Bare Naked Gravel
5 Star Route / Ridden and Reviewed by Gravel Girl & Captain ‘O‘
Bear Naked Granola. Barenaked Ladies. And now … Bare Naked GRAVEL. Why? Because this route includes one hell of a good climb up to Bare Mountain. And you’ll be going plenty slow to see the awesome wildflowers and the views and everything the woods wants to offer up…..
But before the climb comes a nice warm up … five miles of fern-whacking single track with a few stream crossings. And after the climb is one wide-smile, twisting downhill … long enough to sing all the Barenaked Lady songs you can remember. Let’s get you started ….
“If I had a million dollars
Well I’d buy you a house
And if I had a million dollars
I’d buy you furniture for your house (maybe a nice chesterfield or an ottoman)
And if I had a million dollars (if I had a million dollars)
I’d buy you a ripping fast gravel bike”
**Click to Read More
Adventure / Gravel Route
– Loop: 32 miles / 3400 ft gain
– Surface: ~ 35% gravel, 12.5% single track, 52.5% tarmac
– eBike Approved: No
– Location: ~ 45 min northeast of Hood River, Oregon
– Rideable: Spring to Fall
– Course by: Captain “O”
– Published: August 2019
Difficulty
Moderate. Due to a climb of 2100 ft over 5 miles (7% average grade) and 4 miles of single track.
The Start
Paved pull out on Little Soda Springs road. To the right.
Lat / Long: 45.837439, -121.946498
Food / Water
None.
Downloads
Cue Sheet / GPX File / TCX File
Legend
Red = paved road
Brown = gravel / dirt road
Blue = single-track
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Rode this on 8/23/2020 in recommended direction, started @ 11am. Be on the lookout for hikers on the single track, we came across a lot of them. Super fun ride. Lots of huckleberry picking spots at the higher elevations. It was a super fun ride down the tarmac, but keep your ears open for cars & motorcycles.
Thanks for the route review! In 2020 things are all strange … when we rode this we saw no one. Ride dirty and smile!!
Thank you for another awesome route, Dirty Freehub. Bare Naked Gravel was a hoot on Sunday, 7/26! Beautiful singletrack, cooling stream crossing (great for a plunge!), loooong climb (up, up, up…up, up, up) and HOLY COW…that descent went on for days. Who knew one could get so exhausted going downhill? And by ‘exhausted’ I mean our faces hurt like crazy from smiling so big.
Word of caution: The large horseflies really enjoy sucking on the legs of cyclists so keep pedaling or eat your snacks really fast.