(Note 9/21: The Dixie Fire in the summer of 2021 devastated the area north of Chester. Expect near-total vegetation loss on these rides. See photos at the end of this post. All other photos are pre-burn. JR)
There are three similar roads that run due north from Chester. They’re all short—in each case after 6-13 miles the road turns to gravel. They’re all fairly easy steady ups, featuring mellow climbing through what once was forest and is now bare ground and black tree trunks.
One’s immediate reaction to fire damage is to assume that the ride is ruined. Not so. I actually find riding through burns to be rewarding in unexpected ways. For one thing, you can see the lay of the land more clearly. For another, you can see the road contour more clearly as it stretches before you. Look at the two photos at the end of this post to see what I mean. For a third, the fire tends to shut down all commercial activity in the area, so the road tends to be deserted.
Even before the burn, these were “best in the area” rides—not great, but worth doing if you’re at Lake Almanor and want to ride. I can’t say which is the best, so I’ll list their differences and let you decide:
Warner Valley Road is the longest, widest, busiest (or it was before the fire), and easiest, and it has by far the best road surface—pure glass until a few frost heaves in the last 2 miles.
Juniper Lake Road is the steepest and curviest (and thus my favorite). The road surface is far from perfect but not problematic with fat tires.
Road 10 (that’s its only name) is the narrowest, it has the longest, most extended descent, and it’s by far the most isolated. Do this one if you like narrow roads and solitude.
WVR and JLR touch, so combining them into one ride is a natural. Combining either with Road 10 would require riding an easy 5 miles (one way) through some beautiful, interesting north Lake Almanor shoreline.
Warner Valley Road
Distance: 26 miles out and back Elevation gain: 1100 ft
Distance: 18 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1140 ft
At last count there were 2,347 roads on the West Coast named Mill Creek Road. Bestrides has three: this one, Mill Creek Road #2 by Fremont, and the Wine Country one in the Adding Miles section of the Pine Flat Road ride. All three are super-sweet little rides.
This one is Just down the road from Lassen Park, in Mineral, CA. It’s a thoroughly charming back road that in 9 miles manages to pack in a lovely mountain meadow, a mild 1-mile climb through piney woods, a 2-mile slaloming descent that’s as sweet as cotton candy, and a flat ride along a creek. Then you get to do all those things in reverse. The climbing is consistently 5%-ish, just steep enough to make you say, “Wow, I’m climbing strong today!,” the scenery is prime throughout, the road surface is glass, and there is no traffic. I’m not making this up. Midway there’s a classic mountain store, like something straight out of Jeremiah Johnson.
(Note: In 2021 the Dixie Fire burned much of the park east of the main road. Damage was severe.)
This is a typical National Park ride—one and only one paved road, running straight through the heart of the park, and it’s grand and expansive and mighty. Lassen Peak itself isn’t postcard pretty like Shasta or Hood, and the scenery isn’t as in-your-face stunning as Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, but it’s one of my favorite California rides. The road contour is excellent, the surface is nearly flawless, and great vistas are around every corner. And since it lacks the roadside waterfalls and dramatic chasms, it’s one of the least-attended of our National Parks, so the traffic can be downright light on a weekday or in spring or fall. There is no flat here, so you’ll be climbing for 28 miles, but it’s all moderate, 4-6% stuff. Perks include a good Visitor Center at one end of the ride, lots of history, geothermic activity, a nice mountain lake halfway in, and a photogenic pond and store at the turn-around. Check Afterthoughts for a way to avoid the traffic.
A reader tells me the road has recently been re-chipsealed, which may be good or bad depending on the chipsealing.
Lassen is a National Park, and they charge standard NP fees. If you have an annual pass or a geezer’s lifetime pass (like me), remember to bring it and photo ID (that’s the part I always forget). Some rangers don’t charge entrance fees for bikes, but you can’t count on it.
By the way, you don’t get to ride to the top of the mountain. You ride through a little pass between Lassen and a small bump next to it, 2000 ft below the Lassen summit.
Distance: 73-mile lollipop Elevation gain: 5531 ft
This ride samples a network of little roads in an area roughly bounded by Cottonwood CA, Redding, highway 299, Round Mountain, and Shingletown. I think this route is the best of them. The scenery is California Valley foothill and low forest, with a nice mountain town at the halfway point, good views of Mt. Shasta, and one bonus feature: 10 miles of the finest rock wall I’ve ever seen.
Most of this route is covered by the Anderson Century and the Lassen Foothills Century (aka the Give Me Wings Century), both excellent introductions to the area.
