Whilst playing around with Google Maps earlier this week, I found Mount Hebo view point, which is less than 81 miles from our home. It seemed like a good destination for a long day trip by motorcycle - it's right on the border of Tillamook County and Yamhill County - two of our very favorite counties in Oregon for motorcycle riding. So I did some more looking around online and found National Forest Service Road 14 (NF-14 - also known as National Forest Development Road 14 and road 1400) from Bible Creek Road. It looked like the road went right up to the view point, and though I couldn't find any reviews for the road anywhere online, I surmised it would be doable by motorcycle since Mt. Hebo used to be a military base. Still, I was worried: we have been on Bible Creek Road many times, going from Nestucca River Road to Willamina (GREAT little restaurant there at the Wildwood Hotel), but we've never seen a sign for a forest road - in fact, I hadn't even known that was Siuslaw National Forest (I always thought the whole area was Tillamook State Forest). Also, in national forests, NF roads are marked with a brown street sign with the road number on it, but we'd never seen such in our many times in that area.

Let's jump to the chase for those looking to ride NF-14 to or from Mt. Hebo: yes, it's doable by dual sport motorcycle (not just a dirt bike). Stefan was on his vintage Honda Africa Twin (from the family of models never sold in the USA) and I was on my KLR. In fact, the first half of the gravel road, going West, is good enough for a car for the first nine miles (not only a four-wheel drive vehicle). It's way, way easier going up it, from Bible Creek Road, than going down it from Mount Hebo. It's an excellent gravel road - at least it was on July 1, 2018 - except for the half mile or more before the mountain, which is dirt and large rocks and very steep - I cannot imagine doing that part of the road when it's wet and I cannot imagine doing it without having taken an off-road riding course earlier this year. The first nine miles are very easy - easier than Dixie Mountain between Scappoose and North Plains. Then, after that part, it is TOUGH. Be ready to stand on your bike for that - and, perhaps, the entire thing.

Note: the road, as it gets closer to Mt. Hebo, is impassable in the winter because of snow. I wouldn't ride any of this until the rains stop in the PDX area (usually in late June) - there will be a LOT of mud in the last 5-9 miles of this road, getting closer to Mt. Hebo.

There is no sign for the start of NF-14 from Bible Creek Road. It's 18 miles from the turnoff of Bible Creek Road to the Mt. Hebo viewpoint, and it took me 90 minutes to do that 18 miles - it would take someone who is an excellent rider probably 40 minutes. From Forest Grove, Oregon to Mt. Hebo and back was 161 miles total, and with our stops for rests, lunch, photos and ice-cream, plus 30 minutes backtracking because of a closed road, it took us 6.5 hours. For a better adventure rider on NF-14 going faster and taking no pauses, and taking out the detour on Nestucca, this entire day trip would take an hour - two hours less than me. If you are coming from Portland, budget your time accordingly.

The start of NF-14 is 3.7 miles from the junction of Nestucca River Road and Bible Creek Road, or less than 1.4 miles from the junction of SW Bald Mountain Road and Bible Creek Road, or 13 miles all the way from Willamina.

Before I begin my in-depth ride report, let me remind everyone that I'm not Little Miss ADVRider by any stretch of the imagination. Standing for hours and hours while navigating treacherous terrain just to say, completely exhausted, "Wahoo, look what I did!" is not my idea of fun. That said, I love visiting ghost towns and beautiful vistas, and camping in remote areas, and all of those are reached by gravel roads. As I've told Stefan many times, as long as there is a great payoff and long rest at the end, and he's patient with me, I'm up for most gravel road rides. I'm so proud to have ridden state road 279 to 142 in Moab, Utah - part of it is also known as Potash Road. It would have been my greatest triumph as a motorcycle rider had it not been for my crash on Shaffer Switchbacks. And I'm so proud that, two years later, I took the back road from Jordan Valley, Oregon into Silver City, Idaho - I still get looks of awe from people who know what that 25 miles of road is like (the main road is all gravel too, but MUCH easier). Heck, I'm in awe that I rode my motorcycle down into the Dungeness Forks Campground in Olympic National Forest. But none of these roads would have been worth it just to do the roads - I was looking for a payoff at the end: a gorgeous vista or a ghost town or a campground. 30 miles of really difficult dirt and gravel road is my limit for a day. I say all this because "real" ADV Riders balk at my road descriptions (and that I dare to even ride a KLR). If that's you - just stop reading now, because the following won't be your experience at all.

Ride report:

We left our home at 9:30 in the morning. I wanted to ride NF-14 from Bible Creek Road because I knew that would be mostly a ride up, and I do MUCH better on gravel when I'm going up. We took 47 through Gaston, Yamhill and Carlton, a ride we've done oh-so-many times, and then headed onto Nestucca River Road. We had taken that road all the way from Bible Creek Road just the week before, but this weekend, it was closed just after the Fan Creek Campground, so we had to head back the way we came a few miles and take Bald Mountain Road and then Bible Creek Road. As I noted earlier, there is no sign for the start of NF-14 from Bible Creek Road. Immediately after making the turn on NF-14, you come to a fork in the road. When we were there, there was a brown road sign at the fork that said "Falls." We had no idea what that meant. I hope it wasn't a warning to motorcycle riders. Stefan's GPS said to go to the right, so that's what we did. After 3.5 miles, we came to another fork, which had a sign - to the right, 1.5 miles, was something called Niagra Falls, and to the left, 9 miles, was a lake. Later, I read that the Oregon version of Niagra Falls is actually quite lovely - we will visit some other time. Had we gone right, we would have ended up on National Forest Service Road 8533, and that after 8.5 miles would have taken us back out to Nestucca River Road (so you could make the ride we did five miles longer if you started from NF-8533, plus, see Niagra Falls if you have time to hike).

