The Molalla River/hardy Creek Trailhead is about 10 miles SE of the town of
Molalla, Oregon. Nice combination of forested hills and green pasture lands
in the foothills of the Cascades. Lots of small rivers and creeks, pretty as
Hell.
The trail system is a shared use one, with nicely signed and maintained
trails that service hikers, horses and bikers. It mostly criss-crosses a
ridge that parallels the Molalla River, which at this point is a pretty,
fast, clear stream that runs across pebbles and river rock.
Buddy Bill and I arrived at the trailhead late morning, about 90 minutes
from our start from Portland. There were lots of horse trailers in the
parking lot, so we expected to meet horses on the trail. In fact, a few
trails appear to have been opened up specifically for horse use, with gravel
added in some areas. These are denoted on the trail maps as 'easiest', so
it's not hard to decipher where the fun singletrack will be. (Yes - they
have maps at the trailhead!)
We met one group of local bikers in the parking lot and later on the trails,
and they were nice enough to suggest some trails and routes. Naturally we
glossed over when they described various lefts and rights, so we basically
threw darts and started exploring. The fellow that was giving directions
seemed very familiar with the trails and claimed he rode them all winter. I
suspect he'd want to limit his riding to select trails as things got wetter,
as many of the trails looked like they would erode badly with use in extreme
wet.
Things start out with a slow climb on forest service roads up to a couple of
other roads that run horizontally along the ridge, spaced out by a half mile
or so. The singletrack either borders these roads or drops/climbs between
them. While the trail map made everything look kinda small scaled, we
certainly managed 3.5 hours of riding without covering it all or duplicating
any trails. There's probably 20 miles of trails up there.
There were some nice technical sections, some fast rolling stuff, and good
variety of ups and downs to keep you very entertained. The previous nights'
rain had left everything pretty damp, with slick rocks, roots and logs. The
bed of wet needles on the ground gave some decent traction, but we
approached the downhills with caution. After the first half an hour our
tires were coated with wet clay, even Bill's big lugged Maxxis tires
couldn't shed it. Regardless, we had a great ride until we decided to call
it a day and took a final new trail that descended to the trailhead.
Probably this trail would be fun and not get much attention on a dry day,
but it was long, steep, bare of needles and had a nice sheen to the dirt on
the surface. That should have been my clue to walk it. Instead I figured I
could feather the brakes and negotiate the corners. Ha! Wasn't long until I
went down. I continued in a very elegant slow motion mud skid for several
yards. Not painful, but clipped in, under my bike, and helpless. Buddy Bill
always has a good chortle when he finds me trying to extricate myself from a
position like that.
Anyways, we were still having a good yuck about it when we got back to the
car. Several horses and riders now finishing their rides and loading up. We
walked across the road to the river and washed off most of the mud, towelled
off, and had our traditional apres-ride beer.
All in all a nice ride, would prefer to do it in summer and follow with a
nice dip in the river. Particularly good if you have a mixed group, where
one set might prefer novice level fire-roads and others want some
singletrack diversion.