Distance: 67 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 5690 ft
(A Best of the Best ride)
(Note: Some of the recent forest fires hit this area hard. Damage to this actual route varies from non-existent to infrequent devastation. I didn’t find the pleasure of the ride significantly reduced. JR)
This is an out and back from a spot in the middle of a country road to the tiny town/store of Platina (pluh TIE nuh). So why is it called the Igo-Ono Ride? Because it goes through the tiny town of Ono, and the tiny town of Igo is one mile off the route, and it’s just tons of fun to say “Igo-Ono.” “Halfway down Gas Point Road to Platina” just doesn’t have that ring.
This is a perfect ride, with non-stop pleasant climbing and descending, grand vistas, next to no traffic, a classic country grocery store, several photogenic barns, and not one unrewarding mile. It lacks that big Selling Point—no redwoods, no waterfalls, no world-class descents—but the road contour is charming enough to earn Best of the Best status.
The road is unchanging wide two-lane without shoulder, but since there is almost no traffic (5 cars in 32 miles on my last outing) you have the road to yourself. The pavement is mostly good, with some poor miles, but nothing bad enough to interfere with your riding pleasure. There are no unending climbs or anything steeper than c. 7%, but there isn’t a flat mile, so the overall effort is substantial—note the elevation total above (5690 ft), which isn’t backbreaking but isn’t insignificant either..
The landscape is grassy rolling hills sprinkled with oaks and horse farms—nothing world-changing but very pretty in its way, especially if you can avoid summer when the grass is brown. My last outing was in February 2025, when a warm winter had the grasses lush and green and a recent cold precipitation had the hillsides covered in a light layer of snow—beautiful.
There is no water resupply on this route other than the Platina Store, and my sources say the Platina Store is now permanently closed, in which case you’ll be riding 67miles without resupply. On a hot day you might consider carrying a third water bottle and dropping one on the ride out.
Don’t try this ride on a summer day unless you start around 6 am. The Redding area regularly sees 100+ degrees in the summer, and this ride is largely without shade.
Distance: c. 35 miles, two out-and-backs
Elevation gain: c. 4800 ft
These two climbs and several other good rides in Siskiyou County are mapped at www.CycleSiskiyou.com.
This is the prime 35 miles of the Shasta Summit Century. It consists of two excellent out-and-back climbs through typical NorCal landscapes, and nothing else. The two roads are quite different. The first is a mild ascent and descent through a rocky, open canyon along a tumbling stream. The second is tougher climbing and faster descending through (mostly) a wall of greenery on both sides. I prefer the scenery on the first climb and the descent on the second. Both climbs are mellow pitches, with only one two-mile stretch that flirts with 8%. Neither climb is actually on Mt. Shasta, by the way—”Mt. Shasta” in our title refers to the town the climbs start from, not the mountain, which is on the other side of town. There is a road that goes partway up the mountain, but it’s deadly boring riding.
This one is special. It’s almost unknown, so you feel privileged and in on something, and the isolation is nearly absolute. I found out about it in the best possible way: a friend told me about his favorite, secret ride. It starts and ends in Etna, a tiny town with vitality, charm, cheap lodging, and its own excellent brewery. The roads are mostly tiny and deserted—on the return leg of the loop, I rode for two hours before I saw a vehicle. Yet the road surface is very good. (I don’t know why—no car ever uses it.) The scenery is grand California mountain primeval. One of the 10 best rides in California, without a doubt. The logistics are tricky, because services are sparse—for more on that, see Route Options later.
Distance: 41-mile lollipop
Elevation gain: 3820 ft
This ride is expertly covered in Jim Moore’s 75 Classic Rides Oregon (see the “Oregon” section in Rides by Region).
This is a varied, largely open ride with grand vistas of the Columbia River Gorge, a sweet stretch of old highway closed to cars, a jaw-dropping descent through a comically extreme set of switch-backs, and one strong dose of good old back-country climbing. It’s about the landscape—I don’t find the road contour or the two communities you pass through (Mosier and the Dalles) terribly compelling. The route is easier to follow than it sounds—as they say in “Willow,” “Ignore the bird, follow the river!”—unless you miss the turn onto Chenowith Loop W., you really can’t get lost. Continue reading →
The corner of Oregon that’s a loose rectangle with Grants Pass, Brookings, Florence, and Eugene at the corners is a magical place. The woods are lush, dense, and virginal, like something out of Green Mansions, the roads are narrow and deserted, and you can ride for miles without seeing a human, a house, a fence, or a road sign. There’s endless great riding to be done here.
A great route through the heart of it is the ride from Glendale to Powers. It’s logistically daunting, because it starts in a very small town and ends in a smaller one in the precise middle of nowhere—later I’ll discuss ways of avoiding the problem. It used to be run as an organized ride called the Tour de Fronds (one of the great century names—say it out loud), but the Tour route has changed (see details in Adding Miles).