We went left at the aforementioned junction to continue on NF-14 toward Mt. Hebo and, for the next 9 miles, the road was fine for me - some potholes, but, otherwise, no hairpin turns, no severe inclines or declines, no dramatic drop offs. It was an all around very pleasant ride, and I was once again so happy I'd taken an off-road riding class - I really enjoy standing up while riding except for being out of shape and needing to sit down and take a break every so often. We noticed a few good places for rough camping! The road for 9 miles would be absolutely passable by our little Honda Fit.

We stopped after about 9 miles at a big, flat turnoff on the right where the gravel to service the road is stored. It's such a big mound, and has been there so long, that grass and small trees are growing on top of it. Behind it is a beautiful sheer cliff and fantastic rough camping spot. In front of it, unfortunately, is a spot where people with guns shoot targets. I HATE people that practice shoot on public lands in areas not formally designated for such. They ruin the natural sounds and solitude with the noise, they leave crap everywhere (clean up after yourselves, assholes), and they shoot road sides, making them unreadable - and we really need those signs when we're in the wilderness. Luckily, that day, there were no assholes with guns, so we were able to enjoy the peace and beauty. At one point, I lost sight of Stefan and, because of the cliff, had a Picnic at Hanging Rock moment - that was creepy. Otherwise, great place to stop, and I needed to stop - I was exhausted.

I was thrilled that we had met no cars at all on the road, and none had been behind us. I was also thrilled at how manageable the road had been up to this point, 9 miles in. But I also knew the road was going to eventually start going up and not stop until the top of Mount Hebo. And the road looked like that incline was going to start right after this rest stop. And I was right: up it went. Up and up and up, and became more challenging with steeper inclines and shorter terms.

12.5 miles in, we came to another junction. To the left was NF-1428, and this leads to a lake and an official National Forest campground: South Lake Dispersed Area. I would love to camp there sometime, via motorcycle - but the thought of doing this road loaded down with full panniers kinda freaks me out... plus, I would hate it if the campground turned out to be full of a bunch of let's-shoot-stuff-for-fun gun nuts.

We paused at that junction in the road, just for a couple of minutes, before continuing on NF-14, and after that junction, things get crazy steep on the road, there's much more dirt and big rocks, and there is NO where to stop or pull over. We met an SUV coming down and I was so glad it came where it did, because had it been anywhere else, before or after, there was no where for him to get over and there was no where or no way for me to stop on such a steep incline. Also, the road was becoming more dirt than gravel and I was starting to think we were no longer on NF-14. I powered right by the SUV, probably with a look of terror on my face. About 14.5 miles into the NF-14 ride, we finally completed the worst part of the road, and came to another junction and a flat part. I was SO happy I'd chosen to do this road from the West, because there is NO WAY I could have done those last nine miles to the East, downhill, on such a steep road. This junction felt like the summit: to the right was a wooden fence along a bit of paved road and, to the left, was gravel. I thought we were supposed to go right, but we weren't sure, because shrubbery blocked our view, so rode Stefan on without me - he wasn't gone 30 seconds before he came back and said he'd come to a gate and there was no more road on the other side. Later, I learned that that's a rarely used access road to the tower for radio station KTIL FM.

We went left and could see that this part of the road was a once frequently-used gravel road, with cement barriers crumbling on the side. I got a flashback to Chornobyl (Chernobyl) and Ukraine. Warning if you are riding this: stay in the middle of the road, because there are a couple of motorcycle-swallowing holes near those crumbling barriers. We came to an open area with plenty of wide parking on the grass on either side of the road and a guy was parked there with his kids. Was this the top? The view point? I wasn't sure, so I kept riding. About 17 miles up from Bible Creek Road (my speedometer calculation said 18), we finally came to the Mount Hebo Viewpoint - it's to the right of the road from this direction, behind you as the paved road appears in front of you, and VERY easy to miss because it's behind you as you summit from NF-14.

The site you see here - all of the cell phone towers - is not the spot where the Mount Hebo radar array stood - that's out on the lookout you see beyond the information sign. The radars were serviced by the Mt. Hebo Air Forest Station (AFS) once upon a time. Apparently, it's usually cloudy and foggy on Mt. Hebo in summer, and it was the day we visited, though we did get some breaks in the fog for some ocean views. If you go, try to stay for a full hour, so you might get some breaks in the fog as well. Even fogged in, it's a neat site - a piece of Cold War history. For the second time, I got a flashback to my time in Ukraine. It felt so similar.

We ate the lunch we brought (egg and cheese sandwiches, canned pineapple, and nut bars) and were thankful when the guy in the pickup who was running his engine in order to stay warm decided to leave. And then the other family in the other pickup truck left - the driver burped a lot. We had the entire site to ourselves for an hour or more. It's a nice, easy hike out to the site of the radar array and back.

After exploring the area, we got back on the bikes and headed down the paved, winding road to state road 22 - less than 8 miles and very beautiful. Unfortunately, we missed the former site of the actual Mt. Hebo Air Force Base - if there was a sign, we missed it. In fact, all the signs on the road are facing people coming up the road, not people going down. We did see the back of the sign for Hebo Lake Campground.

Then we headed South on State Road 22, also called the Three Rivers Highway. It's really beautiful, but I think a lot of motorcyclists miss it because they are so focused on the over-rated 101. Had I been less tired, I would have stopped at Fort Yamhill State Heritage Area along the way - we've never been. But we pushed on to Willamina, both in need of a sugary snack to get us all the way home. We stopped for gas in McMinnville and then were back at our house at 4:20 in the afternoon, greeting a very hungry Lucinda the dog who was quite frustrated to have been left behind.

Slideshow of photos starts here - there are more to come.

More Oregon and Washington suggested short motorcycle routes.

And now a word from my husband:

 

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