Cooper Spur Loop #1
Mileage: 21.4
Elevation gain: 1740
You said you like to ride hills? Here’s another one up a big, curvy hill with stunning views of Mount Hood.
Directions: Drive up highway 35 past the Mt. Hood Store. Park at Toll Bridge Park. Ride 1 mile back down 35 and take a left onto Cooper Spur Road at the Mt. Hood Store. Stay on this road up a hill and through a clearly marked intersections, taking the turn to Cooper Spur Resort. At 10.9 miles, you’ll hit the Cooper Spur Inn. You can ride up to the ski area if you like, ride back down the way you came (most fun) or take the left fork downhill (it’s Cooper Spur Road, still, but not labeled well) for about 4 miles until the road dead-ends into Highway 35. Take a left and ride about 6 miles down Highway 35 (stopping to swim in the Hood River, if necessary) to your car at Toll Bridge Park.
You can also ride this as a shorter loop by driving past Toll Bridge Park and leaving your car at the bottom of Baseline Road. Take Baseline up to Cooper Spur Road, and continue as per the previous directions.
ODOT recently chip-sealed part of the climb from Parkdale to Cooper Spur. I’m not sure how many miles are covered in gravel, and I didn’t want to ride it to try. The first four miles of the ride up still have good pavement, but the beginning of the steep, curvy climb is gravel. Yuck. A nice alternate is to ride up to Laurence lake instead. Only 1/4 mile of that ride is gravel, and it’s packed down already.