Lolo Pass – A Weekend Adventure
So if you read my Oregon Outback overview and then my actual ride that we did earlier this year then maybe you noticed that we had PLANNED but not succeeded to ride back to Portland via Lolo Pass. Before we had even started the Outback ride I had told Andrew “if we don’t do Lolo pass as part of the trip, I still want to go back and ride it this year”. So that’s what we did!
Deciding that having company always makes things more fun, Andrew and I invited some friends and folks through a local bikepacking group we’re part of. We got 2 biters: Chuck and Rex, whom we hadn’t met before this trip but they still decided to join in on the fun with us.
The plan was simple, take the CAT bus to Hood River and ride our bikes home from there via Lolo Pass (link to route). We opted to take a Friday afternoon bus out so we could enjoy dinner in town, camp in the area and start first thing in the morning from Hood River Saturday rather than have to wake up super early. The intention was then to bush camp on the pass Saturday night and ride home to Portland Sunday.
A little background on the pass. ....
Lolo Pass is along the Northwest side of Mt Hood. Historically it was used by indigenous people to get around Mt Hood for both functional and cultural reasons and later some of the Oregon Trail pioneers started to use it. The modern road was paved in the 1950s to provide close up views of the western side of Mt Hood and is still used for that purpose today. Fittingly, Lolo means “to carry” or “to pack” in Chinooken jargon and we certainly carried ourselves and our stuff up and over the pass!
Day 1 July 17, 2026
Distance: Pre Ride: 8 miles to the transit center
Hood River: 9.1 mi (17.1 total)
Portland to Tucker Camp, Hood River
Upon leaving Friday afternoon we were off to a great start; I had plugged my phone in to give it as much juice before we left and then left it plugged in there. Wah wah. Luckily I realized it a mile from the house and was able to sprint back for it without causing too much delay. Not that it mattered much though because our bus was about 30 minutes late! Talking to some of regular riders this does not seem to be a normal thing so there must have been really bad traffic on the day we went. The delay worked in Chuck’s favor at least as he was about 5 minutes late thanks to being part of the same traffic.
When the bus finally arrived we were a little slow to get our bikes on the racks and feel comfortable with their attachments but we did get there eventually. Hopefully none of the regulars were too frustrated by us. Maybe one day I won’t have so much anxiety about attaching my bike to a bus. Two of us wound up on the front bus racks, and the other two on the back, appropriately named, lolo rack.
There were about 11 folks on the bus total so we had plenty of room to spread out and all took our own seat. (Although I do believe there were about 4 people who had opted not to wait for the late bus, I’m not really sure what they did instead – but my guess is they were probably just aiming for Multnomah Falls so maybe opted to take an Uber or something instead of waiting).
Once in Hood River we headed to a nearby Sub shop that I knew was pretty good and happened to be next door to a cidery that a local on the bus had told us about. We were able to split up based on preference but still eat together at the cidery’s outdoor tables. I had rostis, a cornbread and a cider from the cidery and it was wonderful. Too bad none of us wanted to carry extra cans of cider up the side of the mountain.
Somehow the hill out of town was steeper than I remembered, and that’s saying a lot because I was expecting a steep climb. But at least we were on fresh legs and full (but not too full) bellies. This time I didn’t have to walk up the hill at all! (this one at least – not that walking is a bad thing!). On one particularly steep section of the climb we got passed by an e-bike carrying a hydrofoil board. They told us they were cheating with their battery, but I was still impressed with their setup! I imagine I’d also opt for an e-bike if I lived in Hood River.
The big climb away from the Columbia River did at least came with some surprisingly sweet downhills. As we descended down one of them I remembered a previous day ride from earlier this year where I had been on that same road (Tucker Road) but in the opposite direction. I felt much better about past me’s struggle on that climb as we descended with ease on this ride.
Tucker Park Campground is just outside of Hood River (the town, but right next to the Hood River river; it’s not confusing at all). As far as camping goes it was really our only option as a launching spot for the next day. The campground is a first come first serve campground, and after looking at the website they have an “availability tracker” and they didn’t really ever seem to fill up so we weren’t too worried about our late arrival. To our horror, as we rolled up there was a big “no vacancy” sign at the entrance. We ventured in anyways not really having a backup plan for the night trying to figure out a course of action. Upon seeing the camp hosts making their rounds on a golf cart I gave my best puppy dog eyes and exclaimed “we’re on bikes is there anything you can do?”
Turns out they were the nicest hosts and responded “for bikes we’ll find you some nice soft grass to pitch in! Follow me!”. Fortunately there was a nice open spot they had set aside that we were able to camp at. Hallelujah.
They also directed us toward the river entrance to catch a beautiful sunset. But unfortunately we were too slow and didn’t quite make the sunset. The river was still lovely. Seeing the rocks in the river gave me Deja Vu from when Andrew and I had camped there a few years prior. I’m pretty sure I retook the same photo of Andrew.
Rex, Chuck, Andrew and I chatted for a bit until we decided it was late enough to go to our tents. We were serenaded with waving trees, campfires crackling, the rushing river , and a nearby shooting range that apparently stays open very late. Fortunately they stopped around 9:30 or 10 at night – but that still seems really late to be shooting.
Day 2 July 18, 2026
Distance: 36.7 miles (53.8 total)
4170ft elevation
Tucker Park Camp, Hood River to Lolo Pass
Farm land faded into forest as we climbed out of Tucker Park and continued our way toward Lolo Pass. The first several miles of the day were easy riding albeit a little traffic heavy. As we made it to the quieter Lolo Pass turnoff Rex announced to the group he didn’t want to camp another night and so he was going to push on to Zig Zag or Sandy and catch a bus home. (This was his first time bike camping since the 80s and he decided he prefers long day rides now). We bid him farewell and let him speed off ahead of the group since he now had a deadline. Based on our timing I’m assuming he made it just fine.
