Mountain Trucking
I took the Trucker in the woods today. The entrance to McDonald Forest is a little over 6 miles from my house. I'd been hoping to get down to Ashland and bring back my mountain bike so I could get out on some of the trails. Instead I got some new tires for the Trucker. They're 700x37 WTB All Terrain. Less aggressive than most cycle cross tires, but knobbier than street tires. They worked fine on the gravel roads in McDonald Forest.
On top of Dimple Hill at 1478 feet. The picture can't capture the magnificent views across the valley from the Coast Range to the Cascades.
Map of the south end of McDonald Forest. My route took me from the Oak Creek entrance on road 600 to Dimple Hill. Notice Dan's Trail.
From my house I head towards Corvallis on 19th and West Hills, and then cut north through Bald Hill park. That takes you over to Oak Creek where you head northwest another couple of miles to the entrance gate to McDonald Forest. Lot's of cars at the gate. Hikers and mountain bikers. The gravel road starts climbing gradually at first but then keeps getting steeper. Pretty soon I was in my little chain ring and it felt just like climbing up to Toothpick. At about 2 miles is a big switchback and you start heading south again, still climbing. You reach the summit in about 3 miles at a 4 corners like intersection. The spur road to the right takes you the last .5 mile of much steeper and rockier road to the top of Dimple Hill. Coming down from the hill heading east is Dan's Trail! This is where all the mountain bikers were heading. It looks like you loose 1000' in about a mile and a half. The map says the trail is 3.3 miles, but there are some other trails you can make a loop out of.
I headed back down to the intersection. One of the forks would take me to another entrance gate in 2 miles. The forest continues for another 4 miles past that. You could spend weeks exploring these roads. There is another peak at 2178'. All for another day. I put on my jacket and enjoyed the downhill and easy ride home.