I don’t think I’ve ever been so isolated on a road bike as on this ride. The first time I rode it, in the first 50 miles I saw two vehicles, three humans, and one (unhelpful) road sign. It’s less deserted and less unmarked now, but still, bring a good map and a compass, and bring everything you might need, because it might be hours before a car comes by. There’s a Forest Service ranger station in Powers that will sell you an excellent map of the area for $10, if you’re riding from that end.
Even with the relative lack of signage along the route, it’s hard to get lost because there are so few roads out there. In fact, in these 75 miles you have to negotiate exactly four turns (or an amazing one single turn if you take my alternate route). My route instructions refer to road numbers from the Benchmark road atlas of Oregon, and I encourage you to get it or some map source of equivalent detail (don’t use mapmyride or RidewithGPS—they overwhelm with needless detail). Despite all this the road surface is good, and perhaps because of all this the ride is one of my fondest cycling memories.
Despite its length and its wildness, this isn’t a hard ride, except for one killer hill.
Distance: 97-mile figure-eight Elevation gain: 9500 ft
When was the last time you rode 100 miles and almost every mile was choice? Here’s your chance. I learned this route when it was an annual organized century ride. It’s two loops connected by a stretch of Hwy 101, and it offers a remarkable variety of riding conditions: rollers along one of the most scenic stretches of coastline in the world, two substantial climbs, one wonderful descent, a ride along a ridge with ocean views, mellow riding along the Rogue River, and a charming, easy meander through meadows and forests. The northern loop is flat and pretty, the southern loop is up-and-down and dramatic. There’s a fair amount of elevation gain, but in the entire 100 miles there is not one foot that is steep—in fact I find Mapmyride’s elevation total incomprehensible. The ride starts and ends in Gold Beach, a low-key, relatively untouristy Oregon beach town.
There’s a lot of navigation on this route, so have some means of knowing where you are and where you’re going. Ride out of Gold Beach south on Hwy 101. In California the west coast highway is something to be avoided whenever possible, but Oregon’s Hwy 101 is a mellower, more peaceful thing, and Gold Beach is a long way from anywhere (as you know from trying to get there), so it’s as good as coastal riding gets. Which means, I still hate it—huge trucks whizzing past you inches from your body, a shoulder that tends to disappear precisely when you need it most, glass and cat tread tracks on the shoulder when there’s a shoulder, and constant big rollers, ruler straight and dead boring.
Seastacks along Highway 101 south of Gold Beach
View from Arch Rock Overview
But the turn-outs, vista points, and beaches are without peer, and they seem to come every 1/4 mile on this leg. I recommend you stop at all of them. The last 11 miles of this stretch of coast is called the Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor, and they aren’t kidding when they say “scenic.” My favorite beach is Meyers Creek Beach (the beach is perfect, and the hike from the road to the beach is about 3 feet), just before the better-known Pistol River Beach, where you can watch surfers and kite-boarders do their thing. The much-hyped Cape Sebastian is actually just a vista point where the views of the coastline are surprisingly poor (walking down the trail gets you a better view). Much better views are at Arch Rock further along.
Just south of Gold Beach you do a 2-mile climb, then a 2-mile descent on Hwy 101. If 2-mile descents on shoulders amid busy traffic aren’t your thing, modify our route by taking Myers Creek Rd. (clearly marked to the L, opposite the Cape Sebastian turn-off) and follow MCR to where it rejoins 101. It’s the opposite of 101—small, deserted, winding, and with a fairly rough road surface. MCR is on our return route, so you’ll do it as a climb later.
After 27 miles of 101, turn L onto Carpenterville Rd. and follow it east, then back north, then west until it ends at a stop sign. You start with a mellow climb away from the West Coast shoreline. The scenery starts out scruffy but gets prettier and prettier. After a half hour you hit a false summit, and the rest of the miles to “Carpenterville” (which is absolutely nothing) roll up and down, mostly up, along a ridge spine through very pretty woods with very nice vistas out to the ocean on your left (if the air is clear) and into interior valleys on your right. Finally you reach the real summit (someone has written “summit” on the roadway to dispel any doubts), whence begins a splendid descent back down to the coast, a long, effortless, glassy-surfaced slalom course you’ll dream about for years. 25-30 mph, and you’ll never touch your brakes. It’s been recently (as of 9/21) re-chipsealed, lord knows why since the surface was glass, but Oregon chipseal is much less obnoxious than California chipseal so it only drops the descent from spectacular down to excellent.
Traffic from your turn-off onto Carpenterville Rd. all the way back to where Myers Creek Rd. joins Hwy 101 should be next to nothing. The last time I rode Carpenterville, on a lovely September afternoon, from Pistol River to Carpenterville and back (14 miles) I saw one vehicle.