While the weather was wonderful, there was more sun than I had expected. Being a forested mountain I had expected less exposure, but unfortunately there were several sections without tree cover (albeit nothing like the exposed outback route).
After foolishly zipping past a few creeks I decided I should instead take advantage of them and dipped my bandana and shirt in the next one. Oh what a world of difference being able to cool your body off makes. Over the course of the day there was many more stops between the group to cool off in various creeks.
As we continued upwards more and more flowers seemed to pop. From yellow St John’s wort to flowering (and berrying- yum) thimbleberries to fox glove and Indian paintbrush, there was even a huge patch of tiger lilies I was excited to spot. The flowers brought with them butterflies. It was such an idillic road, as long as you ignored the pain in your legs from the climbing.
Unfortunately butterflies weren’t the only insects out today. There was also an absurd amount of flies. Now I know you’re thinking: “flies, that’s not that bad” and yeah I know it could have been worse, but these guys bit! Any time you would try and pause for a break they’d be out for blood! Andrew got ahead of us at one point, and while he would normally wait for us to catch up had to keep abandoning his post unable to stay still for too long without getting eaten alive. So he had to keep moving further and further along hoping to avoid the annoying flies.
There was also a little more traffic along the pass than I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong, not so much to be a bad experience but I think my expectations may have been unreasonably high for a scenic road so close to the city. We did still mostly have the single lane road to ourselves. There was however one jerk on the short stretch of gravel going way too fast kicking up a huge cloud of dust in his wake. I hope he got stuck behind a cautious driver shortly after passing us. It is basically a one lane road after all.
The climb seemed to go on forever, but at one point after seeing a different driver point up, I looked back, and there was Mt Hood. Wow. What a view! Amazing timing to be passed by a driver right then or we may have missed the view! I wonder if doing the route the other direction gives you more easy/noticeable views as Mt Hood was often was behind us. And even in Hood River once Mt Hood would be behind you on a north bound route then you’d still have Mt Adams to look at. Maybe that will be a future trip.
Upon reaching the car lined summit of Lolo pass we did a little celebration photo and then took the quieter Forest Road fork down. Wowza that’s how bike riding should be. I love a good downhill. The downside (get it?) is that I didn’t get as many photos on the descent because I was enjoying the moment so much.
The quieter roads seem to always come with more hills so we did have one final climb before we could really check all the climbing off our list. We rode about 6 miles past the top of the pass and opted to wild camp before leaving public land. Even though the day was still young, upon seeing a water crossing about 1 mile before the McNeil Campground area we did a little exploring to see if there was a worthwhile camp spot nearby. We spotted a foot path/hiking trail that disappeared into the trees and opted to follow it for a bit. We were rewarded with a huge camping space with nooks for our tents and several premade fire pits that we didn’t use thanks to all the wildfire warnings out and about.
It was a lovely spot, we were nicely tucked away off the road in the trees with a water source nearby. There was actually about 5 different fire pits /wild camp spots back down the trail, so it was a rather large area. We filtered water enjoyed dinner and conversation around the twinkling tea-light makeshift fire that Chuck had brought along before calling it a night.
Day 3 July 19, 2026
Distance: 54.4 miles (108.2 total)
Lolo Pass to Portland
Andrew woke up early, which means I woke up early so after we had a peaceful breakfast and finished striking down camp we still had plenty of time before we expected Chuck to be ready to go. We meandered over to a log jammed area of the creek and enjoyed the sounds of nature: forest bathing.
Once we got rolling the dappled light through the trees was amazing. You could see all 50 shades of green as we cruised along downhill beneath the light tree canopy. More and more houses started dotting the street as we got closer to highway 26. I enjoyed seeing the old style log cabins as well as the more modern houses with massive decks nestled between large tree trunks.
Going downhill was certainly my preferred direction and we were making excellent time. As most cyclist do we opted to take the quieter more hillier route along Barlow and then Marmot Road rather than bombing down the shoulder of the heavily trafficked highway 26. That hill on Marmot Road was no joke though. Marmot road must be an old marmot trail we stole because why else would you build such a needlessly steep road? It seriously seemed pointless. Cars get all the best routes. Still, I don’t regret our decision as I’d rather that silly climb than be stuck on shoulder of highway 26 with all the drivers. And, there were still plenty of downhills for us to enjoy on the side roads.
Eventually we turned onto Shipley road. I only mention it because it struck me as an odd name for a forest road. But as we continued to ride downhill the name kind of made sense as I noticed the dappled light through the leaves created a sort of underwater effect reminding me of a recent exhibit at our art museum. It was actually pretty neat. Well maybe my eyes were just watering from the sweet downhill creating the same effect; either way the name made sense now-ha.
The remainder of the ride wasn’t too eventful. We had an opportunity to rest and cool off in a river at Dodge Park before making our last major climb and then heading into the city. We opted to stop for lunch in Gresham grabbing some okay pizza and the end of the world cup half time show before finishing up the last of the city riding to make it home. We were of course excited to see our cat after we unloaded the bikes and he was very happy to go outside, er I mean see us.
Overall it was a lovely route that I would recommend to anyone in the Portland area looking to get out. As mentioned there was a little more traffic out and about than I was expecting on the pass but nothing that should scare you away from it. I may return in the near future going the other direction to see how they compare because the views behind us were spectacular. It would also be nice to add a day or two and do a big loop once the historic highway in the Gorge is fully open again (although there’d still be some interstate riding between Mitchell and Hood River). We do actually have a couple friends that did the full loop the week after us. But those crazy folks did the 200+ miles in one shot! And people say we’re crazy…
