Mellow start with breath taking views from the Rowena Loops, followed by killer landscapes from the Eagle Caves overlooking The Dalles, Columbia and Washington range, then the kicker backed by a solid 4mile 1500ft gravel climb with ribbons of sweet flowing pea gravel gravel decent back to the finish. All in all pretty stellar.
Mileage: 45 Miles
Elevation Gain 4,500ft
Elevation profile – one long large climb the rest is chill
Terrain: 50% road 50% Gravel (Off road for 6 miles).
Ride Route: here Ridewithgps
Services: Mosier & The Dalles
Bicycle: Cyclocross, Gravel 34c + or MTB
Historic Columbia River Hwy, mellow climb to the Rowena Loops.
Rowena Loops
Climbing up Wahtonka, it gets a bit rugged and steep, using your technical skills to navigate ruts but it’s short.
Note: At mile 18.5 the entrance to Wahtonka Rd can be hard to find, at the bottom it looks like a Jeep track between two private properties and there are a lot of local’s who like to plaster misleading no tresspassing signs.
Views of Mt. Hood on the flats right before the Eagle Caves, be careful not to get lost in here, lots of dead ends and private property.
Dismount the bike and have a walk around Eagle Caves
West views of the Dalles toward Mosier
Smooth Road descent down Cherry Heights before turning up Chenoweth Rd.
Chenoweth climbs for 4 miles and peaks out at 2200ft, but is worth it.
Ribbons of fast pea gravel on Dry Creek back into Mosier
Awesome ride, man. Awesome.
This looks legit!