At the bottom of the Carpenterville descent you hit a stop sign (no signage), where you could go L and rejoin Hwy 101 for the ride back to Gold Beach, but don’t. Instead, go R (over the bridge) and ride around the tiny hamlet of Pistol River and up and down the hill until you hit a fork. An unsigned slight L again would take you back to Hwy 101. Don’t do it. Go R onto Cape View Rd. (signed). The “cape” in the road name is Cape Sebastian, which you see clearly far ahead of you and is your destination. This little stretch of road is a treasure. It’s flat, and it parallels Hwy 101 about 200 ft further up the sidehill, so you are constantly looking down on Hwy 101, with its frantic traffic, and the beaches and sea stacks along the coast. The perspective and solitude are just marvelous. Slow way down—it’s all over far too soon.
Cape View ends at a completely unsigned fork. Once again, the dominant L fork takes you back to Hwy 101, and once again we don’t want it. Go R onto Meyers Creek Rd. Here’s why: you need to get back up to the saddle on Hwy 101 by the Cape Sebastian vista point. It’s a big climb, and you can do it in two ways: slogging up a dead straight, unvaried 5% shoulder for what feels like an hour on Hwy 101, with traffic flashing past at 65 mph, or riding up the same 5% pitch on Meyers Creek Rd., which is quiet, beautiful, and with a deliciously varied contour. They both go to the same place. Easy choice. Take Meyers Creek. The imperfect road surface we talked about earlier is not an issue at 7 mph.
When MCR dead-ends at Hwy 101, take 101 back to Gold Beach. Ride through town and turn R onto Jerry’s Flat Road and head up the south side of the Rogue River. Note your mileage total, because you’re going to ride 10 miles of pleasant, easy rollers and then turn L on Lobster Creek Road, which is unsigned, and cross the river on Lobster Creek Bridge, which is invisible from JFR. The turn is completely non-descript, and the only signage you get is a road sign indicating directions to a campground, two trailheads, and a lookout.
If you’re adventurous there are two off-road hikes worth considering in the Lobster Creek Bridge area. First (the tough one), just before LCR you see a sign for the Frances Shrader Memorial Trail to the R. Take it and ride 2 very steep mostly-dirt miles to an easy, stunning one-mile walking loop through old-growth Port Orford Cedars and Douglas firs. Second (and much less daunting), just on the other side of the bridge is the steep 1/4-mile side road (sorta paved) to the Myrtle Tree Trail (well-marked), a walking trail to what used to be the largest Oregon Myrtle tree in the world until it fell down in 2018. Very pretty.
Back on our route, cross the bridge, take an immediate L at an unsigned fork, and ride back down the other side of the river on the wonderfully named North Fork Rogue River Road (unsigned), which turns out to be a really swell road, constantly up and down and back and forth, twistier and hillier than Jerry’s Flat Rd and with better views of the river. Turn R on Cedar Valley Drive (erroneously called Squaw Valley Rd. on some maps—it’s the road to Ophir). This is a really pretty if unspectacular meander through meadows, horse farms, and dry forest—totally pleasant, nearly flat, and constantly winding back and forth, just about what you want after riding all those more demanding miles.
Most of Cedar Valley Drive looks exactly like this
Ride to where CVD dead-ends at Ophir Rd., and turn L on Ophir (don’t bother to go R to explore the “town” of Ophir—there’s nothing there). The rest of the route is fairly routine. Ride on Ophir along Hwy 101 until you see an opportunity to cross the highway and ride through Nesika Beach, merge onto 101 when you have to, get off at Old Coast Highway on your R and ride OCH until you’re forced to rejoin 101 to cross the Rogue River into Gold Beach.
Shortening the route: Pick the loop that’s to your taste, easy/pretty (northern) or hard/dramatic (southern). Even easier: ride the Carpenterville Loop. Easier still: if you aren’t keen on riding the coast (and I’m not), you can do a swell c. 40-miler by riding our route from Carpenterville to Gold Beach backwards: ride from Gold Beach to the Carpenterville summit, then turn around and ride it back to Gold Beach. Easiest of all: ride Jerry’s Flat Rd. and North Bank Rogue River Road as a loop—22 miles of gentle rollers and good river views.
Adding miles: From the Lobster Creek Bridge, Jerry’s Flat Road continues for a very pretty and less crowded 18 miles to the little hamlet of Agness. From Agness, if you’re up for a ride that’s the stuff of legend, you can take tiny, isolated Bear Camp Road for another 50 miles or so on to Galice (thus intersecting the Galice to Golden ride) and keep going until you get to Grant’s Pass 20 miles later, and you’ll have a tale you can tell your grandchildren.
Hunter Creek Road, which you pass just south of Gold Beach, is a sweet 5 miles of pavement before it turns to dirt.
Afterthoughts: a large part of the beauty of this ride is the views you get of the coast and ocean on the southern loop—from Highway 101, from high up on Carpenterville Rd., and from Cape View Rd. The Oregon coast, like any other stretch of northwestern coastline, is given to fog. For the full effect, try to ride on a day with clear skies.
