*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

Way over in the eastern end of Oregon, is one of the most challenging sections of rural highway Oregon has to offer. Called Dooley Mountain Highway, it’s an amazing piece of road that leaves almost no time at all to enjoy, let alone ponder, the fantastic scenery from 4000′ or so feet up.

Abandoned Barn along Route 245

It’s a very technical bit of twisties going up the west flank of Dooley Mountain, and there’s not much in the way of straights between those curves either. And you can’t really call them linked in the sense that you might expect from California’s most excellently engineered roads. It’s just that there no room to put straight stretches in without running right off the edge of the mountain.

It’s really hard to emphasize how good this road is. But like everything else, there’s a few warts on a road that’s otherwise all “cake and win”. Just about every single curve on this road had gravel somewhere in the corner. Sometimes they were in the entrance and others in the exit. And not a few of them had gravel not just outside the tire lines but all the way across.

And as is typical of Oregon, the locals know these roads extremely well and generally assume that there’s not going to be anyone in the opposing lane when they come around the corner. It certainly behooves us to maintain a reasonable cornering speed and conservative line, keeping one’s vehicle and body parts well away from the center line in blind corner.

In the same vein, don’t take the speed recommendations lightly. While the signs are definitely “Oregon Corner Signs” with the speed posted as the lowest for the next half-dozen curves. If you get over-confident about those cornering speeds, that one corner out of the dozen or so will bite you hard.

Just east of Unity Reservoir

But when you get to the south end of Dooley Mountain, you need to be prepared for a little letdown. The road suddenly drops out only a flat plain that’s about as interesting as droning across Nebraska compared to what you spent the last half-hour carving. The sweepers are a little tighter around the Unity Reservoir and a welcome respite, but their not mountain curves for sure. Even US26 from Unity to “Austin Junction” is more interesting than the west leg of Route 245.

And like every other part of Eastern Oregon when I visited in June 2009, please keep an eye out for deer and elk. Everybody in the area was talking about the rider the week before that hit an elk and shattered his hip. I saw well over 20 deer “up close and personal” in just 7 days. Yeah, well and truly infested.

But if you’re looking for a rest, that little reservoir has a nice parking lot right by the lake with a driveway paved all the way in.

There’s also reportedly gas at the Unity Country Store. Verify their hours (and days) of operation first though.

Please Note: Page 55 of the Benchmark Map incorrectly reads as 204, which is the Oregon “Highway number” and note the appropriate Oregon Route number. Maybe somebody can post an explanation of why Oregon uses such a strange mix of designation systems.

• County: Baker
• Length: 38 miles
• Town: Unity

Google Maps for Oregon State Route 245:

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Washington State Route 142 is one of those odd little rural highways that were carved out of the native landscape to serve some of the small and medium sized town in the area.

The section from Goldendale to the first set of twisties is about 8 miles long, but once you’ve got the straight section done, you’ll find an enjoyable series of sweepers that run nearly uninterrupted all the way down to the Columbia. This is a great little road to run in conjunction with the Mabton-Bickleton-Goldendale Highway if you’re heading over to the Hanson Project or the Yakima/Ellensburg area and aren’t in a vast hurry.

Photos near and along Route 142:

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Following the Yachats River back up into the Oregon Coastal hills is this eponymous little road. It starts out inside the also eponymous little town of Yachats right off US 101 with a funky uphill and acute-angled intersection that goes right up the side of the hill.

Once you’re a few blocks in and getting outside of the vacation cottages, you notice that this is definitely an adventure road. The elevation changes are as abrupt as the curves and the pavement is patchy in spots where the river has damaged the roadbed. Truly, this road isn’t exactly an engineering marvel like nearby Oregon 34, but it’s a rather enjoyable little road that has a solid 8+ miles of pavement before it goes to gravel.

While the Alsea Highway and Yachats River Road ought to have a lot in common, the nature of state highway vs. county farm road is very apparent. If you ride this road with any aggression, be prepared to bottom out the suspension on the dips and maybe catch a little air coming off the tops.
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An interesting side road will take you up into the small town of Mineral. It’s a far more twisty road than SR7 with very short sightlines.

The north end of the road is particularly aggressive with the road making a nearly continuous climb up the north face of the ridge the village of Mineral it sited on. The pavement isn’t in terrible shape, but it’s apparent that large recreational vehicles and trailers frequently go up this road.

The south turnoff is about 13 miles north of US 12, and the north turnoff is less than a mile south of the River Crossing at Elbe. If memory serves, there’s a neat abandoned power station by that turn-off.

• Towns: Elbe (nearby), Mineral, Carlson (abandoned)
• Length: 5 miles
• County: Lewis

Microsoft Streets & Trips file for Mineral Hill Road

Overview Map:

Google Map:

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South Skagit Highway and Concrete-Sauk Valley Road provide a very scenic back way from Sedro Wooley to the Mountain Loop Highway and south to Darrington. On the cool September that marked the day ride portion of ‘Pass the Oyster’ 2004, the road was dry and nearly deserted. The auturn leaves lined the trees and the sides of the road, but had been cleared from most of the corners by other traffic. A few corners had lines of gravel outside of the cager wheel lines, but the even these were a mere handful on this recently chip-sealed road as it skirts the Cultus Mountains and Rinker Ridge along the Skagit River.

Old Pastureland along South Skagit Highway

For most of its length, the S. Skagit and Concrete-Sauk Valley Roads follow the Sauk and Skagit Rivers. The rivers provide a very nice scenic backdrop for this spectacular road with its consistent chain of sweepers and sharp corners. Keep an eye out for pedestrains during good fishing weather, and keep an eye out for errant domestic animals tortting along the road. I almost hit a hunting dog of some sort that darted from the side of the road directly at the front wheel of the bike.

View of the Concrete-Sauk Valley Road section from up along Finney Creek Road.

Full services are available each end of the road way. Sedro Wooley is just a mile or so away across the Skagit from the north end. Darrington is about 5 miles from the south end and has a very good gas station, although the air compressor was broken at the Shell when we were there. When we stopped in Darrington, there was a Goldwing group riding through that was duplicating our loop but in the opposite direction: North on 530 to Concrete-Sauk Valley Road and on into Sedro Wooley on S. Skagit Highway. I’m sure it was a much slower pace than we were able to maintain through the nearly-deserted and unpatrolled curves.

• Towns: Clear Lake, Concrete (across river bridge)
• Length: 46
• County: Skagit

Microsoft Streets and Trips file for South Skagit Highway / Concrete-Sauk Valley Road

Map of South Skagit Highway / Concrete – Sauk Valley Road:

Google Map:

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