RR: The Whoopdeedoo trail, Hood River, Oregon

Saturday, Nov 6.

The Whoopdeedoo trailhead is about 15 miles southeast of Hood River, Oregon.
The trail has two sections : one follows a ridge that overlooks the Hood
River valley, the other drops down the opposite side of the ridge and
descends into an adjacent valley. The two trails connect nicely for a
longer ride.

We headed up around noon to let things warm up a bit. Heading up the road
to the trailhead, the valley was starting to warm up, covering the landscape
with a light mist and making big daddy Mt Hood look very distant. We got to
the trailhead for the ridge ride section, but there were a lot of cars
around and we decided to skip that section. A couple of miles further up
the road we found one of the exit points for the second section and left our
car there.

The ride starts with a nice warm-up as you pedal up an old gravel road about
1.5 miles. The trees are mostly scubby oak which are turning beautifyl
shades of gold and red, intermixed with pine and spruce. The trail ducks
off to the east side of the road, immediately becoming nice hard packed
singletrack with a generous helping of rocks and roots to make things
interesting.

We get a few hundred yards into the ride and see the first wet sections -
puddles with a fringe of ice. Frost is melting in the shady parts of the
trail, and we know it's going to be a slippy ride. The wet sections have
that really nasty layer of slick mud just below leaves and needles, making
cornering a real challenge. Skid marks from prior riders let us know when
to reduce speed a bit or risk having the back end break free at a bad time.

The Whoopdeedoo trail is always fun because it decends a valley and crosses
through several different types of landscape. You start in dense scrub
forest and then skirt the edge of some recovering clear-cut. The clear-cut
is ugly, but it affords views for miles towards Mt Adams (WA state) and
along the Columbia gorge. From there you drop onto a hillside of widely
spaced mature spruce. This section of trail is a playground of banked "S"
turns covered with needles and occassional bundles of exposed roots. It's
fast and delightful, makes you feel like a real pro. A slight climb and the
landscape changes again to denser, mixed conifers. About 4 miles into the
ride, the trail crosses a couple of extremely steep ravines, making for some
serious whoop-dees. You want to approach these with care, any real speed at
the lip and you may not touch down much before the bottom of the ravine -
probably 50 feet down. Truth be told, I've never made it up the other side
of the two biggest Whoopdees even on a dry day, so today I didn't really
try. I already had enough mud and wet on my rim brakes to make descending
interesting.

From there on in, the trail drops for a few miles. Fast, fairly loose
singletrack that crosses a couple of tiny, rocky streams and does some short
technical climbs. The trail ahead is never visible for more than a few
dozen yards, so there's always something of interest around the next corner.
For a fairly short ride (~8 miles in this section), it seems to descend for
a looong time. Hard to remember when you had to pedal last, and I always
find myself grinning like a fool and adding little "whoopees" along the way.
There are a series of small mounds that are easy to catch air from. You
really have to know your stuff to do so at high speed - the landings are
often deeply rutted or have sharp turns immediately on touchdown. Anyways,
the trail goes down so far you get that nasty feeling that you're going to
pay for this, and you do.

Finally the trails levels across the valley bottom into some nice dual track
bordered by more forest and meadows. Couple more small creek beds (mostly
just nice big mud puddles today), and things start to go uphill. The climb
back out is tough, at least for us 40-something weekend warriors. It's
probably 1.5 miles of steady uphill technical grunt, mostly along a rocky,
muddy creek bed. Lots of ruts and bigger rocks, so you have to pick your
line carefully. For us it's a matter of honor to make the climb without
stopping, about half the time we end up spinning out or dropping a back
wheel into a deep rut. It requires good climbing technique and good
conditioning - both of which we could use some work on. One young guy
caught up with us at the bottom of the climb and disappeared ahead of us in
a couple of minutes, so with the right legs, lungs and skills it's probably
only an average climb.

Back at the top we share our ritual post-ride beer, and get ready to head
over to a friends' vineyard to help them stomp grapes (no kidding). A pretty
sweet day!

Pics of the day at http://home.pacifier.com/~gwandsh/biking if anybody is
interested.

Cheers
Gary

Back at the top we share our ritual post-ride beer, and get ready to head
over to a friends' vineyard to help them stomp grapes (no kidding). A
pretty
sweet day!

Pics of the day at http://home.pacifier.com/~gwandsh/biking if anybody is
interested.

Cheers
Gary



Nice, looks a little like Dagmar up here in Southern Ont.

TBF::. wrote:
Back at the top we share our ritual post-ride beer, and get ready to
head over to a friends' vineyard to help them stomp grapes (no
kidding). A pretty
sweet day!

Pics of the day at http://home.pacifier.com/~gwandsh/biking if
anybody is interested.

Cheers
Gary



Nice, looks a little like Dagmar up here in Southern Ont.

Gab and I were going to do that one when I was down there but I forget why
we didn't. Rain? Poison Oak?

Penny

Either one could be possible. Couple of sections on the WDD trail have
obvious poison oak alongside, but it is pretty obvious and easy to avoid.
I'm real sensitive (to poison oak), and haven't gotten any yet from that
trail. I carry a small vial of dish detergent and wash down my legs after
riding if in doubt.

As I recall, you rode Post Canyon instead? No treat in wet weather, I'll
bet.

"small change" wrote in message
news
TBF::. wrote:

Gab and I were going to do that one when I was down there but I forget
why
we didn't. Rain? Poison Oak?

Penny

Gwood wrote:
Either one could be possible. Couple of sections on the WDD trail
have obvious poison oak alongside, but it is pretty obvious and easy
to avoid. I'm real sensitive (to poison oak), and haven't gotten any
yet from that trail. I carry a small vial of dish detergent and wash
down my legs after riding if in doubt.

As I recall, you rode Post Canyon instead? No treat in wet weather,
I'll bet.


That one day, and the Dechutes River trail the other. Post canyon was a
great intro to greasy mud and ball bearing soil blobs.

penny

On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 12:19:38 -0800, Gwood wrote:

You want to approach these with care, any real speed at
the lip and you may not touch down much before the bottom of the ravine -
probably 50 feet down. Truth be told, I've never made it up the other side
of the two biggest Whoopdees even on a dry day, so today I didn't really
try. I already had enough mud and wet on my rim brakes to make descending
interesting.

The trick is to let go of your brakes as close to the top as you can
mentally handle. You get this cool weightless feeling at the bottom
and then you sail up the other side.

gabrielle

Hmmm, I guess I understand that academically...but would have a tough time
letting go of the brakes. I'll follow you... 8-o

"gabrielle" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 12:19:38 -0800, Gwood wrote:

You want to approach these with care, any real speed at
the lip and you may not touch down much before the bottom of the
ravine -
probably 50 feet down. Truth be told, I've never made it up the other
side
of the two biggest Whoopdees even on a dry day, so today I didn't really
try. I already had enough mud and wet on my rim brakes to make
descending
interesting.

The trick is to let go of your brakes as close to the top as you can
mentally handle. You get this cool weightless feeling at the bottom
and then you sail up the other side.

gabrielle