by Clinton Steeds (Creative Commons: Attribution)

If you follow the Cape Arago Highway out past the lighthouse, you’ll arrive at the end of the line at a trio of State Parks: Sunset Bay State Park, Shore Acres State Park, and Cape Arago State Park in that order.

This is another one of those roads that attracts tourists, as the lighthouse and the state parks are quite a destination. I haven’t ridden this road on a weekend so I can’t say for sure, but as always, the weekdays will probably be much less busy.

• County: Coos
• Length: 11 miles
• Towns: Charleston, Barview, Shore Acres

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I had a lovely opportunity to ride this road recently. While the weather wasn’t anywhere near perfect, it’s probably what you can also expect along the Oregon Coast most of the year.

This road does lack a bit in engineering with its frequent bumps and dips, but it’s a fine weekday cruise. Weekday, you ask? Yes, just about every report that I’ve received from other riders mentions that this road has a fair bit of traffic on it. I rolled through on a damp Monday and saw no one else at all, but apparently this is definitely not the case on the weekends.

This road, like OR SR53, has a tendency to run through existing small creek drainages systems and is thus often below grade level. No big deal until you start coming across deer in the sometimes tight shrubbery-lined corners. I saw several while I was on this road: at 10am in the morning, in the rain. Must’ve been some hungry deer.

Back to the road itself, it’s really a rather enjoyable road, but like many of these coastal roads, are perhaps better enjoyed on something with a bit of suspension travel or dirt competency. These roads are mostly built on what are very large, permanent sand dunes and any road that gets large trucks will start to deform quickly.

If you can catch this one, I do still recommend it. It beats the hell out of sitting on 101 behind dozens of RVs puttering through the corners at 35, but don’t expect perfectly track-smooth surfaces and clear lines of sight either.

The scenery on this route is rather mediocre, so I’ve included a nice shot of Nehalem Bay at the north end of Miami River Road, just a few miles or so west of the OR 53 junction.

Photo by Michael Cornelius (Creative Commons: AT-SA)

• Road Name: Miami River Road / Foley Creek Road
• Counties: Tillamook
• Length: 13
• Towns: Garibaldi, Wheeler

Download the Streets and Trips file for Miami River Rd / Foley Creek Rd

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Oh Frabjous Joy!

Or something to that effect. This road is a real kick in the pants, hidden in the Oregon Coast Range.

Yes, it’s a bit short and is the shortest-distance route between Oregon Route 202 and US 26, but it’s still a gas. When I rode it this past summer, it was also freshly-paved and as smooth as the south end of a north-bound infant. Seriously. I think I could’ve rolled a quarter from on edge from the 202 intersection all the way to US26.

Now, there’s no services on this route except for a towing yard, and nobody wants to have to use their services. And there’s plenty of logging trucks too, so no guarantees that the road is going to stay that nice either.

The only thing that was seriously wrong with this road is that it was too short, only 9 miles. Were it not raining, I would’ve turned around and done this one a few more times.

But for the meantime, you can enjoy some seriously Coastal Range-style twisties. Even in the rain, this one was a kick.

• Counties:
• Length:
• Towns: Jewell, Vinemaple, Jewell Junction

And keep an eye out for Sasquatch. He’s reputed to live in those hills.

Microsoft Streets & Trips file for Oregon Route 103 ‘Fishhawk Falls Highway’

Garmin GPX file for Oregon Route 103 ‘Fishhawk Falls Highway’

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Editor’s Note: I keep wanting to call this Fishkill Falls Highway. Guess I spent too many years Out East.

Editor’s Note: Garmin GPX file added at the bottom

The first time that I rode through in August of 2007, the western stretch of this road was a wondrous piece of pavement with fresh, racetrack-smooth pavement that was to die for even in the wet.

Then the paving stopped. And it became an adventure road. It was wet, gnarly, bumpy, frost-heavy, and oh yes, highly twisty.

With either a fresh coat of pavement or dry weather, Oregon 202 would’ve been highly enjoyable. As it was, between the damp weather and the logging trucks on Monday morning, it was very nerve-wracking.

Riding out of the south end of Astoria Oregon, one easily finds oneself on this old forest highway. It starts on the south side of Astoria where US101 splits off to the right and crosses the Youngs Bay Bridge. Once you get out of the Astoria area, there’s little to nothing for services. Make sure that you’re fed, fueled, and hydrated before leaving town.

It’s not rather unexpected in this particular damp part of Oregon, but this road has a couple of nice waterfalls.

The small waterfalls along the roadway are rather pretty and a nice spot to rest and stretch. This one, Barth Falls, along the Klatskanie River is only a drop of a few feet but has an interesting little fish ladder to the left.

Much to my surprise and even though it looms large on my maps, the town of Jewell isn’t really a town but rather a spot where the farmhouses are a little closer together. It’s very easy to miss the turn down Fishhawk Falls Highway, that is if you’re heading back to 101. There’s also no services there, so you’re out of luck until you get to Mist or back to 101.

If you’re heading back to Portland, you might was well stay on 202 until you meet Oregon 47. From there you can pick any number of excellent backroads that will take you back to the big city.

• Towns: Astoria, Jewell, Mist
• Length: 43
• Counties: Clatsop, Columbia

Microsoft Streets & Trips file for Oregon Route 202 (Available soon)

Garmin GPX format file for Oregon Route 202

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Another rural highway, this one runs along the Siletz River in the Central Oregon Coast.

As you can see from the map below, this road doesn’t lack for curves. There’s many lovely corners on this roadway, and I very much enjoyed following a souped-up Ford Mustang piloted by a local chap who really knew the road’s corners.

Three things that my ride log forRoute 229 makes note of are the sunken grades, abundance of 50-80 degree curves and pavement quality.

This is another one of those roads where there is an overhanging tree canopy that can make visibility of the local fauna challenging. Whenever the sun is out, the run as numerous section of 20-100′ where the sun is completely obscured by the tree canopy. Obviously, this can be highly hazardous when moving through these curves with gusto and you can’t see what’s in the middle of the next curve.

Second, these are really awesome curves. Unlike Washington roads, the roads in Oregon always seem to have a rhythm. Engineers in Washington seem to just drop the road wherever they can manage to, but even though Oregon might have far worse pavement (not this particular road though), they ride is almost always far more relaxing and useful in honing one’s skills.

Third, this road has a very good pavement quality. Perhaps it’s just relative to the truly horrendous roads such as 202 in Clatsop and Tillamook Counties, but this road is very nice. Unlike 202 and 180 (Eddyville-Blodgett), I had absolutely no problems maintaining a good cornering line on this road even while following that well-piloted green Mustang.

Last, and certainly not least, it has some neat old bridges too.

• Road Name: Oregon Route 229 (Toledo-Kernville)
• Counties: Lincoln(OR)
• Length: 32 miles
• Towns: Bellamy, Kernville, Mack Landing, Martin Eddy, Melco Landing, Morgan Landing, Roots, Siletz, Toledo

Download the Streets and Trips file for Oregon Route 229 (Toledo-Kernville)

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