BayOcean Road / Netarts Highway / Cape Meares Road

I had an opportunity to ride this road in August of 2007. I’d heard all sorts of stories about how horrible the road condition is for this highway, and now I understand why.

This road has some truly great scenery. It’s built on Cape Meares, which like much of the Oregon Coast is simply one massive sand dune. The roads down here are pretty much built directly on top of the sand and the big trucks really tear up the pavement. Unsurprising really, since as one would expect, sand shifts around quite a bit.

If you’ve got an adventure-style bike, this whole area rocks. I have about 6 inches of travel both fore and aft on my V-Strom, and it got a workout. I was pretty loaded down, and this was one of the few areas where it was absolutely necessary to stand up on the Strom’s pegs.

All the criticism and cautionary tales aside, this road is a giggle. I was tearing up and down these roads in the rain and enjoying myself immensely. There was almost nobody else out there on that Monday afternoon, and I had the pavement pretty much all to myself.

  • Road Name: BayOcean Road / Netarts Highway / Cape Meares Road
  • Counties: Tillamook
  • Length: 18
  • Towns: Barnegat, Netarts, Tillamook, Oceanside,

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Adventure, Sweepers, Western Oregon | September 30th, 2007
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Woodland Grade Road

This is another of the Clearwater River Valley grade roads. Like Greer Grade Road, this one starts down at the bottom of the valley quite near the village of Greer goes up to the top of the plateau and comes back down near Pardee.

I have no other information on this road, including its condition. If you happen to know about this road, please post a comment below as I plan to ride this one next spring.

  • Road Name: Woodland Grade Road (Greer, ID)
  • Counties: Idaho
  • Length: 23
  • Towns: Greer, Pardee, Pardee Corner, Tramway

Streets and Trips file for Woodland Grade Rd

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Adventure, Idaho, Twisties, Unpaved | July 14th, 2007
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Cascade Lakes Highway (aka Century Drive)

While this road is certainly no Aufderheide, it’s a fantastic road that I highly recommend. It’s scenic, from disturbingly fresh-looking lava flows and fantastic views of Mt. Bachelor to sobering views of recent forest fires and the distinct possibility of up close and personal visit with the extremely large elk in the area.

Here’s a few links:
GORP- Cascade Lakes Highway
Travel Oregon
OregonTravels.com

Here’s a few photos from my recent visit.

View of Mount Bachelor

A good friend and I stopping for a breather and some photos on the North end of the Road.

View back up Cascade Lakes Highway

  • Road Name: Oregon State Route 372 ‘Century Drive Highway’, Lava Lake Road, and Cascade Lakes Highway
  • Counties: Deschutes, Klamath
  • Length: 68
  • Towns: Bend, Crescent Lake Junction, Elk Lake

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Eastern Oregon, Sweepers | July 13th, 2007
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Gifford-Pinchot Forest Service 23

Just about everyone in the Pacific Northwest is familiar with Forest Service Road 25, the road that goes around the east side of Mt. St. Helens and provides a way to get to FS99 and Windy Ridge. Where FS25 is a twisty, curvy work of art done in asphalt, FS23 is another matter.

FS23 splits away from WA 39 shortly before it turns in FS25 and heads east. In the middle of FS23 is a somewhat twisty section of gravel that lasts for about 5 miles.

This road isn’t a nicely maintained as FS25, and is probably recommended for adventure bikes if you plan to do the whole route. In my opinion, if you take FS90 across (and deal with its own gravel section), you get the best of FS23 if you come in there after the gravel section of FS23.

As for the rest of FS23, it comes down out of the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest via SR 141 through Trout Lake into Bingen and White Salmon where it intersects with Washington SR 14.

  • Road Name: Washington State Route 141 / Gifford Pinchot Forest Service Road 23
  • Counties: Klickitat, Lewis(WA), Skamania
  • Length: 79 miles
  • Towns: B Z Corner, Bingen, Husum, Randle, Trout Lake, Underwood, White Salmon

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Adventure, Eastern WA, Sweepers, Unpaved, Western WA | July 4th, 2007
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Oregon Route 180

During my recent (August 2007) trip down the Oregon Coast, I gave this road a try.

At this time, I cannot recommend this road for non-dualsport motorcycles. The road surface is extremely rough and consists primarily of patches, some of which are weathered concrete in the midst of this otherwise asphalt/chip-seal roadway. This roadway has many tight and blind curves with driveways that drop directly down into the road with obscuring foliage, making high speeds on this road very imprudent. Also, one must be careful when riding this road, as it has no shoulder to speak off before dropping from pavement directly into fairly deep and/or rocky drainage ditches.

Once Oregon DOT fixes the road surface and perhaps clears some of the tall foliage in the drainage ditches, this road will once again be worth investigation.

  • Counties: Benton(OR), Lincoln(OR)
  • Length: 19
  • Towns: Blodgett, Devitt, Eddyville, Marval, Nashville, Nortons, Summit

Streets and Trips file for Oregon State Route 180

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Adventure, Twisties, Western Oregon | June 27th, 2007
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